Rat scared our snake-- posted in wrong section

[ZinniaZ]

I am sure this has happened many a time, but I need advice on how to help my son's snake through this. We have been feeding live for a while. She is touch and go on frozen thawed and wasn't eating well so we switched. Always supervised, etc. Well a couple months ago, we gave her a rat and it immediately ran on top of her and bit her. It was just super active and biting. We scrambled, got the tank unlocked and open, grabbed the stupid rat out and left ehr alone. Ever since, she has been afraid of rats. She has eaten maybe two since then. Very little young babies, but now she won't even eat the young weanlings and just retreats. We have put very quiet young ones in and sat and waited and watched. Rat sits in corner, she hunts all around, advances, retreats and eventually goes into her hide and... Hides. She is fine eating mice but now she is pretty big and will only take two mice at a time and they are just very small weightwise for her size. I'd say the mice are maybe 24 grams each and before the rat and her subsequent food strike, she was eating 100 g rats. We were basing the rat size on her weight. I haven't weighed her recently as we are trying to leave her alone so that she will just EAT.

We switched her to a dark tub. Temps and humidity are good. Tub is a bit small for her size but don't want her in too big a space right now. She was in a glass visionarium and we decided to try to make her more hidden and hopefully more secure to help with the eating. She ate two mice last night.

My plan is this (and I am looking for input on whether or not this is a good plan):

Keep her in the tub.
Feed her two mice every five days because the mice are not big enough but she needs to eat.
Once she is eating the mice super regularly, try to feed one mouse followed by a rat that has been coated in mouse shavings so it will smell mousy.

????

Any thoughts?

[Beardedragon]

How big are the rats? Will she eat smalls?

[ZinniaZ]

No she won't eat little tiny hopper rats. She sniffs them all over and then goes back into ehr hide.

[ZinniaZ]

Does anyone have any opinions on my plan? Is any of it wrong/ unadviseable? I'd like to help this snake eat well and ENOUGH.

[hoax]

I am sure this has happened many a time, but I need advice on how to help my son's snake through this. We have been feeding live for a while. She is touch and go on frozen thawed and wasn't eating well so we switched. Always supervised, etc. Well a couple months ago, we gave her a rat and it immediately ran on top of her and bit her. It was just super active and biting. We scrambled, got the tank unlocked and open, grabbed the stupid rat out and left ehr alone. Ever since, she has been afraid of rats. She has eaten maybe two since then. Very little young babies, but now she won't even eat the young weanlings and just retreats. We have put very quiet young ones in and sat and waited and watched. Rat sits in corner, she hunts all around, advances, retreats and eventually goes into her hide and... Hides. She is fine eating mice but now she is pretty big and will only take two mice at a time and they are just very small weightwise for her size. I'd say the mice are maybe 24 grams each and before the rat and her subsequent food strike, she was eating 100 g rats. We were basing the rat size on her weight. I haven't weighed her recently as we are trying to leave her alone so that she will just EAT.

We switched her to a dark tub. Temps and humidity are good. Tub is a bit small for her size but don't want her in too big a space right now. She was in a glass visionarium and we decided to try to make her more hidden and hopefully more secure to help with the eating. She ate two mice last night.

My plan is this (and I am looking for input on whether or not this is a good plan):

Keep her in the tub.
Feed her two mice every five days because the mice are not big enough but she needs to eat.
Once she is eating the mice super regularly, try to feed one mouse followed by a rat that has been coated in mouse shavings so it will smell mousy.

????

Any thoughts?

I personally do not see how this plan to feed two mice every 5 days. I would carefully monitor her weight if she starts to get obese, then I would change the feeding schedule. I hope this helps some.

[dr del]

Hi,


I like the idea of getting her eating regularly again for a little bit before trying to switch anything up.

Are the mice she is eating F/T? It might be worth trying to find bigger ones or feed her three at a time? My male recently went on a mouse kick and ate three a week for a couple fo months. He gained weight just fine.


dr del

[ZinniaZ]

The mice are live too. I have a lovely little rat breeding set up but no mice so I have to get them from the petstore and they are really tiny. I may have to just fatten some mice up myself. She won't take a third at the moment. So I hope to be able to find some bigger ones or raise up some bigger ones.

Re: hoax-- I don't understand what you mean by your comment-- could you tell me agian what you are saying? Do not feed every five days? Or do but monitor the weight?

[starmom]

I have one snake who eats live mice. I buy them, several at a time, and fatten them up at home! It doesn't hurt to feed 3 mice in one feeding if the snake will take the third mouse.

I think your plan sounds fine. Just monitor your snake. If the feeding response decreases, stretch the feedings to every 6-7 days.

Poor snakey!! Being bitten by a rat that big must have hurt!!

[ZinniaZ]

Thanks starmom, that is one of the things I was worried about-- whether it would actually decrease her interest in food to eat every five days at this point.

I think it did hurt. Stupid rat. This snake is pretty timid anyway. Fortunately, she didn't have any marks from the rat but I have been bitten by the same rat and that bite HURT.

Alright, I am going with this plan.