How do you deal with shy/skittish when feeding?

[andrewross8705]

I personally allow my f/t rats to thaw over their cage an it's like a circus with all 4 (3 BPs and 1 RTB) out and about trying to move around their trees up to. The top of their enclosures lol perfect photo op, my RTB almost acts like a tree limb, very amusing to watch


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I've been thawing food on the lid above his tub and he's all over the place but still pulls back and tries to hide.

I just offer an appropriate sized rat and if they eat they eat. If not I give it to someone else and offer again in a week.

That's what I've been doing. If he's hungry, he will eat, if not, it goes to one of the others. It's more frustrating than anything because my other BP is a little more than a year and almost double his size. I know they all grow differently but it's hard to stay out of your own head at times.

If you're feeding F/T try a smaller live prey item for a while or Prekilled. Sometime animals need the added stimuli of pre-scenting the room in order to get a really good feeding response fropm them. Think of it like smelling Christmas dinner cook all day verses having turkey and gravy for school lunch.

He's on large adult mice at the moment and is ready to go up to the next size but refuses to eat rats. I try offering a rat that's a bit smaller than him every few weeks in the hopes that he will take to them but no luck so far. He's probably going to be on mice forever at this rate and that's fine as long as he's willing to eat.