Issues Feeding

[dakski]

I’ve always supervised feeding and she’s never been hurt. I don’t like feeding her live, it makes me super anxious and nervous.
how I’m defrosting food: 45 minutes to an hour in cool water (in a ziplock bag so it doesn’t get soaking wet). Then 14-20 minutes in hot water, rewarding the water when it gets cool. When the rodent is at 100 degrees I take it up and feed it to her. I’ve also tried leaving the dethawed rat in the cage over night under the heat lamp, and she’s still not interested.

She’s been a problem feeder ever since I got her, even though all the temps and humidity is correct in her cage. She weighs a little under 800 grams and she’s a little over two years old, very small for her age

Do you have suggestions for how to prekill? I’ve seen videos of people popping rats’ heads from their spinal cord but I can not do that, I love rats too much. Is there an easy way to set up a CO2 chamber?

I would defrost in room temp water for a couple of hours, maybe flipping the rat over halfway through. Make sure it's completely defrosted.

Then, either warm with a hairdryer, which many people like, or put in hot tap water (not boiling water or even close) for 30 seconds to a minute (which is what I do). If you do the hairdryer, offer on tongs immediately. If you do the warm water, dry quickly with paper towel and offer on tongs ASAP.

Putting a defrosted rat in hot water for 20 minutes can actually start to cook it a little, leading to refusal. BP's, and all snakes, eat raw, whole, prey.

I would be patient.

Offer on tongs initially, see if she's interested. If she is, but doesn't strike, leaving for a while is okay. I wouldn't leave more than overnight.

If she refuses, I would not offer more than every other week until she eats again.

800 grams is a good size. Unless she looks too thin (you can post pictures), she can probably go a long while without eating.

My female fasts every winter for about 5 months. Then she goes back to happily eating F/T again.

Again, give her lots of hiding space, and feed in the tank (this was all covered earlier).

Also, do not handle any more than necessary (to clean the tank, etc) until she starts eating again.

Finally, if she is 800G, I would be feeding small rats (in the 70-80G +/- range). Weaned rats at 50G are too small IMO.

Good luck and keep us in the loop!