Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys,
I have a neonate Naja nigricollis from this year. It is offspring of a friend of mine and he told me when I bought the animal that he ate perfectly.

Now the first feeding was indeed no prob. He ate a fuzzy mouse that I offerd alive. But then the strangest thing happend. I will jump ahead in time to last week. I had put an jumper mouse in the cage. As he is most active at the fall of dark I was in the room at that time. He was cruising the cage like a mad man and when he came across the mouse just stopped for a moment and went on. Well the next day the mouse was dead. I had put another mouse in the cage and left the dead one also in the cage. The living mouse began to eat the dead one and had eaten his head. The next morning the eaten mouse was gone. I have tested it last night again with a fuzzy mouse that I gave still living. He came across it but nothing. After some hours I killed the fuzzy and put it back in front of the hidebox. After 15 minutes the dead fuzzy was gone.

Is there anyone who has also animals that kinda refuse living prey and only eat dead prey?? In the 16 years that I keep snakes I never have had seen this one before LOL They keep amazing me.

Cheers niek

Thanks for the advice on the trap boxes Niek but I ended up just buying some from a place. I have had baby cobras refuse food as hatchlings often. One of the best tricks I've learned from people on this forum to get picky baby Naja to eat is to just take a prekilled pinky/fuzzy whatever size you need and cut it's head open with a knife and pull some of its brains and blood out(this is known as "braining". You then leave the mutilated prey item at the entrance to the hatchlings hiding area. It has had a very good success rate w/ my cobras and many others.
Regards,Drew.