Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay let me introduce my ball here. i love her and all but she is a pain to feed. she will only eat mice from certain places and wont touch frozen or a rat. she goes off feed for no reason at all just at random. the last two months i have started a new feeding schedule where i get 20 mice and feed them 4-5 every 3 days until gone, and then 2-5 a week depending on if she will eat or not. for the rest of the month, then repeat. she gets a good load of mice at the begining and a lower amount the rest of the month. she is eating better on this schedule and putting weight back on because she had lost a bit. she still poos regularily and sheds perfect. all behavior is normal. what do some of you think abut this schedule. i am very open to opinions... mainly cuz im out of ideas

How large are the mice? To me 5 mice every tree days sounds like a lot. I would guess she is just not hungry later in the month when you say she slows down on eating because she has been taking in so many mice. Have you tried live rats? If I were you I would buy a very small rat, and keep it in with the mice overnight before attempting to feed and see if that works. If she does not eat I would wait a week and try again. If after a month or 2 she still won't take a rat I would go back to mice.
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1.2 Het Pied
1.1 Het Lavender Albino
1.1 Het Albino
0.7 Normals
1.0 50% Het lav albino

been there tried that, rats were a no go. she was scared of them. the mice are airied in size some small some big. i just started tis schedule last month and she has been feeding well on it. i was doing the normal weekly feeding, but when she would go off feed, and the last time she lost a good bit of weight. when she gets back to a good girth i might try to phase back into a regular schedule, what do you think

How long did you let her go without food before giving up on rats? Maybe try feeding 1 or 2 mice, then a small rat that has been kept with the mice. Just try to get a rat that is close to the same size as the mice to start. If that does not work I would give the 4-5 mice like you have, but only every 5 days. This is just my opinion, maybe some others will give you some ideas.
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1.2 Het Pied
1.1 Het Lavender Albino
1.1 Het Albino
0.7 Normals
1.0 50% Het lav albino

i will continue this schedule until she is back at a healthy weight, then go back to the normal 5 day schedule. i will try a smaller rat, but i am afraid to give her a good sized one, because her hunting skills arent the greatest and i dont want any injuries.

If she is eating live mice, she should not have any problems killing a small rat. Just keep an eye on her when she is eating. I think people get way too paranoid about feeding live. I have never heard of one single case of a rat killing a snake while it was being constricted. I am sure it may have happened before but I kind of doubt it. All of the big breeders that I know of feed live, and you don't hear about them losing any snakes do to rat bites. Leaving a rat in with the snake unattended is a different story.
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1.2 Het Pied
1.1 Het Lavender Albino
1.1 Het Albino
0.7 Normals
1.0 50% Het lav albino

thank you for your help. she is really starting to look good so maybe one more month and i'll start trying to switch her. i know a rat breeder so i should be able to ppick a size