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I've got a pair of cb 04's that haven't eaten for me yet. I received them back in early September (they're from Germany) and I gave them a one month semi-brumation in Dec-Jan. Since then I've tried to tempt them with live pinky mice and live pinky dwarf hamsters. I think the temp./humidity setup is optimum but I'm going to do some really detailed checks on temps. Anyway, I've got them in a shoe box setup with moist hides on the warm side and the cool side. I'm keeping them with a daytime 78F / 68F temperature gradient and 65F at night. They're in a room that is in daylight during the day. I'm starting to worry and was contemplating force feeding with mouse tails. Any advice or relevant good/bad experiences would be greatly welcomed.
Regards
John

John,
I had the same problem with mine originally. My first pair didn't eat for the first 3 months I had them. I brumated them with my normal colubrids for 2 full months and got good results. They started on live pink mice within 3 weeks of brumation, and have been eating machines ever since. The only difference I can see with our methods is that I had a little higher temp on the warm side - about 81F. Other than that, I think you're doing everything the way I did. Not sure if that will help, but as long as you've got the cool side down in temp, I wouldn't see any problem warming the warm side up a bit more. Hope this helps!

Bryan

>>I've got a pair of cb 04's that haven't eaten for me yet. I received them back in early September (they're from Germany) and I gave them a one month semi-brumation in Dec-Jan. Since then I've tried to tempt them with live pinky mice and live pinky dwarf hamsters. I think the temp./humidity setup is optimum but I'm going to do some really detailed checks on temps. Anyway, I've got them in a shoe box setup with moist hides on the warm side and the cool side. I'm keeping them with a daytime 78F / 68F temperature gradient and 65F at night. They're in a room that is in daylight during the day. I'm starting to worry and was contemplating force feeding with mouse tails. Any advice or relevant good/bad experiences would be greatly welcomed.
>>Regards
>>John
>>
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Last night I was laying in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, "Where the hell is my ceiling?"

I'm still experimenting with the temps. Wish me luck.
John

I have seen this before and actually raise peromyscus mice myself because of it (although don't need them for mine anymore and they haven't produced offspring in awhile). Mandarins or any picky feeders love those deer mice. They are selectively bred and are more expensive due to their smaller litters and scarcity to breed. They are smaller meals since they are sometimes half the size of a regular pink when born. For a time I had more then I could handle but now my breeders haven't bred in sometime. The scent they carry is much more appealing than the lab strain white mice. I can give you names of individuals that currently breed them. I've never seen a mandarin refuse a live peromyscus pink.

One more word of caution. Once they have taken the deer mice, it may be a small victory but they may only want peromyscus from then on...so you need to have a good supply of them or scent them over to "normals"

Hope that helped
e-mail me for any info needed
mgl

Thanks for letting me know. That's really good info. Maybe that'll do the trick
Best regards
John

Can you provide more details on when and how you are feeding them? With my most timid feeders, I found actually presenting f/t food in their hide, at dusk with NO distubances afterwards was my best bet. With the wild caughts I kept, I usually covered their cages after I presented the food item and then left them alone for up to 12 hours. Sometimes just checking to see if they'd eaten was enough to shy them away. Strangely enough, I've had good luck with f/t with timid feeders that would retreat from live prey items, no matter how small the pinks were.
Good luck with them, all the way from Germany- so they must be something special!

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Lora

Maybe they are just timid. I've got to admit I have gotten to the point with cb mandarins that I didn't even consider them problem feeders anymore. I'll cover them and leave them alone for a couple of days and feed them at dusk with f/t dwarf hamster pinks for the next few days.

Yeah they are special. I'd really hate to lose them. Have you ever had to force feed mandarins? If so, any luck going that way?
John

I have had to wait up to 2 months for one to take a meal on their own though, with a particularly stubborn hatchling that was a hit or miss feeder. She would eat, usually only during the week after shed, then not again untill after her next shed. At the age of 2 years, she was only the size of a small yearling. I tried all sorts of tricks to get her to eat, but as long as she would eat on her own, even sparingly, I never force fed her.

Good luck with them John. I hope the undistubed feeding at dusk works for you!
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Lora

NT