Hi there -

I'm Leigh. Im from Jacksonville, FL. Im pretty active in the herp communities on Livejournal and Myspace but a friend on myspace reffered me here because of a problem I'm having. I will copy and paste my questions and hope to Geeze someone has some answers!

Anyway I've been involved in herping personally for about 3 years and a fan my whole life. Pretty much the zookeeper. I'm also a semi-pro middle eastern (bellydancer) dancer and I use some of my better tempered scaleys in some of my choreographies

Anyway, looking forward to meeting people here and seeing s ome of you at daytona next weekend!!

here's my questions:


1) I have a 4 year old seemingly healthy male BP, Adrian. He's never had any eating problems. I think two years ago he regurged once and i think it was because he didnt poop and he ate another too soon. He has never really gone more than 2 weeks refusing food. He bred successfully last year, though he is a very timid boy. I have another male that he was being housed with until breeding season of last year started, because they started fighting and the other male (Adam) was winning and damaging Adrian's ego.
I promptly separated them and Adrian had his own enclosure until it was time for him to be with the ladies. Now, he still has his own enclosure. He has a large water bowl, a hide area in both sides of the tank, and the ambient is about 87 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now..I am pretty sure the last time this boy ate was Early March. WELL out of breeding season. The temperatures have been stable, the light cycle is definitely the NOT breeding season light cycle - I am doing everything right husbandry wise that I know of per the books. He shows no physical signs of illness. Its been nearly 5 months and he hasn't eaten. Ive tried every week, varying sizes of rats from extra small to mediums like he normally eats, and nothing.

Second Question -

As most of you know I hatched out my first BP clutch on July 4. Most of the babies have eaten at least 3 times, 3 are already sold to their new homes. I have one that is EXTREMELY aggressive that is going to take some TLC to calm down, and then I have another that hasn't eaten yet. Its been over a month since they were born. He/She is visibly losing weight.

Everyone else accepted a mouse hopper, this boy...Ugh.
Ive tried : Mouse Hoppers, Mouse Pinkies, Mouse Jumpers, Mouse fuzzies -
Mouse Fuzzy in a brown bag, Rat pup in a brown bag...

Im sure there are other methods but I am at my wits end! I live in Jacksonville, FL and NOBODY has baby gerbils. I found one store that had one and when my bf went to pick it up the guy refused to sell the gerbil to him because "it was not food"....wtf. anyway. Tonight i was going to try brown bag with lived-in rat shavings, with a new born rat pup.

Does anyone have any other tips or tricks for the little bugger?

Any help appreciated, thanks.