Feeding Question

[ssmith73]

Last month I posted a question about a finicky eater.

Well three weeks ago I decided to try a live fuzzy (which is actually to small for my 3 year old boy he should be eating hoppers) along with a RBI style black rectangle hide. I tried a couple of different things that day. Upon the suggestion of the lady at my reptile shop, I had the fuzzy in a paper lunch bag and I placed Princeton (our Hog) in the lunch bag with it. She suggested leaving him in there for a few hours. I did that and he did not eat it. I also placed the new hide in his enclosure. After the two hours I took him out and then flipped the new hide upside down and placed the fussy in there. Came back two hours later and it was gone. He ate it! So the following week I talked to my reptile shop again and we decided to try a live hopper. Turned the hide upside down placed there and sat off to the side to see what would happen. Well, the hopper being more mobile it climbed out and started to explore the enclosure. Princeton went [crazy. He chased that sucker all over the cage. He missed a couple of times and retreated into his hide. I grabbed the mouse with tongs and hung it outside of his hide, he came screaming out of there and grabbed the mouse and ate it as it was still alive. The mouse did bite him on his back. Today I offered him another live hopper. This time I flipped the hide over placed the hopper in there. This hopper stayed in the upside down hide for awhile. You could see Princeton trying to figure out how to get in there. The mouse climbed out and the chase was on. This time he did not miss and got it on the front shoulder. Again the mouse bit him so Princeton went into a death roll. I reached in there with my tongs and grabbed the mouses head and Princeton quickly ate it.

Sorry for the long story! As much as I enjoyed watching Princeton on the hunt and as much I am extremely glad that he has eaten now for 3 consecutive weeks, I really don't want him being injured from a bite.

Does anyone have any tricks out there to make the F/T hopper seem alive? I honestly think he enjoys the hunt!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

There is no reason to feed a hognose live food in captivity, they are poor hunters and tend to take live literally making it a potentially serious issue as they get bigger and the prey get bigger as well.

Common sense will also tell you that when grabbing a live prey with tongs you are only making it worse (stress feeder = aggressive feeder)

No on how to feed F/T, you thaw at room temp near the enclosure and warm up with a hair dryer and offer the prey with tongs, if he is hissing and striking non stop, just leave the prey on the enclosure’s floor.

Use tough love if he refuses, considering the prey offered he can handle not feeding for a while.

[Alex Lehner]

Try rolling the f/t mouse in some used mouse bedding. Just ask your local pet store for some bedding and they should just give you a little. That will scent the dead mouse really well, it's how I got my BP to eat f/t, along with the hair dryer tricks.

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