Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.. ok
This is mainly a question for HighEndHerps.. In a post at an earlier date you sad this..

>>"If all of this should fail try squeezing rat urine (from a dead rat) onto the forehead of the rabbit. Sometimes snakes just want rats and this will fool them."

My burm will take a pre-killed rat any and everytime offered. When I tried to give him his first rabbit, he took it no problem(pre-killed) but that was RIGHT after I fed him a rat to get his food response up. Second rabbit he wouldn't touch for anything! I tried giving him another rat first and he ate that right away but still wouldn't touch the bunny. Now I have a thrid rabbit (all about the same size as 1st) I decided to try it live and he seemed interested but just watched it, so after 10 mins I removed the rabbit. I will probably try to feed a P/K rat later tonight(after the woman goes to bed as she dont like me do that stuff in front of her hehe) and try rabbit right after again. I wonder if you know any more little "tricks" to get a burm on rabbits. He is about 8 foot. I tried the kneck-bumping, and body bumping and that just pisses him off and makes him hiss, and eventually ball up or "run" away.

Thanks for reading and info.

Try leaving the rabbit in the cage for a couple hours undisturbed. Sometimes turning out the light helps too.

>>"Try leaving the rabbit in the cage for a couple hours undisturbed. Sometimes turning out the light helps too"

Forgive me if I am wrong here, but isn't this just a bad idea? (unless you mean pre-killed?) I know with rats they will nibble on the snake, and if the snake isn't hungry that would be bad for him. I have a pet rabbit and I know they Can bite pretty hard, and scratch to hell. So unless you meant p/k I see leaving rabbit in there for an hour as no good? Thanks for the reply!

Sorry, I did mean prekilled should have specified.

Thanks.. I thought you might have.
I tried that with the 2nd rabbit, and it didn't work. He did swallow part of the rabbit as I had the rabbit tied to the rat by its tail.. but once he figured out he was done with the rat he spit it out and didnt touch it again. Thanks for all the info though.

You could try to either scent the bunny by rubbing a rat over it or, if you breed your rats, drag it around in some soiled rat bedding. Often times, it helps to let the snake get good and hungry when switching over. This means that you may end up needing to skip a feeding or two. If the snake doesn't take the scented bunny when offered, don't give him a rat afterwards, just let him go and offer him the bunny again at his next feeding. I know that most keepers hate to have their animal miss a scheduled meal but a missed meal or two won't do a healthy animal any harm.

You didn't say if you tried the urine on the forehead thing or not. Did you try it and it didn't work? You post seems to imply this. Always use a prekilled rabbit, not a live one. And if the urine by itself does not work try rubbing the rat's mouth on the dead bunny's nose to put rat saliva scent there.

If this should fail, many burmese love chicken and rubbing the rabbit's head with raw chicken or chicken juice could stimulate a strong feeding response.

If these things don't work I'd suggest just being patient and he'll come around and accept rabbits in his own time.
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

>>"You didn't say if you tried the urine on the forehead thing or not. Did you try it and it didn't work? "

Sorry.. I guess I should have mentioned. I did try this but I did not try the saliva or chicken scenting. I do breed rats but not many, right now I only have 1 breeding pair and female is pregnant. So it would be fairly easy to rub the rats on the rabbit or rub the rabbit on some of the bedding(which I did on 1st and second rabbits as well). I think I will wait another week though. It's aready been 2 weeks since last feed day(and all he ate was 1 medium rat). Thanks again!