Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 3 foot corn who is normally very docile and very friendly. However, twice in the past year, the p[etstore was out of mice and I resorted to buying equivalent sized rat pups instead. Both times that I fed the rat pups, she became insanely violent and remained in striking position for over an hour each time, striking full force at the glass anytime I walked anywhere near the tank. She struck at the rat pups a few times too, but didn't seem too interested in them and didn't eat any of them either. Has anyone ever seen or heard of anything like this before??? These 2 isolated incidents are the only time she hasn't been tame. Any info would be appreciated.

>>I have a 3 foot corn who is normally very docile and very friendly. However, twice in the past year, the p[etstore was out of mice and I resorted to buying equivalent sized rat pups instead. Both times that I fed the rat pups, she became insanely violent and remained in striking position for over an hour each time, striking full force at the glass anytime I walked anywhere near the tank. She struck at the rat pups a few times too, but didn't seem too interested in them and didn't eat any of them either. Has anyone ever seen or heard of anything like this before??? These 2 isolated incidents are the only time she hasn't been tame. Any info would be appreciated.

It isn't a matter of tame as much as it sounds like she is being aggitated and defensive. Either she is overreacting to a different smell (that of the rats) or she has had a bad ratty experience maybe. My guess is that she is just a bit torqued at something new. I have a black ratsnake that would much rather eat rats than mice. He is very unenthusiastic about mice.
Yours may be hard to switch to rats, if that is a goal. But at least she is a corn and not a ball python or something bigger that feeding mice to would get tedious.
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Sonya

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