Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi

My baby rosy boa which I bought over the summer eats live pinkies but not thawed .

Buying live pinkies is a pain . I rather just buy frozen . If I put the live pinkies in his hide area he eats but thawed he ignores .

I let him go bit over couple of weeks and could tell would eat live but refused the thawed. I than bought live but looking to get him to eat thawed .

My other baby milksnake eats thaweds no problem so its not like the pinkies are bad,etc.

Try to thaw them out in warm / hot water and present the pinkys while they're still warm. It's also helpful to offer them on forceps so that the pinky looks like its moving. If it goes for it, tug on the pinky's tail while the snake is constricting (sometimes they'll let go and lose interest if the pinky doesn't "struggle". Let it go a couple of weeks without food before you try with a thawed. Not all rosys are willing to convert; good luck and I hope the preceding works for you.

-Alice

I was going to get live pinkies this week but will try your idea .
thanks

Posted by: aliceinwl at Sat Sep 30 23:39:00 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Try to thaw them out in warm / hot water and present the pinkys while they're still warm. It's also helpful to offer them on forceps so that the pinky looks like its moving. If it goes for it, tug on the pinky's tail while the snake is constricting (sometimes they'll let go and lose interest if the pinky doesn't "struggle". Let it go a couple of weeks without food before you try with a thawed. Not all rosys are willing to convert; good luck and I hope the preceding works for you.

-Alice

He ate a tiny pinkie last night . I used the forcep method combined with deli cup method .
I put a hole that the tweezers fit in. In deli cup lid than nudged him a bit with pinkie.
I could tell he was hungry . He shyed away few times than latched into it after I nudged his nose .
I than left him alone he ate it. I hope next week he takes it but atleast its a start .
Thanks

Have you tried leaving him in, say, a deli cup with the thawed pink overnight? Sometimes given a longer time in close quarters with the food, they'll decide it doesn't look all that bad after all. At least, my adults tend to eat frozen more readily given a few hours in a box in a dark corner. Good luck,

-P
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1.0.0 Normal corn snake (Frito)
1.0.0 Creamsicle corn (Tang)
0.1.0 Ghost corn (Raynham)
1.1.2 Bay of LA rosy boas (Rivet, Cali, and Cali's unnamed babies)
0.1.0 Cape Gopher (Mole)

Posted by: rosycorn at Sun Oct 1 11:42:12 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Have you tried leaving him in, say, a deli cup with the thawed pink overnight? Sometimes given a longer time in close quarters with the food, they'll decide it doesn't look all that bad after all. At least, my adults tend to eat frozen more readily given a few hours in a box in a dark corner. Good luck,

Deli cup method I have tried for weeks but no good unless live pinkie but that was my problem. I used that method last night combined with tweezers holding the thawed pinkie after awhile of "moving" the pinkie nudging his nose he bit it than ate it.

I hope next time he just takes it but its a start . Its nice once your on the track to easy feeding .
Thanks

both of the other suggestions are good and worth a shot.One other thing that I always do when converting a baby is to alway offer the live pinks with forceps, I believe they will get used to this offering and in the future accept the frozen/thawed easier when using the forcepts. This will allow you to give the thawed pinks some action. It is a good idea to have the thawed babies warmed up a bit. I thaw mine in a ziplock bag under warm water.
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Steve Perry,
North Idaho

I wouldnt be able to do that hold a live pinkie in forceps,etc. Either way he ate last night after I nudged him a few times in the nose with a tiny thawed pinkie .

He was ticked took it out of anger but I could tell he was hungry . I hope this is start of eating thawed pinkies .

Thanks

I think all of the suggestions below are good ones.

Keep in mind that rosies are not like your kingsnakes,milksnakes, etc when it comes to feeding preferences. Many rosies never get very fond of thawed rodents. Some will eat them all of the time, some just some of the time and some rosies will be very stubborn with thawed food.

I have found thawed rat pinks work for some stubborn rosies, but no guarantee.

I used to have a diverse rosy collection. As time went on I had to use thawed rodents exclusively due to my wife hating the live rodent cages in our garage. So many of my rosies gave me trouble with thawed food that I had to give most away. Rats seemed to work alot better for me than mice, but the preferences of my rosies were clear: by and large most wanted live or fresh-killed over thawed. Didn't matter if the mice were frozen just for a few days or for a few weeks, so it wasn't a freshness issue. Go figure.

Posted by: markg at Tue Oct 3 01:04:35 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

I think all of the suggestions below are good ones.

Keep in mind that rosies are not like your kingsnakes,milksnakes, etc when it comes to feeding preferences. Many rosies never get very fond of thawed rodents. Some will eat them all of the time, some just some of the time and some rosies will be very stubborn with thawed food.

To bad my other kings/milks are unreal eaters . Infact the thawed out pinkies that my baby rosy wouldnt eat since I got him went to them.
Even after eating and full they took an extra . I will try again in about 10 days with a thawed pinkie as I can tell the rosy doesnt eat like the non Rosys eat.

thanks