Feeding BP golden hamsters

[dries]

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Dries/Pictures/sneks/DSC01090.jpg[/IMG]

Greetings

I have a very finicky eater. This girl only eats gerbils for me. I have tried mice and rats without succes.

Now, since gerbils are pretty hard to find and cost me about 10 bucks for 50 grams of meat, i want to try feeding her golden hamsters. They are double or triple the weight of a gerbil and are cheaper.

My only two concerns are if she is gonna want it instead of a gerbil and if hamsters are healthy prey. Anyone experienced with feeding golden hamsters?

Cheers, here is a photo of this girl. Leo piebald, around 900 grams CB2011. I got here 3 months ago or so.

- - - Updated - - -

ok i have no idea how to add a photo haha

[Stewart_Reptiles]

BAD idea, hamsters and gerbil are like crack and a BP will rarely switch back from that which is not always sustainable and could be a huge issue in case of being re-homed.

They are also more aggressive.

Switching prey is rarely a viable solution unless you switch to mice, rats, ASF, some animal are picky, sometimes with have higher expectation even though they are overfed and sometime it's just an husbandry issue.

Also keep in mind that sub adult and adult tend to take longer to adjust to their new environment sometimes months.

As for pictures you cannot link a picture that is on your hard drive it must be uploaded to an host first http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Post-Pictures

[cchardwick]

Do you feed live or pre killed? If you are trying pre killed mice you may try one live, I have two picky eaters that won't touch pre killed but go crazy over live mice. If I were you I'd breed a pair of gerbils, looks like they have an average of four babies per month, perfect for one snake. All you need is a breeder tank and one or two grow out tanks. I'd suggest trying pre killed gerbils at first, safer for the snake. I offer all pre killed first, then live only if they don't eat. CO2 is awesome for that too. I have way too many snakes getting bit from live rodents.

[dries]

BAD idea, hamsters and gerbil are like crack and a BP will rarely switch back from that which is not always sustainable and could be a huge issue in case of being re-homed.

They are also more aggressive.

I know lol. I'll keep her for the rest of her days tho so i'm not worried about rehoming her.
She definitely imprinted gerbils as her favorite food tho, nothing i can do to change that at this moment. She'll be bred when she gets a good weight and after she laid her clutch i'll figure a way out to switch her to something more convenient.

[dries]

Do you feed live or pre killed? If you are trying pre killed mice you may try one live, I have two picky eaters that won't touch pre killed but go crazy over live mice. If I were you I'd breed a pair of gerbils, looks like they have an average of four babies per month, perfect for one snake. All you need is a breeder tank and one or two grow out tanks. I'd suggest trying pre killed gerbils at first, safer for the snake. I offer all pre killed first, then live only if they don't eat. CO2 is awesome for that too. I have way too many snakes getting bit from live rodents.

She only eats live prey, and she only eats gerbils. So i'm wondering if she'll take a live golden hamster because they weight more and are cheaper. Breeding my own gerbils is not really possible since i'm pretty sure my dorm won't allow that.

[JodanOrNoDan]

In my experience 900 grams is pretty small for a 2011 female. That said unless you have an extreme burning need to get her up to breeding weight soon, I would not go the route you are planning. If you want her to put on weight I highly suggest doing everything you can to get her on rats. You will be able to safely give her larger prey items. Who knows, she even may gain weight quicker once she is converted. You need to convince her to convert and give her some tough love. It won't hurt her to not eat for awhile if she is a healthy weight for her size. There are a lot of ways to try to make the conversion and the success rates vary from animal to animal but she needs to be hungry for any of them to succeed.

[LittleTreeGuy]

She only eats live prey, and she only eats gerbils. So i'm wondering if she'll take a live golden hamster because they weight more and are cheaper. Breeding my own gerbils is not really possible since i'm pretty sure my dorm won't allow that.

I bet if you skip feeding for a few weeks and then offer a rat, she'll take it. If not, wait another week or so and try again. If you wait her out, I'm guessing you can convert her. I don't have nearly as much experience as most on this site, but I have read probably hundreds of threads here and on other forums about people switching food. I'd say maybe 1/1000 (or less) just can't be switched... due to an extremely picky snake. It seems most people give in too soon and just revert back to what they were previously doing. Keep an eye on her weight, and if she isn't losing, and is still acting well, wait her out. When she's hungry enough, she'll eat a rat.