| T O P I C R E V I E W |
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Posted - 27/03/2011 : 17:04:41
Feeding day for the royals. Surahi's excused, being blue, so that just leaves Shahi and Saada. Saada's eaten once in almost two months; Shahi twice in six weeks, so this is a formality really. If they don't eat, well they don't eat, and, if the rodent can be saved in a fresh condition, the corns will finish leftovers.
Shahi's normally a strike feeder in a separate rub; Saada likes to eat in her viv. However, I seem to have restarted Shahi by leaving a mouse at the mouth of his hide, so that's what I did today.
An hour or two before I disturbed these two and put down a doggy feeding mat beneath each cold hide in their vivs, then left them to settle before introducing the prey.
Not a success. Prey ignored. I opened Shahi's viv and drew the mouse out by its tail, swinging the poor thing to see if he'd be interested ...No ...
YES! He wasn't in the hide, he was up on his climbing branch, uncoiling, eyes shining. I grabbed the tongs and presented mousey and - bam! He struck - and coiled and started to eat it tail first. Idiot! He got all tangled up with the tail and feet and ended up wrestling with the thing for ages. It wouldn't go down. He didn't seem to grasp the fact that he needed to straighten out his neck to get its bulk down. He spat it out and, holding it in his coils, mouthed it again, clearly hungry, but very frustrated, like someone trying to eat spaghetti with a teaspoon.
It was at this point I had a stroke of inspiration. I wanted to switch Shahi on to rats, didn't I? Saada's rat lay ignored in her viv. What if I warmed it at the hot end, then chose a moment when poor miserable Shahi spat his mouse out, yet again, when I could offer the fresh hot rat ... and take advantage of him??
For about the fifth time he spat his mouse out, mangled and covered in snake saliva. Then he saw something else. A hot grey velvety rat nose. THAT looked a lot easier ...He grabbed. And HE TOOK IT! HE ATE HIS RAT!
The soggy white mouse dropped to the floor of the viv and the rat went down so fast it scarcely touched the sides, tail and all. A minute later, relaxing on his branch, he looked at me.
Shahi: You took advantage of me.
Lil: Ha - don't you ever tell me you won't eat a rat, my lad!
Shahi: I wuz conned. That was a dirty lowdown RAT trick!
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| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
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Posted - 04/04/2011 : 12:20:25
And so, a week later ...
This time Saada, who is still fasting, was excused; I'll try her every fortnight until she's eating again. Surahi, who was blue, didn't eat last week, and has been prowling around after her shed, looking hungry, so I defrosted her and Shahi a medium weaner rat each (only size I had, but made sense to start her on smaller prey) and added in a small mouse to scent the rats.
The idea was to take the mouse out and warm it in Shahi's feeding rub on top of his viv, removing it just before he was put in the rub, so that the air would be fragrant with mouse, and he wouldn't realise, as before, that I was offering him a hot rat.
Fail. I put down his feeding mat in the viv, put rat under hide, and restored him to his viv in the hope that he'd change his mind.
Then the braised mouse went downstairs into Surahi's viv, in a perforated box, again to fill the air with mousy perfume before I introduced the rat.
Also fail. After a while I took the mouse out and skinned it, having watched Lee's excellent jacketing sticky. A small mouse skin did not exactly make a jacket for the rat - more like a surgical mask - but I smeared the rest of the rat with the mouse corpse and returned it to Surahi.
Fail. It was still there this morning. Oh well.
When I went to bed, Shahi was in his cold hide, and so was the rat. Drat!
I woke at 3am. Shahi's viv is next to my bed. He was up on his climbing branch, looking at me.
'What kept you?' I grabbed the tongs and proffered ratty. 'Ugh, no, not in that state. Warm it on top of my hot hide while you go to the loo. Expect you've got a bellyful of ale.'
'You know me so well.'
'And less of the sarcasm.'
I did as he said and returned to re-offer the rat.
YESSSS!!
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Posted - 27/03/2011 : 23:26:56
Thanks Hodgie - still can't believe he took it - have tried him before with rats and he's behaved as if I've been trying to poison him. Maybe I just caught him in feeding mode, eh? |
| hodgie |
Posted - 27/03/2011 : 22:12:49
Good story |
| n/a |
Posted - 27/03/2011 : 20:55:35
LOL ... I know ... planning to major in Ophiopsychology!
Thanks! |
| sandi |
Posted - 27/03/2011 : 20:47:54
You are a sneaky woman!.....well done!!! |
| n/a |
Posted - 27/03/2011 : 20:18:37
LOL - thanks guys - I have to admit it was a complete fluke ... was it that his sense of smell was confused by the soggy mouse, or that the rat was hotter than the mouse, so that he struck instinctively ...?
His next rat, I'll defrost with a mangled soggy mouse, and present it for him to strike, nice and hot ...
Oh boy I'm really thrilled!
Erm, just sorry about the soggy mangled mouse ...RIP mousey |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 27/03/2011 : 19:55:11
CongRATulations, Bats! |
| Strawb |
Posted - 27/03/2011 : 19:41:01
Maybe if I offer Tia a mouse bum first and then a rat head first like you did she'll take. 
My first attempt at changing to rats was a failure. |
| GMac |
Posted - 27/03/2011 : 17:26:59
lol, nice one BATS |
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