Does the "chicken broth trick" actually work??

[icygirl]

I want to know: Has the chicken broth trick for feeding actually worked, ever? Or is this just a myth?



My yellowbelly Luke, who when I brought him home was refusing to eat any food on a regular basis, has been eating fat live mice beautifully for the past 7 weeks, which is wonderful. (He's finally starting to fill out a little too, he used to be a bit on the skinny side.)

Now that he's eating regularly I want to try to convert him to frozen, because when he gets larger I won't be able to keep buying live rats (they're expensive). I am thinking of trying the chicken broth trick tomorrow, but if it's just a myth I might go in a different direction with this...

[Skiploder]

Depends.....

Snakes refuse to eat for a variety of reasons - sickness, improper temperatures, stress or normal lack of appetite. In these scenarios, scenting a food item with chicken broth probably won't help.

Some animals go through a period of time when they develop food preferences. My Stimson's male went through a period when he would only eat rats, then large mice, then chicks, then back to rats again. Oftentimes re-scenting does nothing but simulates feeding a different food item. Therefore in that regard - it works.

I have heard people say that boids go crazy for the scent of poultry - however only one of my boids has ever showed any interest in chicks or quail. The caveat to that statement is that he is a blackheaded python who is a garbage disposal and has never turned down a meal.

In other words, my experience is that out of my 14 boids, only two of mine will touch fowl. Out of those two, one of them will also regularly turn his nose up at them two.

I have found that braining the prey item and keeping it sufficiently warm achieves excellent results for animals refusing to feed for apparent scenting issues.

[Spaniard]

Yes it does work, but there is the possibilty that they will imprint on it as well. If you want to try sitching to F/T I would try offering it to him and see how it goes without any additional scenting.

[djansen]

cool, I might try this.

I may chop up some onions and carrots and get the reuduced sodium for his blood pressure.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Chicken broth makes no logical sense to me, so I've never tried it. I've had best luck switching snakes from live to ft by starting off offering the live on tongs (a fuzzy), and then offering pre-killed. Once they take that for a few feedings, then I offer f/t dipped in soiled bedding to liven up the scent. It may take a few attempts but the majority of them will take it eventually.

[xanaxez]

im not sure if the chicken broth actually makes since but i do know that it works and works pretty well. i've used it multiple times to convert over the stubborn ones and it worked well for me but some others it might not have. i do not have any ball pythons so i dont know. all of mine are carpets and when they are stubborn and dont want to eat f/t i dip them and its a matter of seconds to a minute or 2 and they are on top of it like no other.

[MarkS]

I have had it work for me, but not for ball pythons. Birds are not generally a natural part of a ball pythons diet, but they are part of the natural prey for many other species of python.

[Hapa_Haole]

When he refuses the f/t do you offer live after? I've read many posts advising against this. If you hold him off on food then maybe he'll get hungry enough to go for the f/t. And feeding him live after the f/t does nothing for training him to get off live prey.

This may be a dumb question but are you heating up the f/t mouse at all after it thaws? Blasting the prey with a hair dryer or hot tap water really increases my snake's feeding response. In fact, every time she has refused food she'll nail it once I give it a little warm up.

[ama1997]

I have never tried it and I feed live. I have noticed some of my babies wont eat anything but mouse hoppers. I give them a few mouse hoppers. Then I sent a rat fuzzy with some of the mouse bedding. Get the stinky mouse smell all over the rat fuzzy. Most of the time one or two times is all I have to do this to get them to switch. If he is feeding on mice and your trying to offer a f/t rat. That could be the reason for him not taking it. Same thing could work with a f/t rodent. Just thaw out really good and get some fresh sent on it. Mouse or rat but what ever is normal to him. If he eats mice then sent with some mouse bedding. If rats then rat bedding.

[ohyeahnow]

I have had it work for me, but not for ball pythons. Birds are not generally a natural part of a ball pythons diet, but they are part of the natural prey for many other species of python.

I have read that birds are part of a wild BP's diet.

Chicken broth is frequently recommended. It did not work with my bp though.