Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Puzzling feeding behaviour:

I am not a novice herper, 13 Gaigeae various years. The cage temps are mid to high 70's, humidity in cellar 60 to 70 percent.

3 of my 03' animals that used to be very good feeders have gotten to the point where they will readily grab any f/t mice wiiggled in front of them, but will only eat 2, some times only one animal and if you wiggle one of the refusals they will seize it strongly from you but again you will find it uneaten in the cage. All other great feeders are kept under same conditions and any new animal is quarantined.

I have:

Tried smaller than usual feeders( hoppers instead of adult, Limited success)

Made sure there were no distractions during feeding, though they do seem to act like "YEAH FOOD....wait, what was I doing?"

No animal is obese, stools are normal, out wardly all are fine. All are kept extremely clean on cage liners or newspaper. Some have hides others use crumpled paper.

anyone else run into this? appreciate any insights, Thanks in advance. Bob.

Hard to say, I rarely offer my gaigeae more than 2-3 food items in one sitting. Sometimes when I thaw several rats out at once, the last rat to be offered will have cooled down quite a bit compared to the first. The snakes sometimes seem more hesitant to eat the cooler food items. Could it just be a temperature thing?

Nate

I don't think so Nate. I leave them to thaw before bed time and feed them to them in the morning. Just removed a few uneaten, yet the animals look real excited when I reached in to remove them. They appear fine and healthy otherwise one of their sibs eats like theres no tomorrow under the same conditions. The only other thing thats odd is that one of the 03' females thats doing this used to be calmer two months ago and is now acting more high strung, like a younger animal. I don't know if thats related in any way. No regurges ever. Thanks.