BP won't eat "appropriatly" sized mice?

[Jeo123]

So in the beginning, my girl would stike at mice no problem. It was amusing to watch, she ate regularly, and a good time was had by all.

Then she went off feed for a few weeks. I got nervous after her weight started dropping and decided to go out and pick up some smaller mice in hopes she'd at least eat those. I first left the mouse(F/T) out in the open, but she wouldn't eat. I eventually got her to eat small mice(under 10g) by leaving them in her hide while she's in there.

The problem is that she won't eat even the medium mice, let alone the adult mice she was eating before going off feed(~40g).

She currently weighs 450g, so those small mice are way to small for her. I got her to eat two of them the other night, but any time I offer a medium to try to step her up, she refuses.

Temp is 90-94 on the warm side, 80-84 on the cool side. Humidity around 55, UTH with a red night bulb that doesn't thow off much heat, just light. Tank is a 20L.

Any thoughts on why the refusal to eat larger mice? From everything I've read, a ~20g mouse is hardly pushing the limits on too big for her.

[angllady2]

I've been up against the same problem myself.

You can try a rat pup, sometimes they seem to get bored with mice, for lack of a better term.

You might also grit your teeth and try live. I have several who regularly go back and forth between live and F/T, although I think most will tell you that's rare, once they take live they seldom go back to F/T.

I don't know how you offer her F/T, but you can try using a hairdryer to superheat the head just before offering it {on tongs } sometimes they just need that extra heat signature to spark interest.

You may also just have to wait it out. My beloved het pied male, my favorite boy, went off food for nearly 5 months, and he was only 445 grams. He lost about 30 grams altogether, and while he had me worried sick, he simply wasn't interested. I kept on trying each week, and last monday, much to my rather loud glee, he took a single mouse. Granted, that isn't much, but it was SOMETHING.

I wish you all the best with her, sometimes being a snake owner isn't easy.

Gale

[ClarkT]

How often do you try feeding?

I'd suggest a rat pup or an ASF, too. At 400 grams or so, they should be able to easily handle up to a 60 gram meal.

[LeviBP]

Don't worry about it. This happens all the time. Keep her on the right sizing. If she does not eat one week, try again next week. Be sure to allow the mouse or rat lie on top of the cage for about a half hour, this really spikes their curiosity and "feeding instinct".

Also -- Check for mites, it is not unusual for BP's to stop eating, and/or eat very little because of a mite problem.

[blackcrystal22]

Is your profile picture your snakes enclosure?
If so, a single big log hide might not be providing the security the bp needs. Get two hides, one for each side, and ones with only a single entrance and is relatively "tight" for him to squeeze into.
These are great products for just that:
http://www.reptilebasics.com/hide-boxes/

P.S. Humidity gauges are very inaccurate. I would invest $10 to buy a digital thermo/humidity reader at the garden section of a walmart.

[wax32]

I'd move up to small rats, 50-60 gram range... make sure it is hot.

[Jeo123]

So I finally got her to eat an adult mouse again for the first time in a while!!!

She still won't strike if I hold it, but she'll at least eat when I put it in her hide and leave her alone. I found out that during the day, the cool side was getting too cool, and it seems like she still hasn't figured out that when she gets cold, she has an identical hide on the other side of the tank.

As for the profile pic, that was from when I first got her. She never used that half log and what you can't see in the picture is the almost flat log that she used all the time. The sticky gauges have all been removed for a while as well.