wow, what turned out to be a quick post about a funny situation turned serious quick, but I will explain.

HaikyFin,

I’m not a English professor like you, but I am pretty sure the definition of the word abuse goes something along the lines of you purposely intended harm. As in I know I should be feeding him rats but just don’t care to do so and keep feeding him mice, or as in, I know his humidity is supposed to be above 50's but I am too lazy to spray his tank down, as in, I am sitting by letting him starve and KNOW it and just don’t care to do anything about it. That sounds about right for abuse. Here is what doesn’t sound like abuse. His setup up is PERFECT. And when I say perfect, I seriously mean perfect, and you can see it in the pictures in my profile but ill run it down real quick for you. 29g H aquarium, 1/4 inch plexi glass cover under the cage top to keep in humidity in, 2 digital thermometer, one in the cold side and one in the hot side, 2 Identical hides, aspen bedding with plenty of decor to make him feel secure, a water dish big enough for him to do what he wants with it (drink, soak, whatever), a ultratherm UTH on the warm side hooked up to a herpstat keeping it at a steady 88-89 degrees so says my PE-2 Temp gun, temperatures which I check every 2 days. Oh and the back and sides of the tank are blacked out. Ambient temps are checked twice a day if not more if I am not working that day, and fresh bottled water in the water dish which is changed everyday (I work for coca cola so I get free cases of water). And HaikyFin a whole paragraph on how I need to correct my spelling and punctuations on my post? I mean you actually sat there and wrote a whole paragraph just to point that out? Seriously???

Folks for the year or so I was on this board I never knew I had to spell check and make sure my grammar is spot on, I though the important thing here was to talk about the issue your having and get some feedback from members that have been thru this and can help.

Dragonsong93,

I have tried switching him over to rats, he actually was destroying small rats within the first few months I got him but he slowly started turning them down. Right before winter he just never took them at all, he would come out of his hide during feeding time take a few licks at the rat and retreat to his hide. With a mouse he would come out take a few licks then strike so I know the reason he wasn’t taking them was BECAUSE they were rats. I tried the leaving a rat in dirty mice bedding overnight trick a few times and still got nothing. So it came to a point where it was either mice or he would not eat. So it seemed best to just give him what he wants, since its better he eat something then nothing at all, you know BP's are picky eaters as it is, I was just reading on a post about how one guy just had his BP come off a 9 month hunger strike, and I would rather be the guy who has a BP that even though is not eating what he should be eating, he’s at least eating something every few weeks, as supposed to nothing for almost a year.

As far a f/t my living conditions wont allow it. I live in a small cramped pretty much studio apartment and I simply cannot have a pack of dead rats in the fridge I use (which I share) The only way that would ever work is if I was to go to petland and buy a pack of f/t and just use one of them and throw away the rest. So that’s not going to happen.

Now I have to copy this whole post and paste it onto my MS Word, spell check it, and paste it back here. I wouldn’t want to get a F on this post from Professor HaikyFin!