Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips on getting a couple of problem feeder hatchlings to eat?

the stuff ive heard: dip the mouse in chicken broth. give the snake a flower pot with a hole so it can ambush the prey. stick em in a bag or box together overnight. leave it alone in the dark (possibly with a towel over the tank) for awhile.

my ball was basically afraid of its live prey and i couldnt get it to eat. i got frustrated and killed the mouse so that if it didnt eat it i could freeze it and try again later instead of getting stuck with another unwanted pet mouse. i put a towel over the cage, turned out the light, and when i came back in a few hours, the ball had eaten the damn thing. althogh i hate killing the mouse myself (even though theres a lot of reasons to feed prekilled), this method has worked great everything ive tried it.

but im sure everyone else here can be a lot more helpful than me

NEVER, EVER feed you BP's LIVE MICE UNATTENDED!!!! Are you nuts!!?? Have you not seen what mice specifically can do to your snake?! DO NOT take this girls advice, unless you want a dead BP. Pre-kill, when they are hungry, they will eat. Try rats also, when your BP gets to be 2000g, you'll have to feed him 10 mice instead on one jumbo rat.

she was just saying that she fed it pre-killed...what are you talking about?

Ah, my. Hehe. I've had to try several tricks, and I know bunches of theories.

Note: ALWAYS feed F/T unless your snake refuses them, no matter what method used. If they'll only eat live, only feed mice. I have a 4' female that won't eat F/T, so I still only feed her multiple mice. Rats are *dangerous.*

1) Feed in the evening, or at night. BPs be nocturnal, remember.

2) "Brain" the mouse. AKA poking a hole in the skull so the brain scent is evident to the snake. Dunno why this works.

3) Sometimes they can be shy. Try leaving the snake in its feeding box with the DEAD mouse overnight, or sometimes up to 24 hours (after that, take the mouse away. Icky). Put them in a dark place, completely undisturbed. Like, in a closet where they can't hear the TV and footsteps won't scare them. I have a shy one, and it WON'T eat if it hears any noises.

4) Check cage temps. They know when it's too cold to eat/digest.

5) How long ago did they hatch? They hafta shed before they'll eat.

I know there are more, but those are good basic ideas.
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-Irish
My Snakes

>Note: ALWAYS feed F/T unless your snake refuses them, no matter what method used.

The question of live, pk, or ft is purely academic. All of us have our own tastes. Each type of feeder prey has its advantages and disadvantages, things to watch out for, etc. I feed live, stunned mice and rats to my snakes and have never had a problem. Of course, I carefully supervise the feeding of my animals. There are dangers, but I've found f/t is more difficult.

Just my two cents, based on my own personal tastes. You feed your snakes whatever you are comfortable feeding them, just be sure to research what you are doing regardless of the method you choose. We could go round and round about which is better, but it really just comes down to a matter of taste and values. We could do pretty much the same thing talking about substrates, which is a whole other matter all together.