Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male and female mandarin rat. The female eats good @ two pinkies a week. I am worried about the male. He started out eating good but then stopped. Went 4 weeks without. Finally I introduced a live pinky, he ate one. Now he is 2 weeks without and will not touch a f/t or live. Any ideas?

DAVY

>>I have a male and female mandarin rat. The female eats good @ two pinkies a week. I am worried about the male. He started out eating good but then stopped. Went 4 weeks without. Finally I introduced a live pinky, he ate one. Now he is 2 weeks without and will not touch a f/t or live. Any ideas?

Two words.....
Breeding Season....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

The are only 10 months old. Does that really affect them at that age?

DAVY

>>The are only 10 months old. Does that really affect them at that age?
>>
>>DAVY

In my experience yes.....I have a pair of diones....the male shut down a little last year during breeding season and he was barely 15 inches long.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

I agree with john. In fact, now when I get a young snake that goes off feed in the spring I right away think MALE, even though it may have been sold to me as female. I currently have a 9 month old bull snake that has gone off food since late March, but is not in a blue cycle. It also is rather restless, another male characteristic. All of my adult males whether pyros or pituophis are not eating during this breeding season. So when I get a youngster acting like an adult in this regard; well, I hope that little bull does actually turn out to be a male!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.