Feeding Refusals after Positive Body Responses

[ckuhn003]

Oddly enough one of my Royals went off her food when I moved her to a bigger viv - until I put her back in her old, small viv then she ate the next day .

As regards the hairdryer method .. the hairdryer is just a part of the trick .

With many Royals It’s not just a case of warming the mouse /rat up .. they are nocturnal so most will only be active and want to feed in the evenings ( there are a few who will eat anytime of course).

Anyways , in my experience, Royals need to feel secure before the will strike and eat . I let the frozen rodents thaw out in the snake room and that gets the snakes in the mood to eat - after a few hours they’re all ready and waiting . I make sure they are safe under a viv then immediately dangle the warm rodent in front of the hide entrance , feed in dim/low lighting so the heat pits can zoom into the warmed up mouse/rats heat signal ... it it shows interest ( as you mentioned) they normally get it straight away but if not RE-HEAT and offer again whilst warm .. keep repeating until it takes it under the hide .

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I take these steps as well. This time after thawing the rodents for a whole day in the fridge, I put them out a couple hours early in the snake room to marinate. Waiting until it was complete darkness, powered up the hair dryer. He was ready and cocked but never struck. The whole RE-HEAT and offer again has NEVER worked for me. I've tried it but if he doesn't take it the 1st time he's not interested....unless I drop and come back the next day.

[Zincubus]

I take these steps as well. This time after thawing the rodents for a whole day in the fridge, I put them out a couple hours early in the snake room to marinate. Waiting until it was complete darkness, powered up the hair dryer. He was ready and cocked but never struck. The whole RE-HEAT and offer again has NEVER worked for me. I've tried it but if he doesn't take it the 1st time he's not interested....unless I drop and come back the next day.

What a puzzle ...


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[ckuhn003]

Took a temperature check and noticed the warm side under the hide was lower then usual (approx 83ish) and the cool side (79ish). Just recently I added a lot of fake plants to clutter up the enclosure and I'm wondering if that's preventing the warm side temps to not heat up to the usual 88. Possibly the leaves laying on top of the hides or around the probe are causing the issue?? I'm using an RHP.

Anyone think these temps could be contributing to the feeding refusals?

[EL-Ziggy]

Colder temps can lead to food breaks. I don't think 83F is too cold but you should probably boost those temps up a bit higher to 88-92.