Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The altera I posted about that had its first voluntary meal of a litter-mate digested just fine over a nice warm spot. Tonight after ll days, she ate her first mouse: a live deer mouse pinky. It only took her 8 months to decide she was hungry.

This is the second of my difficult feeders to accept a deer mouse when it would not take a domestic mouse. Unfortunately my deer mice have very small litters: 2-6.
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.1 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
3.6 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
2.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 20??

Kent, That's great to hear that it's feeding instinct has now been turned on. I would bet if you saved a deer mouse to lightly scent (only if needed), it will likely start accepting domestic pinks in the near future and you can gradually reduce scenting them. You can even drape a small piece of deer mouse over the domestic pinkie's head, or simply smear it with deer mouse tissue "juice", etc...

Good luck with it.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

I have a small deer mouse colony that I started for my picky male rubber boa, so I can use nest material for scenting, or a thawed mouse when I feed the boas.
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.1 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
3.6 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
2.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 20??