Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a 4 1/2ft tiger retic and she is not eating? She is scared of her food. She eats like only once a month. And thats it. Also when she sheds, its real flakey and if I dont peel it off her it wont come off. Now I give her 2 baths a week and she always has water. What are some pointers to get her to eat 1-2 times a week. I havent tryed live yet.

What is her cage like? a smaller cage and higher humidity sounds like a remedy and try to feed at night.

Also, if you haven't tried, and you're feeding pre-killed use some tongs and dangle the food in front of her face. Sometimes they need movement.

My new girl didn't seem to want to eat last night. I dropped in a couple small rats, and she came out of her hide and just sat in front of them and stared for about a half hour. Then I grabbed the tongs and picked one up by the tail and jiggled it, and it was literally gone in the blink of an eye. I actually had to make sure I didn't drop it because she snatched it so fast I didn't even see her move.

Just like one of the other posts said, a smaller cage and increase humidity will help with the very poor sheds. Poor sheds are symptoms of either poor husbandry or a health problem. Now to the feeding, once you get the cage setup properly the snake will probably start eating fine. However if it doesn't, try to feed live. A 4 1/2 ft retic should have no problem taking small rats and the risk is very minimal as long as the prey item is not to large. Yes I know feeding pk or frozen is prefered but there are times that live is just the better choice, a snake that is eating with a small risk is better than one that isn't eating at all. And btw that is a very nice looking tiger.
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Josh Hutto
JKReptiles

2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Another thing you might try with tong feeding is to jiggle the rat as soon as you put it in, but on the other side of the cage as your snake. Make sure that she can see it, and more often than not she'll come after it. If you just lay it in the cage and she's not interested right away, she may never become interested. If you spark her interest by making her come after it, it can work very well... it does for me at least. It's a lot like fishing; try to entice her. On a side note, that is one of the strangest and coolest looking tigers I have ever seen. Where did you get her?

If everything you have been told to do doesn't work. Try a B-12 shot from a vet. I had a burm that had the same problem. Tongs didn't work live didn't work nothing worked. So i went to the vet and got her the shot. About a week after that she was a feeding machine.

is basically anything that works, but the best way I've found so far is to first set the mouse somewhere where the snake can pick up the scent. I just leave it there for anywhere between 2-15 minutes or so, then I use a heat lamp to heat up the mouse well (Since pythons have heat detecting pits, heat is a great way to get a hit). Then I set the mouse in front of whichever hidespot my snake is in at the time, with the mouse's head basically right in the entrance.

He usually attacks it within a minute. He's picky with eating other ways. He doesn't like me dangling food in front of him, because he's afraid of eating in front of people, and if just setting the mouse somewhere in the tank has only worked twice, and when I did that he would usually wait a few hours beforehand, and only eat one. Using the method I described earlier, my young (18-20" ball python) ate 3 small mice last week, and it looks like he's planning on doing the same this week.