Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've recently aquired a 5' albino burmese python. I've had it for about 2 weeks and not been able to get it to eat f/t yet. It's temps, humidity, and everything are fine. He isn't about to shed yet, probably will start being ready after his next meal. I emailed the person that sold it to me to ask if it was a shy eater, he said he was just recently able to get him to eat a f/t large rat. Maybe being shipped stressed him out a little. But he told me that I might want to try a live med. rat, and then after he eats that I might be able to get him on frozen. I'm really not one to feed live rats to anything ever, but I was wondering if there was a way to do this with no way of hurting the snake. Should I stun the rat, kill it on my own and then try, or what should I do to give the live rat to him but try to get a 0% chance of harm coming to the snake. I know it's only been two weeks and I have nothing to worry about, but I'm just looking for ways to see what I can do. I've really never had to stun or kill a rat either, so if those are ways, could you explain how to maybe do so for me. Or any advice to get him to eat a frozen also. My usual steps are to thaw it completely out, grab it with tongs and dangle it in front of the snake, usually the snake will strike at it before I even get to wiggle it around too much. But let me know, and thanks for any help! (By the way, I'm sorry I put a pic of one of my condas on here, I just like to post pics with my posts:S)
~Ben
0.1 Green x Yellow Anaconda
1.0 Green Anaconda
1.0 Yellow Anaconda
0.1 Albino Burmese Python
~Ben

Can't hurt anyway. So I'll just toss ideas out here.
After you've thawed the rat, you may want to try warming it up a little, not toasting it, but just getting it to live animal temperature.
There's also poking through the frozen/thawed rat's brain cavity to let some of that nice (to snakes) smell out,
And with tongs, maybe just twitching the dead critter a tiny bit instead of any real wiggling.
All else fails, it'd probably be safe to leave it in front of whatever hidebox your snake is in for a few hours. (I'm assuming he has a few cozy nooks.)
Switching from frozen to live to frozen, sounds like an unnecessary and hazardous pain in the tail. If this critter is five feet, he clearly know what food is and will eat again. Eventually...
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0.2 chickens (Falcon & Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.0 Arizona Mountain Kingsnake (coming soon)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

if you want to feed it live you could either grab it with some tongs and dangle it, or just toss it in.
What was he eating before..it sounded like maybe he just recently ate a thawed rat versus having always been eating thawed food.
One thing that might work if you cant get him to take a thawed is if he will take a live give him a thawed right after...My male burm would not take a rabbit for anything but he would eat GP's or rats so i fed him a small GP first and then tossed in a rabbit...he grabbed that thing like it was his last meal.
FK would also be a good try, with those you dont have to worry about the temp being to cold or whatever

KFC would work fine as well....j/k

By switching back and forth you are jsut creating a huge situation for yourself. if the snake was eating f/t then he will again. You have months to work with him before you really need to worry. Also you say your temps and humidity and everything are just fine, but in all honasty a lot of people have many different ideas on what is fine, so it would be a little better if you could give us some specifics. My best recommendation is to leave the snake a lone for a week or two. Cover his cage and just let him acclimatize to his new environment. then after a couple of weeks you can try the process again. Shippign is pretty stressfull on an animal and they need time to recover form the experience. Todd

what I have found to work is to take the frozen thawed rat and put it in the largest paper bag you have then place the snake in it and roll the top down until it is just over the top of the snake and leave it closed up for a little while(half hour or so). Hopefully the snake will take it then. Works for me with even my w/c ball pythons during the winter months when they normally go off feeding.

CJinNH
1.3 ball pythons
1.1 JCP's
1.0 albino green burmese
0.0.1 taiwan beauty
1.0 snow corn
0.1 guyanan boa
1.1 leopard geckos

You might even try a dark colored pillow case in leiu of the paper bag. THe darkness and the physical contact with the pillow case seems to make them feel more secure. Good luck however it happens.