I am curious on what others have noticed with their black rats and their feeding habits and their general behaviors.
My very addled & fractured 10 black rat eggs hatched out Sept. 2 & 3. One of them ate a pinky less than 24 hours after hatching while the others waited until they shed. All snakes have been offered pinky mice 5 times now (6 for the one that ate early).
Feeding dates have been:
9/11 - F/T pinky mouse
9/21 - F/T pinky mouse
9/25 - F/T pinky mouse
10/7 - F/T pinky mouse
10/8 - Live pinky mouse
(4) snakes have eaten everything ever put in front of them.
(2) snakes have eaten 4 of the 5 times (refused item was the live pinky on 10/8, but since they both ate the F/T the day before it's understandable that they may not have been hungry so soon).
(1) snake has eaten 4 of the 5 times (refused item was a F/T pinky from the 9/11 date).
(1) snake has eaten 3 of the 5 times (the 2 refused feedings were F/T on 9/21 & 9/25).
(1) snake has eaten 1 of the 5 times (the one meal it did eat was the F/T on 9/11). This is the one I am becoming worried about with each new refused meal.
The last snake has eaten 4 of the 6 times (refused items were the F/T on 10/7 & Live on 10/8). Since this snake was the one with the headstart over the others, it's possible his/her refusal is due to upcoming shed.
I am overall pretty happy with the feeding behaviors of the snakes (certainly compared to the dismal results I tend to have with baby corn snakes). Half of the babies tend to go for the food fairly quick, but they aren't attacking the food in a feeding frenzy manner either. The other half seem to have some attention deficit problems ... they'd start out interested in examining their dinner but then soon get distracted with watching what is going on outside of the deli cups instead of focusing on their meal. I usually have to cover their containers for a while to help them get their priorities straight. There is the one snake that really has me worried. I figured today I'd try live food to see if that stimulated a response - it didn't. He just nosed the pinky around then ignored it. With some of the previous F/T meals I've tried harassing him with the pink and tapping him on the nose with it, but he'd just look at me like..."duh what are you doing?" no mouth gaping or snapping or defensive recoil type reaction at all. He's starting to loose some weight.
As for general behaviours:
I figure that the fact that the eggs were pretty well addled before I got them it would have some kind of effect on the behaviors of the babies. The strange thing is - my expectations of more high strung/problem animals isn't what I am seeing. In fact they don't act like normal black rat snake babies I've ever dealt with.
I am used to snakes that are fiesty or occasionally fiesty - tail rattles, defensive postures and the odd snapping/biting (even from the more well behaved individuals when you go to pick them up or move to fast for their liking). When I do see a 'calm' baby, that usually changes pretty quick after a meal or two in its belly...then the attitude starts showing. They are instead turning out to be 100% laid-back in a valium-like haze/happy fog calm! Baby corn snakes would be considered total spazzes compared to this group of BRs.
I am used to baby snakes who spend most of their time hiding (especially after a meal). Instead, they pretty much don't hide at all, but rather spend the majority of their time out and about the cage. These snakes just hang out and seem to enjoy watching things going on around them. At almost any time of the day or night I can guarantee 1 or 2 are peeking out of the cage watching what I am doing - just staring at me. Even after feeding them you often see some of them out cruising or simply watching. I swear they even enjoy car rides as I've taken them to work a couple of times and every time - they all emerge from whatever hide to hang out on top of the hides to look out of the cage....one in particular usually has his nose plastered along one of the air slats of the enclosure that reminds me of a dog with his head out the window.
About the only thing somewhat normal is that, besides the aspen, they like digging tunnels in the container I have full of damp vermiculite that sits inside the enclosure lol.
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PHWyvern
