Feeding live?

[artgecko]

Wow... Did this thread ever go OT. Sorry original poster, people tend to get a little overzealous on this issue.

Have you tried leaving the f/t item in the tub with the snake for a while? I just got a new enchi and she refused to eat while I was in the room.. she'd even defense-strike the prey item but not coil. I hazarded leaving it in with her one night and she ate it when I wasn't in the room. Apparently, she's a shy eater.

Good luck, I know how anxious it can make you when your snake doesn't feed for a long period of time (and is loosing weight). My problem snake is a hognose that has been on / off feed for a long time now.

[kitedemon]

The fact still remains that switching food types during a hunger strike rarely works.

[AnnaK231]

Wow previous posters. Wow. I'm asking about feeding my snake and I come back and see a debate. Really? Wow.

Snake has been an on point eater until he got hurt (from a NON feeding related injury). I don't want to go to live because he's taken f/t just fine in the past. I also didn't want to switch to mice from rats because I've heard of issues going back to bigger prey.

If Anyone has any other helpful advice, please share.

I'm nervous about feeding live and I'm nervous because he's been off his food and losing weight steadily. My vet said if he doesn't eat they want to look into force feeding him which I DON'T want to do, at all.

Thank you to those with helpful suggestions.

[DVirginiana]

I don't have any great feeding tips other than feeding live or changing the type of feeder, however I will say that you should try feeding live before you go to forcefeeding. That can be really stressful for the snake, especially if they are older, and even if you are nervous live-feeding would be a better option (even if it's inconvenient) for the snake.

Hopefully someone has some advice that can help without having to feed live.

[MontyAndMelissa]

Wow previous posters. Wow. I'm asking about feeding my snake and I come back and see a debate. Really? Wow.

Snake has been an on point eater until he got hurt (from a NON feeding related injury). I don't want to go to live because he's taken f/t just fine in the past. I also didn't want to switch to mice from rats because I've heard of issues going back to bigger prey.

If Anyone has any other helpful advice, please share.

I'm nervous about feeding live and I'm nervous because he's been off his food and losing weight steadily. My vet said if he doesn't eat they want to look into force feeding him which I DON'T want to do, at all.

Thank you to those with helpful suggestions.

I think that rat pups are the same size roughly as large mice. the difference is in the scent.

[Zincubus]

Wow previous posters. Wow. I'm asking about feeding my snake and I come back and see a debate. Really? Wow.

Snake has been an on point eater until he got hurt (from a NON feeding related injury). I don't want to go to live because he's taken f/t just fine in the past. I also didn't want to switch to mice from rats because I've heard of issues going back to bigger prey.

If Anyone has any other helpful advice, please share.

I'm nervous about feeding live and I'm nervous because he's been off his food and losing weight steadily. My vet said if he doesn't eat they want to look into force feeding him which I DON'T want to do, at all.

Thank you to those with helpful suggestions.

If you haven't already tried ... Put the rat in a polythene bag or something waterproof and lower into some very warm water until the rat is lovely and warm .. The bag is so the rat retains it's scent . . Have the viv doors open and at the last moment give the rat a good blast on the head area with a hair dryer ... Using tongs / long tweezers simply dangle the rat by its tail in front of the snakes face . My two Albino will only strike from their hide ..the Pastel one is a drop feeder thankfully . You may have to re- heat the rat a few times with a hairdryer before it strikes ..

[Stewart_Reptiles]

The thread has now been re-opened, for those wishing to continue the great Live vs F/T debate you can do so here http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-vs-F-T-debate

Now back to our regular programming.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Wow previous posters. Wow. I'm asking about feeding my snake and I come back and see a debate. Really? Wow.

Snake has been an on point eater until he got hurt (from a NON feeding related injury). I don't want to go to live because he's taken f/t just fine in the past. I also didn't want to switch to mice from rats because I've heard of issues going back to bigger prey.

If Anyone has any other helpful advice, please share.

I'm nervous about feeding live and I'm nervous because he's been off his food and losing weight steadily. My vet said if he doesn't eat they want to look into force feeding him which I DON'T want to do, at all.

Thank you to those with helpful suggestions.

Few important things on the situation in general first it is a 2.5 years old animal which means he knows how to eat and therefore assist feeding or force feeding is not an option. He can also go on for a long amount of time (a year is not unheard of) without any issue aside from being frustrating for you the owner.

Going of feed can have several causes, seasonal changes, breeding mood, fasting to catch up when offer to much food (remember that they are being overfed in captivity).

The key to help an animal resume feeding after a long strike are, making sure that the animal as an optimum setup double check everything, sometimes downsizing the enclosure will help the animal resume feeding. Most importantly it's really about patience.

Now as far as switching prey type it's never really a good option unless you change to another commonly fed prey item such as mice and even than you must be prepared to feed the other prey type permanently same if you go from F/T to live so if it's not what you wish to do patience will be what need to be demonstrated.

[se7en]

I think that rat pups are the same size roughly as large mice. the difference is in the scent.

very useful document. thanks.

[AnnaK231]

Few important things on the situation in general first it is a 2.5 years old animal which means he knows how to eat and therefore assist feeding or force feeding is not an option. He can also go on for a long amount of time (a year is not unheard of) without any issue aside from being frustrating for you the owner.

Going of feed can have several causes, seasonal changes, breeding mood, fasting to catch up when offer to much food (remember that they are being overfed in captivity).

The key to help an animal resume feeding after a long strike are, making sure that the animal as an optimum setup double check everything, sometimes downsizing the enclosure will help the animal resume feeding. Most importantly it's really about patience.

Now as far as switching prey type it's never really a good option unless you change to another commonly fed prey item such as mice and even than you must be prepared to feed the other prey type permanently same if you go from F/T to live so if it's not what you wish to do patience will be what need to be demonstrated.

Thanks for for cleaning up the post. Like I said, I don't want to have the vet force feed because A: it's very stressful for the snake and B: he might regurgitate it anyways.

His cage is perfect, I will go back to small rats and try and find rat pups (I think they were called) if it's too big. I read that he can eat prey 10-15% his body weight...do you know if this is true? I'd think the 10% would be fine but the small rats I have on hand (frozen) are about 13% of his weight.

Perhaps I am just being impatient. Probably confused the heck out of him to by offering mice vs rats. I do only offer every 7-14 days though. Once he hit 2 years he started eating every 10-21 days so I would hope that he wasn't overfed.