Feeding f/t techniques

NennaMeerkat · 01-26-11, 01:30 PM

Last week my normal supplier for live pinkies moved over an hour away and now I find myself forced to try and feed f/t. Because I am sure more than one person might have to go or gone through something similar I was thinking it would be a good idea for everyone to give techniques when it comes to feed f/t rodents to snakes.

So feel free to post all your techniques for feeding f/t rodents, cause I am anxious to hear!

derekcm87 · 01-26-11, 02:04 PM

For most of my snakes they eat f/t without any issues and in that case I grab the rodent with a pair of hemostats and just hold it in front of them and they take it. I do have a handful that are a little trickier and require a bit more action on my part. Would you like to hear the tricks to get them to eat f/t if they dont want to?

NennaMeerkat · 01-26-11, 02:08 PM

I think that would be a nice idea since at this moment my hognose is basically running from the f/t even with movement or just leaving them in the aquarium with her. Avoiding them as if they were plagued.

derekcm87 · 01-26-11, 02:22 PM

Haha! One way is to get a small deli cup container and placing him/her in it with the f/t item and leaving them in a dark room with no disturbances whatsoever. Sometimes overnight is necessary. You can try scenting the f/t food with a live mouse. You can try splitting the head of the mouse so that the blood and brains are exposed, sometimes that smell makes them more interested in it. You can combine all of those techniques as well for best results? How long has it been since your hognose has eaten? Has it ever taken f/t? Alot of times if they get hungry enough they will give in and eat f/t.

NennaMeerkat · 01-26-11, 02:28 PM

I had her in a deli cup earlier but she tipped it over trying to get out. Damn near lost her because of it to. So put her in a bigger cup and that one she scaled (thought it was to big) but thankfully this time she was in her home. So put a object on top and her back in and ended up knocking off the object and the cup. Now she is in a tupperware with holes punched into the top and all she has been doing since then is trying her hardest to get out. Gonna take her out since she is obviously in no mood for any of this nonsense.

And it has been 2 weeks since she has eaten. I know she is hungry I tried putting in a small live "fuzzy" in with her yesterday and she rolled it and such but never ate it. Then for most of the day went into a hunt mode searching for more food that was smaller since apparently that one was to big.

TBH I am a bit worried about her not eating. I know that snakes can go a while without eating but for a young snake going 2 weeks has to be more dangerous than an adult snake going for 2 weeks right?

derekcm87 · 01-26-11, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NennaMeerkat

I had her in a deli cup earlier but she tipped it over trying to get out. Damn near lost her because of it to. So put her in a bigger cup and that one she scaled (thought it was to big) but thankfully this time she was in her home. So put a object on top and her back in and ended up knocking off the object and the cup. Now she is in a tupperware with holes punched into the top and all she has been doing since then is trying her hardest to get out. Gonna take her out since she is obviously in no mood for any of this nonsense.

And it has been 2 weeks since she has eaten. I know she is hungry I tried putting in a small live "fuzzy" in with her yesterday and she rolled it and such but never ate it. Then for most of the day went into a hunt mode searching for more food that was smaller since apparently that one was to big.

TBH I am a bit worried about her not eating. I know that snakes can go a while without eating but for a young snake going 2 weeks has to be more dangerous than an adult snake going for 2 weeks right?

I usually put them in a deli cup and put the deli cup inside the cage that way if they do get out of the deli cup somehow they are atleast safely contained within their enclosure... I am assuming since you noticed her trying to get out of the deli cup for a long time, you were watching her? I have made that mistake before. I will think they have been in there long enough and have eaten but when I open the tub they will be eating but as soon as they see me they will spit it out so in that case I immediately hit myself in the head for disturbing them, shut the cage and leave them overnight and the food is always gone by morning. The littlest interruptions can make them not eat. It is frustrating. Another thing I forgot to mention to try when converting them to f/t is to feed them a freshly killed or stunned mouse. Yeah an adult snake can definately go much longer than a baby without eating... If it has had quiet a few meals in it, two weeks isnt going to kill it but you should definately start trying different ways, as you are.

NennaMeerkat · 01-26-11, 02:45 PM

No I left the deli cup in there for three hours and when I thought I hear a noise I went and checked. Once moving her back to her cage the cage is in the room I am working in right now so all I have to do is look over my shoulder without getting close. It has been nothing but her constantly wanting to get out even now since I still havent taken her out of the tupperware. Honestly I just don't think she wants ANYTHING to do with the f/t and that is fine normally, but with NO ONE in the area selling any pinkies I just don't know what to do.

I know a place that will get them next wednesday and I can order some, but that would make her 3 weeks without eating. I would think it would be to much of a stress on her system. And besides yesterday when she was "hunting" and today trying very very hard to get out of the containers she hasn't been as active as she was when she was eating regularly.

EDIT: Just took her out, put her in her home with one hide and the two pinkies in the hide. Left the head lamp on and covered the entire thing with a towel (towel is not touching the heat lamp). Gonna just leave her in there over night and see what happens. But at the same time I am still not holding my breath.

Lankyrob · 01-26-11, 02:56 PM

The biggest thing is to relax. As long as the snake is active and drinking then they will last a long time without food. Trying too many different things,or trying too often will stress the snake and make it less likely to eat. I feed fortnightly and if a snake doesnt eat it waits til the next feeding day. I have a BP currently eight weeks without feeding, the snake is less than a year old.

F/t prey should be heated as hot as you can get it, i hold the prey with feeding tongs by the scruff of its nect and place it one the floor of the viv (on a plate) and dance it around to attract the snake. If the snake takes it straight away thats cool if not i leave it in the viv on the plate overnight.

derekcm87 · 01-26-11, 03:00 PM

You say her cage is the room you are working in? Another thing that it could be is that too much activity around her cage can be stressing her out and in turn making her refuse food. Maybe thats why she killed the live fuzzy but didnt want to eat it. It also may be a good thing she didnt eat it because if it is stress and she did eat the live fuzzy, stress can make them regurge their meal and battling that is a whole other problem that is a real pain in the you know what. What kind of work are you doing in the room?

derekcm87 · 01-26-11, 03:04 PM

Yes, what rob said as well. Trying to feed too often can also stress the snake out and contribute even more to the issue.

NennaMeerkat · 01-26-11, 03:08 PM

Thanks Lanky I am just leaving the two pinkies in with her that I thawed. If she eats them I will be uber happy but not holding my breath on it. Hopefully the place that was supposed to have pinkies today will have them tomorrow, if not I will thaw two more pinkies and try again.

I just hope this entire thing doesn't give me a dead snake due to her not eating because I can't find a gd store with live pinkies. When I owned my corns in Kansas there were 4 different stores that sold live feeder mice within a 10 mile radius, in Georgia it was the same thing. Now I get to Texas where you can own durn near anything and it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a place that sells the food for the snakes they sell.

Quote:

You say her cage is the room you are working in? Another thing that it could be is that too much activity around her cage can be stressing her out and in turn making her refuse food. Maybe thats why she killed the live fuzzy but didnt want to eat it. It also may be a good thing she didnt eat it because if it is stress and she did eat the live fuzzy, stress can make them regurge their meal and battling that is a whole other problem that is a real pain in the you know what. What kind of work are you doing in the room?

I would be concerned about that IF she had trouble eating the live pinkies she would normally get if my store was still here. She didn't actually kill the fuzzy yesterday since she doesn't constrict (hognose don't constrict just grab and slowly swallow) but did play with it a good amount. This is the same problem I have had with every snake I have owned or rehabbed they just won't take the f/t. Have tried this with her when I first got her (after waiting about 9 days for her to settle) and she didn't eat then either but as soon as I put live in there she went for them immediately and ate no problem...even with me standing there watching her. If it is frozen she runs from them like they are the plague.

**Aaron_S** · 01-26-11, 04:26 PM

You're stressing the snake out with all these attempts. If it doesn't eat the pinks by morning throw them out and leave her for another week. She'll be fine with the previous meal after 3 weeks. It isn't a big deal.

Lastly, you need to find a frog. A native one. If a pet store sells bull frogs or whatever see if they have any dead in the freezer. You don't need the animal alive. This is a hognose snake we're talking about so scenting it with live mice won't work. It needs to be scented with what it'll take in the wild. They love frogs. All you need to do is thaw the frog out and rug the head of the pink on it. Then try offering again.

You can re-freeze the frog multiple times since you're only using it for scenting. A few scented meals and you can then attempt without.

NennaMeerkat · 01-26-11, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

You're stressing the snake out with all these attempts. If it doesn't eat the pinks by morning throw them out and leave her for another week. She'll be fine with the previous meal after 3 weeks. It isn't a big deal.

Lastly, you need to find a frog. A native one. If a pet store sells bull frogs or whatever see if they have any dead in the freezer. You don't need the animal alive. This is a hognose snake we're talking about so scenting it with live mice won't work. It needs to be scented with what it'll take in the wild. They love frogs. All you need to do is thaw the frog out and rug the head of the pink on it. Then try offering again.

You can re-freeze the frog multiple times since you're only using it for scenting. A few scented meals and you can then attempt without.

Funny I was actually dreading you posting here for some reason Aaron. But I do appreciate it all the same.

Anyways, I have already taken the pinkies out (they had been in there since 10am and it is 4pm now) and left her alone. Tomorrow I am gonna call what will hopefully be my new store to get live pinkies and if not my #2 store will be the next place to go and that will be next Wednesday.

As for the frog thing, no there are now no stores in the area that sell local or even exotic frogs. The same store I used to get my live pinkies also sold frogs that they were going to give him one if she had trouble with live.

As I said before tried f/t when I first got her with no results (after 9 days of leaving her be) and the breeder I had gotten her from said she fed live so I went with live. And of course she ate.

Just gotta find a store that will regularly sell feeder mice live that have pinkies as well. You would think it would not be that hard without having to drive an hour or so to the next town over...so to speak.

derekcm87 · 01-26-11, 04:33 PM

If it eats live mice, scenting it with a live mouse could very well work. But the frog thing sounds like a good idea and sounds promising.

Reptile_Reptile · 01-26-11, 04:40 PM

feeding f/t is kinda a hard proccess to get a snake into

try scenting the frozen pinkie with soiled mouse substrate to make it smell really strong. and you can cut a hole in the pinkies head (braining)
i personally didnt have to do this my snakes just dont care what they eat
hope i helped