Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i purchased him from G.M. Conner about a week ago and i let him settle in and when i offered a p/k mice he hissed at it not because of the fact that it is food but because of the fact that he wanted it away from him...what should i do?

Well, here are some things you can try. Has this snake eaten pre killed before. Second off I know my snake use to hiss at its food all the time. I would use pre killed and frozen and it would not take it, It would hiss and smack its tail down and then just bite it. So then I used live since she is still small. She still hissed at it and it would walk on her and she would hiss, and puff up, then I found out she did not like me watching so know I have to sit in the back of the room with the lights out, and she nailed it every time. I just got her to eat her first stunned rat, tommrow I try the pre killed. I have read alot of the old forums and found out that burms have a very strong feeding response so it smells the food but does not want what you are offering but wants to eat, she even snaps at the glass when I walk by to leave. I tried and tried to get her to eat the pre killed, from everything from braining it to dipping it in chicken broth none of those worked. But people in here have given me great responses and ideas. One thing I say that worked for me also was to crank up the temp, to 90 and try a rat pup, and leave it alone, it wont hurt your snake, but she should nail it. Thats unless it was not eating pre killed before. Also search under problem feeders and other things to see all the old forums, I read everyone on every snake almost. You should find all your answers there.

I had a very similar problem with my baby burm. It would take the rat pups i would introduce to him. It wasnt interested at all. Well i raised the temp a bit and kept him humid, and i began to see more activity. I also switched him over to a small hopper mouse which caught his attention instantly. He plowed that sucker down and eats pretty regularly now. I would say try a small mouse that can actually move. I know ppl always want dead prey but in my case mine only eats whats live for now.