Tips for picky eating Retic

[Skyrivers]

I agree with what's been said about scenting and "chaining" prey items. These are great ideas that will sometimes entice an animal to eat or to transition to the keeper's preferred prey type. I take a less nuanced approach to feeding. I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again. She'll get the message soon enough. She's a retic so I doubt she'll refuse food for very long. I have a carpet that was a slow starter. She refused all food for the first month and then she would only eat mice and chicks but not rats. Once I stopped giving her what she wanted and only offered her rats she held out for about two months before taking her first rat. She was hit or miss for a little while but now she's eats rats or any other prey item that I offer consistently.

I did the same to get Rainbow to eat rabbits. Now she will eat anything with fur or feathers.