Quote Originally Posted by piranhaking
Are there any problems with feeding corns gerbils. I have heard that some snakes will "imprint" on a certian food type and it can be hard to change their mind. I feeding mostly f/t right now, but out of 10 (four of them not mine, but i still take care of em) some of them arent taken f/t very well. The professor in charge of the department suddenly has a problem with me using a couple mice here and there from their feeder colonies, so we (me and the guy i work for there) would like to set up a colony of our own for the snakes we have in our lab. The problem is the only place we have to put them more or less is a very small prep room between the storage area and the lab itself, and we're worried about the smell especially since its a smaller area. I have heard that gerbils dont smell anywhere near as bad as mice can, so i thought they may be a good option for the occasional feeding. Mainly incase we have one that we're having a hard time getting to take f/t, and for the occasional live feeding to show the classes in the lab. People seem to be more comfortable with the idea of feeding live than seeing a prekilled defrosted mouse, doesnt really make much sence, but they do. Anyway, what i want to know is if corns are likely to imprint on them and cause trouble, or if theres any other reason to avoid it. We arent really set on anything yet, thats just one of the idea's we're bouncing around.
In my opinion i would not use gerbils to feed any reptile.The main reason is if you feed one of them to a snake live they are even more capable of killing a snake then a rat.Gerbils are mean little rodents.I think they smell just as bad as mice:eek: