Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had this stubborn feeder since August. ok, not that stubborn, but I could only get him to eat live mice. anyway, I didn't mind it so much until I bought 200 frozen mice, and then realized that he would not eat them. Well, I tricked him! he he he. I suppose I should have figured it out along time ago though.
What I did was put the thawed mouse under a light until it felt warm. And he gobbled it up! I guess they use their heat pits alot for hunting. (no wonder why he always used to go after my arm instead of the mouse, my arm was warmer.)

Yeah, so its not like I'm some genius or anything, but I'm pretty dang proud of myself for figuring him out, and I thought I would let everybody know.

congratulations...
ck

I've always just thawed my feeders out in warm-hot water... it's much faster (10-15 minutes) and that way the mice are already warm anyway.

temps are right? What are they?
Should be -
warm side 90f-93f
cool side 80f-83f
Humidity at 50%-60% (70% if in shed)

Take f/t mouse and put into a cup/container of Hot water
(as hot as the Tap water can get, you can nuke it, but you Don't want to Boil the prey)
...leave for 10- 15 mins... dump water and add hot water again for 5 mins or so ...then offer to the snake...
I have Never had a refusal!

If your snake goes off feed again, check your husbandry... chances are there is some thing wrong In the Enclosure...

Offer the prey as soon as you take it out of the water. Take the container with all the rats/mice in it into the snake room with the second round of hot water. All of the animals will be going nuts almost immediately. Make sure you take them right out of the water and feed them. The hot, wet animal is a sure winner.

You should switch it to rats, that's a load of fun...

Al

Oh, he wasn't off feed. He was just being annoyingly picky. He only wanted live prey, or warm prey I've now figured out.