Reptile & Amphibian Forums

advice or tricks for a young of year northern pine that won't take froxen / thawed pinks......anything folks out there have tried that works?

When I feed thawed out mice I try to present the food still warm to the snake. Once the food gets cold it seems to lose its appeal to some of my snakes.

you can also try tearing the pink's throat open a bit exposing some blood & flesh. that seems to excite most stubborn feeders. offer it on it's back, throat up. good luck.......

I agree. I have a transpecos that wont take mice thawed in warm water. I have to defrost her mouse by placing near a heat source. Some say defrosting in water alters the smell.

There are many things that'll turn on a stubborn feeder. Some that have worked for me;

offer the f/t slightly warm - always.

tease feeding - tapping the snakes neck and or tail with the rodent - just dont scare the snake.

braining

feed a live rodent and then tease with a f/t as soon as the snake has the live one down. This has worked really well for me to switch snakes from live to f/t.

messy but VERY effective; dip a f/t rodent in egg yolk. This is more for snakes that dont want to start eating at all though....

Best of luck.

byron.d

Great list. I'd only add to not thaw directly in water - using a ziploc bag instead - for the reasons mentioned above.

I once checked into this (I know - 1 data point, but still!) by feeding 1 mouse thawed in water and 1 thawed in a bag (both stored frozen together prior to that) offering each to a P.d.jani when it wasn't to keen on feeding. It basically ignored the mouse thawed in water and appeared much more interested in mouse thawed in the bag. Anyone else ever done such a comparison??

I always thaw in a ziploc, bag and I never get an argument from my animals. I've had the bags cut by rodent claws while thawing and I have definitely noticed that some of the snakes dont take those rodents as quickly as the dry ones...

Not so much for pituophis but something works really well for simi arboreal colubrids and pythons, is to get the snake on a perch and tease feed with a rodent. It triggers an arboreal feeding response. I learned this one from Dwight Good and it works like a charm!

byron.d

Try feeding one live and one warm FT. It has worked for me. They will eat the live first and than eat the FT. Next time try only FT. Thaw in warm water in a sealed baggie.