How to feed "Live" prey

[L.West]

Hey Sariel, At this point I will try anything - do I just coat the f/t rat in the juice from the canned tuna?? Wouldn't that make the rat soggy??? Or do I just rubbed some of the tuna meat on the rat??

Thanks.

[Danounet]

Well I think if nothing has worked this far, you might just need to wait it out. Like I said before, my oldest male didn't eat for 5 months.

Maybe she does have follicles and females wont eat when they have them. You might have to wait until she re-absorbs them if that is the case.

In any case, dont drive your self crazy. If nothing did change. She will start eating when she is ready again.

Also, dont keep offering food so often. You WILL make things worse. Keep trying once a week as usual.

[L.West]

Thanks Danounet - I will take your advise and sit back, let her decide when she wants to eat again.

She looks great - very good size and has only lost 44 grams in 5 months so I think she is okay.

Last night she passed urates but they were oddly colored - two were white, one was lt. brown and one was darker brown - don't know if this means anything or not.

[Kaorte]

Thanks Danounet - I will take your advise and sit back, let her decide when she wants to eat again.

She looks great - very good size and has only lost 44 grams in 5 months so I think she is okay.

Last night she passed urates but they were oddly colored - two were white, one was lt. brown and one was darker brown - don't know if this means anything or not.

Don't worry, she will eat when she is ready.

44 grams in 5 months is basically nothing.

I have seen darker brown urates, they range in color.

[L.West]

Thanks Kaorte, It seems like I have been waiting forever for her to start back up feeding (5 months is an eternity). She happens to be my first and most favorite snake - I tend to worry too much.

Thanks again for all the advice and reassurances.

[Nuzum1978]

+1 on that. When they want it, they get it. With ferocity. Ive had one of my bigger snakes strike so hard and fast, and then constrict so hard that the ASF bled from mouth and butt....it was brutal.

I had one that ruptured the rats scrotum. Nasty! Needless to say I only fed females for about a six month afterwards.

[Sariel]

I agree with the above posts, as long as she isnt losing much weight, its just not that uncommon for BPs to stress us out with going off feed.

If you want to try the tuna method after giving her alittle time to deal with follicles if their are any, or just to chill and destress. All I did with mine was mostly drain the can of tuna, put about half of it in a Tupperware container and let the mouse sit in it for a few mins <closed lid of course> The F/T I just tossed in a plastic baggy with drained tuna, on the way into their room for feeding time. Removing both from the baggy/Tupperware before placing into her container of course.

You might even want to just go ahead and give her two weeks before offering again.

[jben]

i agree, she will eat when ready and if it was me after 4 refusals i would offer bi-weekly.

[Greez1986]

Interesting thread and some very good advice in here on feeding live
@ OP I hope she eats soon, I can only imagine being very worried about her if she was mine.

[Quiet Tempest]

Considering her age and the time of year, it may simply be that she'd rather find a mate than focus on eating. I have had females in the past that will go off feed even though they hadn't been exposed to a male. I suppose simply being in the same room with the males was enough to pick up on the pheromones. If this is the case, the feeding refusal isn't anything to worry about unless she starts visibly losing body weight. She'll resume feeding when she's ready. It is aggravating waiting to see if today will be the day they decide to eat something but it's all just part of having a pet snake reaching adulthood.

If your female has been taking f/t or f/k feeders all this time and you want to try to encourage her appetite with a live feeder, I would suggest using a prey animal that is significantly smaller than what she was previously eating. When I've used a live feeder to encourage a finicky snake to eat I usually didn't get a good response when I used a feeder of the same size that they were accustomed to taking in a f/k or f/t form. Several of my snakes would pull back or ball up when the rat approached them so I use a smaller size feeder that wouldn't intimidate them. My adult balls ordinarily take small to medium sized rats on a weekly basis but sometimes they're reluctant to take their first meals after fasting through winter and early spring. When that happens, I have offered a live medium or large mouse and more often than not they take an immediate interest and snatch it up quickly. Afterwards they usually go back to taking f/k rats as if nothing had ever changed.