Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a burm that was given to me and and been fed whole chickens. i would like to get her to eat rabbits since they are easier for me to get. she doesnt seem interested in other food items that i have tried. i got her to eat a jumbo rat but no luck with gunea pig. i plan on trying a live rabbit this weekend. does anyone have any good tricks to getting big snakes off chickens and onto other food items. sorry to post this here but the burm forum is a little slow at times. thanks for the tips.

thats the bad part of feeding primarily one food item, and especially chicken (snakes seem to love chicken). the best advice i can give, is patience and consistency. ive normally never had a problem getting any of my snakes to convert to different prey items or to f/t. however, i have two of my holdbacks from a couple years ago, that i am having a horrible time getting off of rats and guiea pigs onto rabbits (and potentially other items). unfortuanetly, breeding season is upon us, so i am just stuffing them with whatever and whenever they will take. if and when they breed, i will rely on them going a little while without food, and will be hungry enough to eat whatever i offer, and then they will get on that. in the past, i have converted with the hunger method. just withhold food for like a month and half or two, then offer what you want to switch them too.
-----
retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

One easy way to get them to switch is to feed them both items at one sitting. For example, let the snake coil on the chicken and place a f/k rabbit amongst the coils. Another way is to rub a whatever items the snake really likes on a f/k rabbit. You can also try the ol' dip it in chicken broth technique.
Good luck,
Josh