Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was feelin so bad, asked my family doctor what I had.....gimme gimme some good.......Oh, forgot where I was. The recent post on this forum about switching baby Rainbow Boas to frozen and thawed has me trying harder to get babies here to eat frozen and thawed. Baby Rainbow Boas will only very rarely take frozen and thawed mice for their first or even second or third meal. They all eventually switch but many of them take awhile. Some take a long while. Yesterday I got some live mice and killed most of them. Lots of my babies that have been refusing thawed frozen took them right away. A few needed a little teasing with a live mouse and then grabbed the fresh killed one as soon as they saw it. I think our problem is that most of the frozen mice we buy do not smell right. I get frozen hopper mice and big mice from the same supplier. The big adult mice always look good and smell right after thawing. My mid-size snakes love them. The little snakes and the little mice....not so much. I have had the same situation from a couple rodent suppliers. I think the little mice start spoiling just as soon as the suppliers kill them and if they do not get them frozen quickly they do not last well while frozen. Who has the best frozen little mice? I would ask this on the feeder forum but I suspect Rainbow Boas are more discerning than other species.

Last year I bought a BUNCH from Rodent Pro. Some were not as nice as others but if warmed up properly, got many of my baby BRB's to take them. I used the F/T to supplement my own production so tried F/T first and those that refused would get a fresh one.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I have a very small sample size, but I buy from Rodent Pro and I have had good results. I have had that one hondo who took a loooooooong time to convert to f/t, and this one baby prb. Otherwise, everybody else has been pretty good about eating them.
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1.2 Peruvian rainbow boas (Amaru, Asiru, Kulipsa)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
1.3.1 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Chakar, Hari, Saksak)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
0.0.1 Mexican black kingsnake (Mora)
2.4.4 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Jeff,
For what it is worth, here is my nickel. I buy exclusively from and love Rodent Pro (at least 'til now-their prices have inexplicably shot up).
Some of my Insulars go off feed of a Rodent Pro prey item when a new Rodent Pro shipment comes in consisting of the same prey item.
My only guess is they changed something in their process at some point of rodent production. I have learned to mark the bags as they come in to prevent mixing them on the boas that can tell the difference (and I set aside a large number just for them). Once I run out of a particularly marked bag, it is back to, "how many ways can I present the same rodent to the same boa?" LOL

Best regards,
Jeff
PS-See you next year?!
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Jeff Murray
www.boa-subspecies.com
http://s352.photobucket.com/home/boidsonly/allalbums

I had my first litter this year of 10 babies, started them on day old rat pinks and on the 4th feeding thay all took f/t rat pinks the first try. Since i raise all of my own rodents (and lots for others) i have keeped them all on f/t for the selling point.