Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, let me start off by saying that the above title to the post is probably misleading. By no means am I freaking out over this nor am I at my wits end or anything. I just thought I'd share some interesting (odd) behavior that is being exibited by my female lavendar albino, as well as by another slightly picky female of mine, my cbb '03 Papuan taipan. I've had this lavendar retic now since early last November. We've gone through some trials and tribulations, and at one point I was almost sure that I was out $2,000 worth of snake. But time went on and she nearly miraculously healed, and is now as gorgeous as ever. However, never once have I been able to get eat to eat a rat. I've tricked her before, dangling mouse initially, then giving a rat. She would hit the rat, but as soon as she realized what it was, she quickly released it. This is not such a big deal right now as she's only around 3' and weighs all of maybe 200 grams (though she should probably be much more, she went without eating for a good month to a month and a half). The other day, while in the grocery store, I saw a large package of chicken hearts and gizzards for a very low price, I think about a pound and a half for $1.50. I got them for my juvenile blackthroat monitor. While in the room feeding this to the monitor, I got a crazy idea to try it on some of the snakes. Initially I tried it with the boomslangs, since they are more prone to eat birds in the wild anyway. After both my adults took it with vigor, I thought what the heck, and offered it to the two smaller retics. The lavendar female took it without a hitch. Even constricted the crap out of it for a good 3 or 4 minutes, then swallowed quickly. My het tiger male wasn't initially so inclined to take it, but eventually did. The female taipan I mentioned is the same way. She will never touch a rat pink, but give her some mouse fuzzies and wow, watch out. However, she gobbled down the slices of chicken heart/gizzard I offered her like they were candy. My male taipan, which will eat anything, wouldn't touch it. So I just found this weird. Both the female lavendar and female taipan are fairly picky about only wanting mice but would eat the other stuff with relish, yet the male tiger het and male taipan which usually eat anything were either very apprehentious or wouldn't touch it. Oh well. If anything this has just given me something for those low budget days when the freezer is empty. That, and I just find it odd watching a snake eat a hunk of meat.

Disclaimer: Before anyone decides to jump on me for feeding store bought chicken to my animals, keep in mind that this is highly irregular. In fact, it is the first time they've ever eaten anything by mice and rats. I am glad though to get an option for situations that may arise where I'm out of f/t, don't want to risk pet store quality rodents, and can't get the new order of f/t in very quickly. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. The pic below is of the lavendar female about to partake of a juicy mouse. Though the mouse looks alive, it is very much dead, just rather fresh.

Oh, by the way, if anyone has any tips as far as how to get pictures of lavendar retics to come out looking like lavendars rather than white phase, I'm all ears!
-Chance

River Valley Snakes

That is pretty interesting. If you don't remember me, I'm the one who asked you some Q's about her and you told me how she had all those problems, but fortunetly Mike helped you out and you saved her! It is pretty weird how some of the pickiest eaters will not eat rats, but will eat chicken parts. My burm used to eat anything and unitentionally ate a peice of Polish Kewlbasa(sasuge like meat). She was done eating a rat, and my dumbass friend threw in a piece of the sasuge, and surprisingly she grabbed it before I could stop her. I wouldn't worry too much about them eating chicken hearts since some people regularly feed their snakes whole chickens. Also, if there are any concerns about raw chickens carrying salmonela, a study has shown all reptiles carry salmonela in them and are immune to it! Kind of how monkeys are immune to the aids virus. Well I am glad the albino is doing better. A trick I did for my Sulawesi retic to eat a mouse was this, First I gave her a live mouse. While she was eating the mouse I took a F/T rat and covered it with mouse blood from F/T fuzzies. Once she ate the mouse, I threw in the scented rat and left it in her cage. I came back around 5-10 minutes later to see she ate it!

Of course I remember you, I'm not THAT old...lol. By the way, that little snake is still a cantil!! lol. Anyway, I'll try the blood scenting method sometime soon and see how it works. Like I said in my other reply, I'm pretty sure it is. And even if it doesn't work right off the bat, I've always got bigger and bigger hearts, wings, drumsticks, whole chickens...lol. You get the idea. She's putting on weight again so I'm happy.
-Chance

...you should try to scent the rats with the chicken parts they like so much, if you haven't already.
-dinopolis

Yeah, I actually haven't tried that yet as I'm not worried about either snake at the current time. They are both small enough that mice are more than enough to make up their diets. I'm sure though that if I were to try that, or to scent the rats with mouse blood (makes me just shudder at the thought), that it will probably work. The snakes are eating, that's all that really counts. It would just help the retic's growth if she'd go ahead and get onto rats. It makes me wonder how tough it will be to switch her over to rabbits when the time comes. By the way, that's a gorgeous supertiger chondropython
-Chance

I had the same thing happen with chicken parts with a reluctant cape cobra...

I had basically the same problem you're having with my albino female. To solve it very simply, have the place you purchase your rats from put mouse bedding into the bag with the rat. Kill the rat and do a shake and bake with the mouse bedding to get mouse scent all over it. My girl who refused to take a rat will now take 2 at a time if I do this. Good luck.

I have rasied a few animals who have givin me trouble when it came to switching prey items. One day while I was trying to get a 8-9ft dwarf tiger to eat a bunny, it dawned on me. I HAD SWITCHED HER TO RATS, and that was the problem. Scince then I have learned that almost any retic save the smallest dwarf babys can eat a pink rabbit. This is the perfect time to switch them IMO, as babys prehapse even for there first meal. I no longer purchase any rats for my animals, as rabbits come in sizes ranging from small mouse to huge rabbit, depending on breed and age. So it seems to me if you have the ability to get rabbits you may want to consider trying a pinky, and prehapse save yourself a repeat of the problems that you are already experiancing. Good luck, Shaun D

Shaun makes a great point. I wish I had local access to a rabbit breeder so I could get babies locally. If you have this option or have enough freezer space to order them I think this would be your best bet.