Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I feed him small rats from my local pet store(fresh killer or frozen) all from that same store. I came back to college and bought frozen rats from a feeder Like rodent pro. He does not want them at all, he almost retreats from them. He doesnt act like a potential pray is even in the cage. He didnt eat for a month and i offered multiple times different times a day, everything...nothin somebody was visiting me from home and I got him to pick my up several rats from that pet store. As soon as he got here, I killed one, and the snake didnt even let it touch the cage before he got it. I then tried to get a frozen one out thawed it out and tried to get the seant from the other rats on the f/t, but it failed he refused. I put another one from the store in there, it ate it immediately! Does anybody have any ideas, or am I going to have to keep buying 4 dollar small rats.? Thanks

The rats from this pet store, you kill them and feed them to this snake, which will eat them from this one petstore. However , you sometimes pre-kill and freeze them or you buy them frozen from this one petstore?

I would think its a frozen issues, or maybe the bedding that the pets srore is using is something he is familar with?

>>>I would think its a frozen issues
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

I gotta stop trying to post quotes from other posts

If it's taking fresk killed and not Frozen/Thawed maybe you're not warming the F/T quite enough. Just a thought.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

After you thaw out the rat are you warming it up to about 98* ? If not try using a blow dryer, heat lamp, etc. to bring the temperature up a bit - also some of mine won't take a wet rat - so if after thawing it out it's wet dry it first (it should dry out nicely while you are heating it up).

You could try getting some used bedding for the pet store and roll the thawed rat around in that - or try picking up a rat from another pet store prekill it and see if he'll take it - narrow down whether its something specific about the store or if it's the presentation. Perhaps you just got a bad batch of rats he doesn't like.

Good luck.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

Insert Silly Quote Here

I heat my f/t rats up after i thaw them out, my others balls eat them so I dont think it is a bad group. He has ate, fresh killed, and frozen from that store? but not the others Maybe I'll try getting some of the used bedding when i go back and roll the f/t in that try to get the smell? the rats are just 4 dollars a piece, but over the year that adds up, when i can get frozen for much less... know what I mean

When I first read the post, both of our first thoughts was that it could be a bedding problem; my immediate reaction to that thought was that it was ridiculous. But after reading the responses, I guess it wasn't a ridiculous assumption at all.

Maybe its the security of the smell of the bedding that they use? He could associate the bedding scent with food, and not necessarily the dead rodent smell??? Try picking up a bag??
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)