Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All 5 of my hatchling Cal Kings from 2006 were taking f/t pinks. I ran out, both local pet store and petsmart were out, and my rodentpro order hadn't arrived yet - so I gave them all live for a feeding (all except one that had aleady been gifted).

Two of the remaining four did not take f/t after that. They would take live, but if I offered them f/t it was still there in the morning. I could put in a live w/ a f/t and the live would be eaten. Put in another live and the additional live would be eaten. They just reject the f/t (and I even warm them - so it wasn't that)

One of the two is now in Oregon with a keeper who breeds mice and uses live anyway, the other is with me.

Today, after about 10 weeks or so of not even trying f/t, I offered her a f/t fuzzy - and she took it

Hopefully she continues to do so in the future and never needs to take live again.

I still have to convert a little 2006 neonate cal king (caught in spring this year) and I don't think my oldest cal king will ever be converted - he moves them but will not eat them (he will eat fresh killed but has no interest in f/t).

But anyway - I'm very glad she went back to accepting a f/t.
Lesson learned - if f/t is the goal, don't run out

Adults that take f/t seem to have no problem taking live and then f/t again, but with two of my babies - that just wasn't the case.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 18 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

... Or, if you do run out of frozen and have to go buy some live pinks freeze them before you feed them out to your aniamls that are already taking thawed..

~ Mike

I think you'll find that snakes will always prefer fresh over frozen. Lucky for folks like you and me that many snakes will take thawed, and kings are very good about that usually. I've had to give away some of my real gem rosyboas because I could not get them to eat thawed for anything once they hit about a year old. Give them a live mouse and they'd take in in 0.3 seconds.

I had a rescue adult Sinaloan (very nice one too) that for years would only eat thawed pinks or thawed fuzzies if offered thawed. He would refuse food often too. One day I tried a fresh-kill adult mouse. He ate it immediately. I tried another.. and another.. he ate 6 mice one right after another. The thing was obviously hungry. He just wanted real food.
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Mark