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I have a trio of Mosaics - an '09 pair and a '08 female.
These are most nervous Florida kings I've ever had. If I disturb them while eating they'll spit the rodent and wont eat again for the rest of the day. I have them set up with hides just for this reason....... and they're still very flighty snakes.

Is it only mine that are like this????

As most of you know, Brooksi and not shy feeders and will eat with a jackhammer going right next them!!

Well i only have one Mosaic currently but he doesn't have that issue.

However i do see it when i feed *some* of my Floridana/brooksi alternative prey like hamsters/gerbils (esp. the gerbils for some reason)... it starts with extra aggressive behavior (whipping their bodies and rattling their tails) once they have a grip on the meal... if i move too suddenly or can't slide the box back into it's slot as carefully as i can they drop the meal and begin to scramble like they are being attacked? Some will take a mouse after they calm down others wont feed until the next day or two.

I don't get the response with mice ever!?!?

doesn't help your situation but i thought i would share.

~Z

Mine all seem to be very secretive. They hide all the time and don't like to be disturbed or looked at when eating. They never have the feeding response of rushing out of the cage like my other floridana. Their shyness also makes the slow growers when compared to other triats. But i guess that is because i feed all my snakes F?T. I am sure they would eat and grow faster if given live mice.

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A king may move a man, a father may claim a son. But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice.

I have close to 30 mosaics of all sizes and I've found that same thing to be true with most of them though I feed the small ones live so they have no problems eating. Some of the skiddish adults will drop their food if disturbed in the least but they always end up eating the day after. When I bred a Jelly to a Mosaic last season I worried in the back of my mind that the babies would take a long time to grow up and make some new morphs, but I was very wrong. It seems that when the mosaic trait is combined with other traits those hets lose the "skiddish" actions and my hets, even the ones het for peabino and mosaic from rainer and I's breeding, the double het for lavender and mosaics I have, and the het for mosaic poss het hybino babies I hatched last year eat EVERY TIME and never act like my mosaics do. They still hiss and rattle their tails like some of my mosaics do when disturbed, but they seem to have lost their shyness and never turn down a f/t meal Just my experiences

The one I had for a couple years from the Gourmet Rodent line was an inconsistent feeder. As it neared adult size it got a lot but, but was never as enthusiastic as most of my other kings.

np