What a brat!

[marisa]

Really, I could just throttle Eight my female BP.

7 months of "starve her out" didn't work to get her on rats. Didn't loose and ounce but no go for rats.

I break the fast by giving her two feedings of mice. Well this was ridiculous, at close to 1000 grams or just slightly over, she needs 8 mice to leave a lump. This was clearly not going to continue. I told my boyfriend to throw her two live rats four days ago. She nailed and ate them both. FINALLY! RATS!

So I was happy but knowing her I knew switching to FT would be horrid, but hey she is eating rats. Tonight I am feeding my other snakes and one of my males refuses. On a whim I decide to toss Eight the FT rat. I really figured after all this nothing would happen. What does she do?....

Before the rat even hit the ground she had struck and then ate it!!! After almost a YEAR of troubles she now decides to co-operate?

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr What in nature made Balls evolve to be such brats?

Marisa

[mykee]

(doing the happy dance) Congrats to you. I think balls love to see you stress, that's my take.

[CDN-Cresties]

Congrats on the switch!!!! :)

[emroul]

That's GREAT to hear! Feeding live totally erks my blood, glad you got her switched over fast. :) And yes, I agree, what a BRAT!! LOL..

[Pixie]

Happy that it's finally happening!

My female ball, Janice, gave me headaches for a year trying to switch her to rats. She would take one occasionally but then turn up her nose at them. I was sooooo frustrated with her and just when I was ready to give up, she decides to start taking rats!

I think they know what we're doing and are trying to stress us out as much as possible over it!

Pixie

[marisa]

The live feeding was crappy. Most of my snakes are treated great, but they are not lovey dovey pets. But this girl was my first python and I spend a lot of time handling her, etc. So she is special...this made the live feeding worse...I almost couldn't bear to watch.

Luckily both rats were grabbed "just right" and killed pretty quickly with little fuss. I just hope she takes more FT in a few days! :)

Yes she thrives on my stress I think. I am positive that she smirked at me last December after a failed switch attempt.

Marisa

[likeal0stchild]

Thjank god I got all my animals on rats from the very get go.....I have never had to feed mice on a regular basis.Even on my little BP, I started him on rat pinkies from day one :)

[Pixie]

I found that with my BP (Janice), it was really switching to rats that was the hardest, not going from live to P/K or F/T.

I found that the scent and the heat mattered more to my snake than if it was actually live which surprised me quite a bit. I had switched her from live mice to f/t ones without a hitch, but switching from a dead mouse to even a live hopper rat was impossible.

She only took one live rat when I hadn't offered her anything else in over 5 months and even then she only took one when she usually took 4 to 6 mice. It seemed that she really didn't like the way they smelled.

It took me a LOT of mouse scenting on a P/K or F/T rat but that's the only thing that worked for me, and her prey had to be nice and warm, too cold and she wouldn't even look at it.

Over time, I was able to decrease the mouse scenting and now she doesn't need it at all. I don't even have to wiggle her food anymore either!

She really turned around!

Pixie

[Plecosstomus]

cool! :)

[BoidKeeper]

Way to goooo!
But I have to say this is why I keep saying again and again that people should never ever feed a ball a mouse not ever!
Straight out of the egg my hatchlings are going to be given rat pinkies. I've got some balls here that have never had a gram of mouse meat touch their lips.
In my experience any snake that grows large enough to eat a rat is born big enough to eat a pinkie rat.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Tim_Cranwill]

Good stuff, Marisa! :)

[elevation24]

That's awesome!! Congrats on the switch :)

I agree with BoidKeeper and
likeal0stchild, too. I only have 2 mouse feeders out of 26 balls. Every ball that comes into my house is offered a live fuzzy rat first, and since I almost always buy hatchlings, they have no problem taking it right off the bat. The 2 mouse feeders are 2 of my first balls (both from the Sutherlands) and I have definitely learned my lesson from that!!

[Jeff_Favelle]

LOL!!

[Clownfishie]

Hahahahah -- what a little brat! Can't believe she finally decided to cooperate! I really really hope mine make the same decision as yours soon :p My male has decided that he doesn't feel like eating at the moment, perhaps to make up for the fact that he behaved all winter and ate like clockwork... and I'm still fighting with my female on the rat issue... She's taken a few live, but other times she won't have anything to do with them... grrrrr. LOL. Ah well, what's life without a little frustration :p

I'm glad Eight is finally behaving for you! :) Hopefully she continues to do so... lol...

Congrats Marisa :)


Jen

[nita]

I know the pain of this... LOL, My three best eaters are my three adoptees!! LOL, all had previously been fed live and were underfed for their age. They eat voraciously for me on FT rats no problem, guess years of being under fed will do that :( My little ones though I think will make the switch not too badly they are at least on PK and while Isis struck at a FT rat today that was scented with Mouse maker she wouldnt' eat it, I figured it was too long but thought I would try her at least she was interested just have to get weaned rats for her and I think they will do ok.

[marisa]

Boidkeeper- That's my plan exactly. None of my baby balls should I be lucky enough to get some, will be started on mice. I will have a nice stock of RATS waiting for them! :)

This girl was started on mice and I bought her when she was around 2-3 months old.

Marisa

[likeal0stchild]

good job and yes.....they strive on stress