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So I'm sort of worried here: ever since I've been offering adult mice (of different colors) purchased at the Vivarium (love that place!), my adult female cornsnake hasn't taken a one. She's acting weird in general, and possibly it's all just because she's thinking about hibernating, but since I didn't see any other posts like my question, I decided to ask away... Normally, she has been getting white adult mice from Petco (yes, I know, I know, evil place, don't start, okay!), but like I said, she now is getting multi-colored adult mice from the Vivarium. I didn't know if they just smelled different or something, or if she is being stubbornly picky or I'm just crazy? I did try puncturing the skull on two, since that worked when she was a baby and on pinkies--but she's not a fussy eater normally, and she is fully healthy and happy otherwise. She normally goes about three weeks between eating two to three adult mice (depending on the mouse size), but it's been almost two months now, and she's still fat and sassy, but I'm freaking out. Stupid human emotions!!! Please advise--I'm darn crazy about my little snakey-snake. I'm sure many of you out there understand my sappy sentiments--I'd like to catch a potential problem before it gets too out of hand! Thanks in advance!! LailaM

I have a boa that will only eat rats with black heads and white bodies.And ive also had snakes that wouldnt eat mice or rats from certain places .Try a petco mouse again and see if your snake eats it,then sneak in one of the others to try and trick it...Paul.

LOL....thats hilarious! I had a ball python that wouldn't touch black mice for some strange reason...I even bought 25 pack of f/t mice with mixed white, multicolored and black from a guy at a reptile show.....and the snake wouldn't touch the black ones! They all had to smell the same. My conclusion at the time, or what I dismissed it to was the possibility of mixed in lab mice OR if it was a small time breeder, maybe he was trying different foods with different populations of mice within his breeding colony. I never asked nor did I continue to get mice from them after I read some threads on the other site about who was a quality online source for rodents...especially when someone posted a pic of what healthy f/t mice were supposed to look like when you receive them from a company. EVER since then I get my mice from one source only and they're all lovin it! You really have to be careful where you get your mice from.
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I know it is weird, but I have a sunglow that will only eat white mice, sometime ones will small spot or two of brown, but diffently not a black mouse. What do you do if they want to be racist(LOL) let em feed it what it wants to eat.

IMHO
tom

Actually, this is an interesting problem. One that I have myself. One of my corn snakes will not eat larger mice. Anythign bigger than a fuzzy she refuses to eat. But I have fed her live adults 3 times and she didnt have a problem with them.

Ive tried 3 places (Petco, RodentPro, and a local pet shop). She is a 3 year old, about 4feet so I have not figured it out yet.

Now I have another snake who is younger and about 2 feet. He eats the smaller rodents that I have bought from all 3 places. And I would tihnk the quality and/or "smell" of the rodents from the same place would be somewhat similiar. But maybe its the snake and not the rodent. The ones this snake has rejected have all been white. (although i dont see why color would a difference).

Now I also have another one, dont know the age, is not that long maybe 3.5feet but its nice and fat, and he will eat anything. I started feeding him small rats, and recently he wont eat them unless I leave the rat in the cage. Since I just started feeding him rats recently so maybe its a behavioral change or what.

On that note I should say that except in this case I feed all my snakes outside their cages.

I dont know if this problem can be answered as far as I have seen in previous posts, and if no one has an answer maybe we can gather some data on this and arrive at an answer. That would be nice.

It might have to do with their vision and then they get set in their ways. LOL! If your snake's substrate is dark, they can see a white mouse better. Conversely, if you use newspaper, a dark mouse might be seen more easily.

If you're worried, get her a white mouse and see if she'll take it. It could be that if you get her going, she'll take the colored ones right afterward while she's still in the feeding mindset.

I have a FWC that would only eat white mice for the first 6 months she was here. She'd eat about 5 at a time, all frozen thawed in a pile, eating one after another until they were gone. I had to sneak colored small rats into her pile...the first time one, then the next time I'd substitute out 2, etc. Now she'll eat rats or mice in any color but it took a while to re-train her.