Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

I have a problem. I never fed F/T before and my two new adult females feed on them. Tonight and last time I tried, the one female stuck but I got startled and pulled the rat away and the snake got scared and wouldn't strike again. Attempts are at least 7 to 10 days apart so they don't get used to feeding attempts. Got these animals as having "just laid eggs a week and a half ago" from some guy and he said the fed once since then. I have had them since April 5 of this year. First strike was 8 days ago. Second female has no interest what so ever in feeding. But one at a time, i hope Any help on how I can release the rat at strike (or when do I release the rat is also a good question)? I use tongs but still can't stop the knee jerk reaction I am having. Thanks for reponses.
Cheers,
Pieguy

If the females just laid eggs they should have been pretty thin. How you interpret this depends on how much experience you have with BP's. If they're wild-caught gravid, many of these females require long periods of peace-and-quiet (you KNOW what I mean) before feeding. In the early 90's I bought a wild-import gravid female, and she never did eat on her own after laying, but I had her for only a few months post laying. The person I gave her to had tried for nearly 18 months w/o success. Captive-raised females usually will start feeding on their own within a few months. Often it's best to offer live or fresh-killed to a recently oviposited female to get some nutrition into her, and then monkey around with f/t. One trick is to heat up the f/t food item with hot water first so the females can zero-in on it.
Either put the food item directly in the water, or put it in a baggy first so it won't get all soggy! I use a 16" hemostat to
offer food so my (warm) hand won't distract the snake. The "knee-jerk" reaction will go away with more experience. Often when a BP misses on the first strike, they sort of have to "recharge"
their batteries before a second strike, and this can take anywhere from a few seconds to several days, depending on the confidence of the individual snake! As far as when to let go, I
kind of hold on lightly until the snake takes it from me. Also feeding in subdued light is another plus for less-confident specimens. You'll get the hang of it. Scott J. Michaels DVM

You may want to wash the females with a mild soapy solution and luke-warm water. If the females are still smelling their eggs, they will not feed. Also, go ahead and change the bedding. If the had egg smell on them, that smell may have been transferred to the substrate. Good luck!

Thanks guys. I'll start from the end and work back. They were both cleaned and oiled before I recieved them (thier skin looked good but a little loose). Thier cage is identical to the one Mark Mandic from www.ballpython.ca built using the same 6"highX33.5"longX16.25"wide rubbermaid containers with 12 (3/8" diameter) holes drilled into it for ventilation. Temp is 90.2 deg F (does not fluctuate since I use a proportional thermostat) on a newspaper substraight changed once every week or two (neither has deficated yet so the newspaper is as clean in two weeks as it is when I put fresh stuff in). I do not handle the snakes unless absolutley nessassary (changing the newspaper which is why I let it go if it is not dirty, tring hard not to bother them). Feeding attempts are always made at midnight with only a television on so I can see (screen is hidden by my body so as not to have light then a shadow thown, these females even jump at shadows passing across thier eyes).

The seller jumps up and down saying these are CB animals which is petculiar since everyone across North America says thier season is late this year and are just dropping now and these girls are claimed to have dropped in mid-March.

I have taken the proactiveness of purchasing a sexual pair of gerbils which I am raising to just have them. I didn't know if they would ever take F/T so as insureance I started a colony. I am going to start a rat colony right now as well since I have had one strike twice (I REALLY hope it wasn't defencive strikes). I do use BBQ tongs to feed and the rats are put in a ziplock bag and placed in hot water (the water is boiled on a stove, once it starts to boil the power is discontinued and once the rapid boiling stops the bag is place in the water for 3 to 4 minutes then removed and immediately shown to the snakes.

I have been thinking about one of those pen type grippers automechanics use to reach into tight spaces to grab a nut or bolt that fell. When you push the button at the back three "fingers" are projected from the front. It is spring loaded so when you let go of the button on the back, a spring forces the three "fingers" back into the body of the tool thereby "grabing" the nut or in this case the rat. I just need to find one that can hold a 200 gram rat reliably without falling off and hitting the snake (that will get them to not feed for sure) and scare them.

These are the most timid, scared snakes I have ever seen. I am tring to give as much info as possible. Thank you all for your help. Any enlightenment is GREATLY appricated.

Dave
PS pls forgive the spelling mistakes. My grade school wanted to hold me back a grade for it, thank god as engineer I don't need to spell very well

Sorry, forgot to add... the ambient temp in my house is 70deg F. Could this be causing a problem? the ambient in the cage on the hot end as I stated is 90.2deg F but the ambient on the cool side of the cage is about 77 to 79deg F.

Thanks again,
Dave

The "jerk" reaction will go away with time and experiance. I used to do that but once you get used to it it's no big deal. As for when to release the rat....when they strike it is a good time. LOL I use loooong hemostats to feed my snakes...sometimes they wrap around the hemostats when they go to constrict...but you just unclamp it a little and it slides right out.

You may also want to try droping the rat in...sometimes they will strike the rat when it hits the bottom of the cage. It's all about what you're comfortable with though, so do what is easiest for you. Hope this helped.
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Tegan

...Exactly as I was saying. Long hemostats are the bomb! The 3-prong gripper deal is better than nothing, but the prongs tend to bite through the skin and the rat gets hung-up on it. Better to order some mail-order. Try LLLReptile, they seem to have good prices.
Dave, the females certianly sound like they're behaving like recently imported females that laid prior to their importation, with them being that jumpy. U.S. breeders get eggs almost every month of the year (95% are between Feb-Sept) but in Africa the females' laying is more clumped around Feb-March so it could easily jive with your source's story, but not the CB part.
Your temps are perfect, a temp gradiet between about 80 to low 90's is good. You're going through a lot of trouble raising gerbils for these females, but more power to you. Fresh-killed laid in front of their hide-boxes (hide boxes, a MUST!) at night
is your best bet, but asking you to fresh kill yourself is a big order. Basically you take the food item by the tail and whack it firmly against something hard, like the edge of a table. Sooner-come-later if your collection grows you GOTS to learn this! So anyways, these females are difficult to acclimate to captivity and I strongly urge you to obtain a nice feeding baby BP to balance-out the frustration you'll experience with the adults.
Scott J. Michaels DVM