Reptile & Amphibian Forums

thought i'd post this here since i'm not getting a response in the dumeril forum. alright i've had my dumeril for about a year and half now and she eats wonderful on f/t mice. she's getting bigger now so for awhile (6 months) i've been trying to feed her rats. i have tried everything i can think of; rat first then mouse, mouse first rat, thawing them together, keeping mouse and rat together, leaving it in over night...just about everything and nothing has worked. i'm to the point where i might try live rats, though i really don't want to any advice on this?

Try a live rat....no big deal. If you stand there until she constricts and kills the rat you'll have no problems. While the rat is being constricted, if it tries to bite the snake, stick the end of a snake hook in the way(or pen, pencil, probe, whatever will keep the teeth out of the snake). I have an 03' female leopard boa that will eat mice any way you serve them, but will only take rats LIVE! I still try F/T and F/K with her, as a matter of fact, I just came from feeding the snakes and she didn't take a F/T today either. If you place a live rat in the cage, then go off to work or whatever, yeah, you could have a problem. People feed live prey all the time, though for whatever reason, some will deny it. Take care

Paul

Definatly try live rats, if not for your snakes health sake, then do it for the awesome thrill of see such a violent display of their natural lives.

NM