I would ask the breeder how old his adults are and how many years they have been rodent feeders. My experience with all my easterns and their clutches has been that the parents died at 2.5 to 3 years old on mice only diet. After doing a necropsy it was found that the intestinal walls were lined with undigested hair that basically starved them to death even though they continued to eat till the day they died. Most of the babies switched to scented mice with out to much trouble, 2 or 3 out of each clutch took unscented right away but after two to three feedings more than half started to get very weak and I lost most of them. The ones that I kept on f/t spade foot toads twice a week and a scented rat pink once a month are doing very well. And yes the vet checked everyone out, no parasites. Just me thinking out loud but is it possible that easterns from different areas of the country are better suited for all rodent diet. With all the clutches produced each year you would think there would be a lot more available each year. Just my two cents.
Tom.

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