Regressing to mice?

[lilyskip]

Hey guys-

Huxley has been refusing a lot of rats lately, and I'm wondering if I should switch him back to mice to get him eating and growing steadily. He's almost a year old, and he hardly looks any bigger than he did four months ago.

Would it be better to feed him rats for a few months to get him to a proper size, then try rats again? My concern used to be that he'd get stuck on mice, but now I'm just worried that he's not nearly as big as he should be for his age. Any advice would be great :)

[daver676]

Try a small live rat. Even one without it's eyes open. It may peak his interest again.

[lilyskip]

Hmmm, I'd like to try to avoid anything live, but that might be a last resort.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Stay strong!!! :D

It might not be the rats he's refusing... it could just be food in general. :)

[daver676]

Originally posted by lilyskip
Hmmm, I'd like to try to avoid anything live, but that might be a last resort.

Hmmm.... I should have been more specific.

I only resorted to live prey when my little bp started getting littler. :rolleyes: It was my last resort.

Tim has a good point. He could just be refusing anything. Gotta love bps!! :mad:

[lilyskip]

He could just be refusing anything. Gotta love bps!!

sigh, i keep telling myself that!! i just hate to see him stay so small, ya know? especially as a little snake, he should be eating more.

[Cruciform]

I just got a live-eating BP to take a dead rat last week, by putting a live mouse in a margarine container (with air holes) and leaving it in the cage for an hour. The scampering and scent got it worked up, then a little wiggle of the rat corpse and BAM! Feeding reponse :)

If you have any live mice or rats to try it with, it's worth a shot.

[lilyskip]

Wow, that's a pretty cool method. I might try that.

[emroul]

Have you tried a freshkilled rat pup? That seems to work. Or freshkilled any thing, really (small rat, adult mouse). He could just be being picky about f/t (if that's what your feeding). I've noticed with mine, if they don't take f/t, they take f/k.

Jennifer

[lilyskip]

i haven't tried f/k recently, no. i might go with that, too.

[Invictus]

We absolutely cannot get live rats in Alberta, and our female BP has been refusing meals for well over 6 months, so I finally broke down and gave her 2 live adult mice just to get SOMETHING in her belly.

Cruciform, you're a genius, man. I never would have thought of that technique, but I am most definitely going to try it!

[sapphire_moon]

my little bp just got to eating for us about 1 month ago.

She was ONLY about 2.5 ft and about a yearling, She had 2 live mice, and assuming that wasn't enough, took a f/t small rat (not all in one setting!)

Keep trying, you could always not give in. Keep a weight record and if he starts loosing weight offer f/t mouse, then f/k, stunned then if all else fails live, or live rat (around 12-14 days and they still have their eyes closed)

Good luck and hang in there!

[Syco]

Cruciform- That is a very good idea! I never even thought of doing that. My BPs will eat rats or mice it doesn't matter to them, but they want them live :( That might just work for them, I'm going to try it.

[Maki]

I'm new here, but have been reading and learning a lot from this forum. I was just wondering if anyone else has tried T-Rex mousemaker. I've been amazed at how just one drop will entice a reluctant BP to eat a F/T rat it just refused. I've also found that it eases the transitions from live to F/T or mouse to rat.

[daver676]

Originally posted by Maki
I'm new here, but have been reading and learning a lot from this forum. I was just wondering if anyone else has tried T-Rex mousemaker. I've been amazed at how just one drop will entice a reluctant BP to eat a F/T rat it just refused. I've also found that it eases the transitions from live to F/T or mouse to rat.

I gotta try this stuff. Is it sold in Canada?

I guess I haven't tried everything after all. :o

[M_surinamensis]

Something to consider is the way snake brains work...

Instinctive responses are generated when a specific stimulus is applied. If the world provides a prey shaped peg, it needs to line up with one of the holes which says EAT... In the wild the rodents these guys grab are all a certain shape... They're jumpy scrambling things with long back legs and generally darker colors. It's why balls of an appropriate size will take hopper mice so readily, the movement and shape is closer to what they instinctively consider food, prompting a stronger response.

There are, of course, balls which will just refuse all food period... but try some of those subadult rodents that hop around rather than crawling or walking... Try gerbil scenting too, or even live gerbils if they're avaliable. Only difficulty there is sometimes getting them hooked on a far more expensive prey item. Darker colored rats and mice will sometimes prompt a stronger feeding response than the albinos which are so commonly avaliable as well.

Don't forcefeed though... behavior has genetic roots where snakes are concerned, there's no reason to promote the potential spread of weak feeding responses in captive populations. If there's no outside cause for a weak feeding response (injury, illness, improper care for a period of time, etc) and the animal refuses food to the point where it has effects on the health and body mass, just let it go. All forcefeeding will do is keep an animal which is weak in the potential gene pool by allowing it to live and possibly reproduce.

[justinO]

M_surinamensis, that was some great advice!

What I recently did for a gerbil eater was almost the same thing, I put a small rat in with a pet gerbil & some of his dirty shavings, let them bounce around in the tiny box for awhile, and planned to see if the ball python would take the rat........ opened the box right outside the cage and the gerbil JUMPED out right into the enclousure and didn't take another step before being snached out of the air and downed within a minute....

so yeah, great idea, just do it AWAY from the enclousure.... he he he

Only other thing I tried when my ball pythons were younger and refused to eat was "assist" feeding, which I have seen is way different from force feeding, although only seems to work in 8 months or under...... where you take a F/T rat and hold the snakes head and put the rat right at it's lips, worked every time. only did it with 3 of my bp's a few times and now they have such strong feeding responses I have to be careful of my fingers sometimes cuz they will stalk anything moving!

I have one ball python who will not eat anymore, has had 3 small mice in the last 9 months and is staying small while all the others get bigger. She was my first snake and I wanted to breed her, but I would hate to pass on that "make your mother worry" gene..... I will seriously reconsider breeding her now, thank you for the message!

Jessy

[knads06]

All of you are lucky, ive had my bp for two weeks now and he still refuses to eat. Ive left him alone for a week to let him get use to his enclousure and took him out twice to attempt to feed. I put him in a rubbermaid container along with a mouse. He would approach the mouse and then turn away. He did that a few times so i left him in there for about a hour and nothing happened. How long can a baby bp go without eating??? The store i got him from said they didnt feed them yet either because they just got them in the day before. THe other problem i have is mites too. I found two around his eyes so i guess i should take care of that problem first before i do anything else. Im gonna try the Zex or whatever its called and completely clean out his enclosure. If anyone has a better technique to get rid of the mites and help my bp start feeding id appreciate it.

[justinO]

Originally posted by knads06
All of you are lucky, ive had my bp for two weeks now and he still refuses to eat. The store i got him from said they didnt feed them yet either because they just got them in the day before. THe other problem i have is mites too. I

wow, first thing, don't buy from a pet store!!!! ..... i feel really bad for you, and I hope you didn't pay more than $60 for it, considering it wasn't established and infested with mites!

if it's a baby baby, after a few weeks of not eating you might have to start getting worried...... if it's that small though you could assist feed if needed.

the mite treatment is called NIX, although you need to dilute it properly (2-3 L water for HALF bottle of nix) or you can harm it more than help.

[nita]

On general 2 weeks wouldn't be cause to worry Knads, but the mites are a concern and probably one of the reasons the little guy isnt' eating, I can't imagine mites are comfortable. Get rid of the mites and then see how he does. If you have a scale keep track of his weight on a weekly basis to see if he is dropping weight, a sign of internal parasites as well. When you try to feed him, put him in a paper bag or dark rubbermaid with his food item (pre killed of course) and then leave him overnight with it. This seems to work for a lot of people. Personally if mine don't eat within 1/2 hr of being left with their prey I've found they don't eat at all. But it is worth a try.