Getting my Dum to take f/t

[Hypancistrus]

I was super excited in August when I finally found a healthy, reasonable priced Dum at my local show. She's been eating just fine on live rat pups, but it's killing me. I keep pet rats and I HATE feeding live. She is our only live feeder left at this point (even the pesky baby BP's switched over) and so far all of our tricks have failed.

We've done rat dancing. We've tried various temperatures. We've penned her up with a hot rat pup overnight. We let her go an extra week without feeding. Tried feeding her in various locations in her tank.

What else can we do to get her to switch over? I really love this snake, but I can't keep feeding live. I'd hate to have to sell her.....

[singingtothewheat]

hmmmmmm, you say you've tried all the tricks, what have you tried. Why is it so bad feeding live if that is all she will take?

[Hypancistrus]

hmmmmmm, you say you've tried all the tricks, what have you tried. Why is it so bad feeding live if that is all she will take?

I listed what we have tried in the post above (these have been the steps we used with our picky ball pythons). I keep pet rats... it's getting worse as she gets bigger, because now their eyes are open and they are cute and colorful and I personally just cannot stand it. As a snake owner, I am willing to do what I need to do to get a snake feeding if it's ill, and in the past to keep them healthy while we worked in the interim to switch them to f/t. But I'm not going to be able to do this indefinitely. It's too hard for me... just a personal decision, really.

[wafisherman]

My young male dum is a f/t eating machine. Will take a second f/t rat if my BP who can get picky here and there refuses.

My adult female dum came to me after only being fed 3 live adult mice a week. But she was easy to switch to f/t rats. She gets in moods where she'll go a month with out eating. But no biggie.

How long have you waited between meals?

[Hypancistrus]

How long have you waited between meals?

2 weeks, maybe 2 and a half. I am afraid to go too long because she's a baby. After about 8 or 9 days she gets to hunting... we've tried her then, too, with no results. She sniffs the rat pup and seems interested but won't commit.

[Twisted Reptiles]

What time of day are you feeding? Feeding response is often better at night, or more specifically, in the dark. Try covering the enclosure with a dark opaque material and leaving the f/t item in there overnight.

[blackcrystal22]

Just curious, but what is your enclosure like? Does she have some good burrowing substrate? Some thick aspen substrate worked really well for my girl.

Try feeding at night, with the lights off. It may help. Also, I know this is kind of gross, but since you have live rats and she eats them, try rubbing the f/t rat or mouse in some of the dirty bedding of the live rats or on one of the actual rats, though I would guess many would be against that, but it's more gross than anything.

[Uncle Boo]

I have the same problem. I've gone as long as 5 weeks and she still won't take f/t but eats live in seconds.

I put her in a cardboard box, then put the box back in her enclosure, then put the rat in with her since she is a shy eater. I try to mimic what I do with live so she's comfortable but with no luck.

I've tried braining, leaving the f/t in with her for hours, done the rat dance on tongs till my arm got sore, fed her live then followed it with f/t and she hit it but when I came back later it was still there, kept the room dark....I don't know what else to try.

BTW she just turned 5 months old. I don't know if age makes a difference.

[agnt004]

If all it eats is live, then feed it live! Stop being a baby about it. So you keep pet rats, big deal. Have some for pets and others for food. Snakes are meant to eat live, it's what they do in nature. Sorry to be so blunt, but if you can't handle doing and only want to feed F/T than keeping snakes isn't for you. Just because you can train some of them to do something unnatural to they (eat F/T) doesn't mean you can get all of them to convert. If it wants live feed it live, give it what it wants, let it be happy.

[Uncle Boo]

I have no moral problem with the snake eating live, it's more convenience for me. I have a freezer full of rats for my other snakes, and they are easy to buy online and store. For live I have to drive quite a ways every week to pick up one rat at a time.

I have considered raising rats but with only one live eater I don't think it makes sense, but I don't know a lot about raising rats.