Well, it's been about 4 weeks since Auryn's last meal with me. He ate like a voracious camp of F/T mice, and I've been trying to switch him to rat pups. He's turned his nose up at 3 rat pups (I tried once a week), and then he's had a week with no attempt at all. Thanks to a tip from qiksilver, I found a reptile place about 10 minutes down the road from me (who knew?) and I drove over there to pick up a F/T rat pup and some used mouse bedding.

I'm going to try "shake-and-bake" rat pup (the rat is defrosting in the used mouse bedding--and I'll probably sprinkle some bedding into Auryn's tub right before feeding if needed)--and if this doesn't work, I'll accept that Auryn is a mouser-for-life and feed him mice.

What's really funny is I set the rat (STILL in the bag with the bedding--hasn't been opened) on top of Auryn's tub to thaw. It wasn't up there 20 minutes before I look over and see Auryn perched on the top of the hide directly underneath the rat...could his incredible sense of smell be smelling the mouse bedding -through- the bag? Or the residual smell that the guy who tied the bag left on it?

I'm just excited that he seems VERY interested right off the bat. I'm going to wait about an hour, then thaw the rattie the rest of the way with the bag and warm water method (I've never done this before). I'll then roll the thawed-rat in the bedding and see if Auryn takes the bait! I'll let you know how it works!