Live Feeder moving to Rats? Help!

Dracorex5 · 10-22-12, 02:38 PM

My 7-8 year old ball python has eaten live his entire life. I have spent eneogh time and effort in to trying to kove him to prekilled, and gave up a while ago. Yes i know the risks of live feeding and i work to minimize them as much as possible. I feel that standin over him holding a mouse for a while is better than a starved snake. Please, no live to frozen advice.... Ive done everything from killing mice myself to wrapping living mice in dead mice. He isnt interested. I need a different solution to a different problem

Koda is big eneogh for rats, certainly has been for a long while. I do a dangling method as to avoid bites, hoping hed take takes because they wiggle. He slithers in fear from them. Ive recently tried a little bit of scenting, to little avail. Has anyone moved thier live feeder to a bigger prey with success? Im up to feeding him three mice a week now, and he would certainly take more. He needs big boy food, but hes so scared anf doesnt recognize it! Any ideas?

rmfsnakes32 · 10-22-12, 02:49 PM

Take him off feed for 3 weeks I know that sounds like a long time but it works get him good and hungry then only offer rats from then on I had a bp that took 3 months of trying before she took it never lost any weight snakes can go long periods without eating keep us posted

exwizard · 10-22-12, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmfsnakes32

Take him off feed for 3 weeks I know that sounds like a long time but it works get him good and hungry then only offer rats from then on I had a bp that took 3 months of trying before she took it never lost any weight snakes can go long periods without eating keep us posted

This is exactly what I did with "Mick the Mouse Eater" and so far so good with the rats.

**Aaron_S** · 10-22-12, 02:58 PM

ball pythons have a bad habit of imprinting with a single prey item. Good luck.

If anything, offer him rats the size of mice that smell like mice. Prey size won't scare him then.

ZStone · 10-22-12, 06:09 PM

I recently read of a person in your situation and they finally got it to eat f/t by rubbing it with bedding that had rat pee on it. Good luck!

Dracorex5 · 10-23-12, 03:28 AM

Thanks guys! I actually currently have a small rat living with some mice that arent aggressive towards it to try and get the scent on. Ill try the three week trik, i hope i have the gall to do it! Im in such a hurry to get him on rats, as hes starting to lose weight from not getting eneogh from the mice. It just takes too many to fill him!

Dracorex5 · 11-06-12, 09:22 PM

So I attempted the rat today with no success. I haven't lost hope yet, it's only been three weeks after all. But he certainly isnt a happy snake! He's getting aggressive, cranky, all the works, but still wont snap at that rat. I hold the rat with two sets of tongs to keep it from biting at him in return.... could that be diswaying him from attacking? What if this doesn't work anytime soon and I just got a picky picky feeder? Should I start feeding him mice again if I notice excessive weight loss? He's been slowly losing weight over the past few months as I struggled to try and fill him with mice, and I'm worried that not eating at all will just turn him into a twig! Any advice?