Hey Knads,
First, I'd like to say welcome to P. regius! Second, despite all the negativity, I'd say you are doin a decent job about worrying bout the animal and looking out for its best interests. Most people I've encountered buy an animal and neglect it from proper temps/ humidity ect. Even though the temps may fluctuate, providing the EXACT temps of their native land, is hard to do. However thermostats work wonders for that problem.
Now on to your feeding delima...
Corey brings up a good point for starters.
Second, despite what was claimed in "to tried eveything" well I own a pair at home and one in particular is the fussiest feeder I've ever seen! At a juvi stage he went 4 mos without food, lol. How I got him to eat most would frown on but it worked. A prekilled mouse and snake in 10 gal tank. 1 hide and a blanket over the enitire cage, little air flow, thats where most would frown on. He broke his fast and ate.
Other meathods that are proven to work are placing the snake in a brown paper bag and the animal with it in a room where there is no "foot traffic". Another, is the fine art of scenting where I'm surprised noone has suggested. Try a prekilled/froz rodent. I say rodent as I cannot see the pics and was denied of how thick(girth) and long the animal is. Place the rodent in WARM chicken broth. This generally works with froz food but I suppose can be done with prekilled. Make sure the rodent is completly thawed and theres no "cold" spots on the animal. It helps to cover the bowl with a lid to hold in heat. Sometimes an added boost in heat stimulates a stronger response. By this ladder, I mean, after thawing/soakin the rodent placing it under your heat source, assuming if your usin a dome lamp, for bout 10 or so seconds, USING your best judgment, take it out under from the lamp and feel it with your hands. If the head is "hot", since they should feed head first, use a pair of hemostats and wave it in front of the BP's nose, stimulating a live rodent. I'd sugest feedin at dusk/late at night(7-10 pending on daylight savings time)
Another method of scenting thats worked for me is litterally taking, heh, or rather killing/prekilling a rodent and scenting it to another rodent. Exp Prekill mouse, prekill rat. Scent rat by rubbing mouse onto rat. Mouse urine usually is a good way to go. Or as gross as it may seem, taking rat and rubbin its nose in the anal of the mouse. Mix and try various sizes and species. When in doubt a small weanling hamster sometimes gets a response if you absolutly need to get it to eat before force-feeding. Just be careful since BP's are "prey-imprinters" if it excepts the hampster it may only want them for now on. BTW, prey imprinting means, a animal only wants what it was feeding for exp in the wild or what it was orginally eating before it came to you.
There are also "appetite stymulators" to stimulate their appatite to coax them to eat. I'm personally not a fan of this since its no better than force feeding. But if your truely worried, its worth a shot.
On a side not just to give you an idea how fussy these animals truely are besides adults fasting 4-8 mos or more, my female, ONLY eats at night and will only eat white rats. And I just barely gotton her used to taking them. That was 3 months of patients on my part.
And remember force feeding is only done as a last resort. As long as the animal is drinking and is hydrated it should be fine. A trick you can do to check if there hydrated is gently pinch their skin, if it "goes in" right away the animal is hydrated. If you see flaps, or saggin skin, it might be a little dehydrated. A dehydrated animal will not eat contray to what some will think.
As long as the animal has decent girth and is drinking, the feedin part will follow with time. Just be patient and try not to induce alot of stress by handling ect.
Good Luck Bro!
Linear Mode
