Why are some species so picky?

[marisa]

Last night I had a leftover rat fuzzy, and as usual, my GTP served as my "garbage" disposal....this snake will eat baby rats, mice and even gerbils when I have leftovers and never has a problem switching it up, eating at any time etc. One week he will take a mouse happily, and the next he will snatch up a rat without a second thought.

In the same night I spent over a half hour basically begging one of my ball pythons to eat a rat over a mouse.

WHY are balls so picky, and most of the time difficult to switch, while snakes like my GTP, many colubrids, etc have no problems switching, etc??

Does anyone know why this is? My only guess, and this is probably wrong, is that balls in the wild have only one or two food sources while less picky species eat many things in the wild. I dunno, thats probably not it. It's just weird to me and I would like to hear thoughts.

Marisa

[Bartman]

I would really love to know the reason as well. I cannot under any circumstances figure out how to get my ball onto rats. Im trying the, starve him for 3 weeks and throw in a live rat to see what happens, technique someone told me to do here. Im at week 3 so im thinking about getting a rat pretty soon. Ill wait 4 weeks just to make sure hes hungry :D

[gonesnakee]

It will most likely take longer than 3 weeks to "starve" it LOL. It the BP is really stubborn I would be tempted to wait a few more weeks to make it really hungry & hopefully cooperative LOL IMO BPs are some of the absolute worst feeders, quite often picky on prey & its not uncommon to have "hunger strikes" for no apparrent reason only to eat like a little pig at other times. Quite often its only a matter of prey temp. remember that a mouse is much easier to heat the "core" up than a larger prey item such as a rat. Sometimes by heating up the prey to the almost cooking point is all it takes for them to just nail it. Who said they like everything raw LOL. Anyhow they top the lists for finicky, ranking right up there with baby Graybands & even with them its only a matter of time. Mark

[Artemis]

I think it must be individual to the ball, because mine has yet to refuse anything. I honestly think I could feed him every 2 days and he would accept. He didnt care about switching to rats, f/t, nothing. I guess that makes me lucky- but everyone seems to have a different species that they label their "garbage can" snake.

Given the number of people who have problems specifically with balls though, there may well be something to it, and your theory is not a bad one. Maybe they have a more evolved sense of taste?

Art

[jparker1167]

I have 4 bp's i'm not sure if anyone remembers my post but the ball python i got a few months ago, off of my cousins friend i was told was a retic, it was only being feed mice. so i tryed a rat about 3 or 4 weeks after i got it and it wouldn't eat, so a week ago i gave an adult mouse, it took the mouse so i sented a rat tonight and it took it. but but then the other 3 bp's wouldn't eat so i know how you feel. i think you therory is a pretty good one.

sorry for the long post everyone

[Stockwell]

Marisa, I think your guess is pretty close.
Some species eat only a couple, possibly as few as one type of prey in the wild. Such species will naturally be less diverse in their captive diets.

Regius feed on small gerbil type rodents in west Africa, and they are only avaiable in quantity following the monsoon season which gives rise to grasses which support the rodent population.
This is also why they go months with no food at times.. They are genetically programmed for such behaviour because their entire life cycle revolves around the monsoon season.
Years with no rains, might well mean long fasts and little reproduction. I once had a Togo import go 2 years without eating. It eventually clicked into gerbils and eventually reproduced.
Investigations of natural habitat conditions will usually reveal alot about feeding tendancies, both diet and frequency.
Baby bloods for example can be stubborn feeders, and that's because their first food is usually small birds, hence quail are often taken readily while rodents may be refused.

[marisa]

"I think it must be individual to the ball"

Well more like your balls habits are individual to it, because as a species Ball Pythons are some of the most specific eaters and are more picky than most species, on a whole. Like if you had 100 corns, 100 ball pythons and 100 boas.........far more of that 100 balls would be hard to switch than the corns etc.

"Investigations of natural habitat conditions will usually reveal alot about feeding tendancies, both diet and frequency."

I would LOVE to see some new information about their wild habits. I wonder if anyone is researching balls in the field.

Marisa

[capsicum]

My spotted actually just came off a month - long fast. She refused absolutely anything I offered her, whish was odd, she is an awesome feeder. Then, in the course of 5 days, she took 4 fuzzy/hopper mice. Won't take rat pinks anymore (although she used to love them), but is loving the mice.
And I just got my smallest ball onto rats, so we'll see if this means she will take them next week. If not, I have to buy more breeding mice ;)
Question, a lot of people have mentioned gerbils (not just here, but everywhere). Are they a good food source? I might get a breeding set-up of gerbils and see if they like them. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

TK

[Stockwell]

No don't use gerbils for CB stuff. They are used only as a last resort for wild caught balls.
They're nasty vicious little buggers and they aren't worth breeding for feed due to low litter size.

[capsicum]

Thanks :) Though I am surprised at the idea of low litter size. I used to breed gerbils for pet stores and never had anything less than 8 pups per litter. But then, I usually get about 13 pups with my rats, and 10 with the mice. Thanks again!

TK