She finally ate!

[Lolo76]

Yay - Delilah finally ate! I've had her for almost 3 weeks now, and she had refused a F/T rat pup and a live rat pup... my roommate & a few people here suggested a mouse instead, and apparently that was exactly what she wanted. I threw in the (live adult) mouse, she watched it for a few seconds and BAM, that was it! She ingested it within a minute or so, and then I replaced her hide where she's resting now. Thank you to everyone who offered advice, and at least I now know her preference. Do you think she'll take a F/T mouse, or was it also the live aspect that got her going? Guess I won't know unless I try, LOL. Anyway, thanks again!

[dr del]

Hi,

Glad to hear she ate for you.

I would suggest getting a good feeding routine going with the live mice first then, once she is used to how you are doing things, you can try with an F/T mouse nicely heated up and see how she reacts.

Don't forget to pre-scent though so she knows dinner is on the way.


dr del

[Lolo76]

Thanks for the tips! And I love the end of your sig line, LOL.

[kc261]

Congrats on getting her to eat! That is always a great feeling.

As to your questions, between yourself and Dr. Del, I think you are covered.

One thing you didn't ask is whether it is ok to leave her eating mice or if you should try to switch her to rats. That really is up to you & the snake to decide. Many people prefer feeding rats because you can always offer a single food item. With mice, your bp will get big enough that even the biggest mouse is not enough of a meal, so you'll need to feed more than one in a feeding. Either way is fine, although sometimes the snake will decide it only likes mice, or sometimes the snake will decide it won't take more than one item in a meal.

If you want to try to get her eating rats, I would suggest first getting a good feeding routine going with the live mice. Then switch to live rats and get that established. Then switch to f/t rats.

[zombie&lemons]

its the season! my baby ate too for the first time, along with many others

[Crazy4Herps]

Congrats!!! It's such a great feeling to know that your baby is fed. Mine has eaten one mouse (that was much too small to fill her up even a little bit) in three months. I usually love the cold and the snow and the winter, but I'm thinking about switching my favorite season to summer... hormone-free reptiles!