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Jayde
Yearling
United Kingdom
291 Posts |
 Posted - 02/09/2013 : 18:35:16
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This.....
Is my lovely little lesser.
When I say little, I mean little.
She is just over a year old and barely pushing 300g.
She was bought at last years Porstmouth show (PRAS) from a well know Essex breeder. She didnt come with any feeding records, but through questions found out she was eating warm defrosted pinky mice every 5 days, and had already had 5 feeds.
She is the youngest and smallest Royal I've ever bought, so expected her to maybe be a little more hit and miss with feeding at first, as 5 feeds really isnt anything.
Took her 8 weeks to settle before she was happy enough to have a feed, which ended up being a rat pup. After this she had 2 more rat pups within about a month of each other. The next refusal then lasted nearer to 7 weeks and this time she ate a rat fuzzy. That's it.
It didn't mater what I offered her or how I offered it. She wasn't interested. Now when I say she wasn't interested, I don't mean the typical royal..'Sniff sniff, no thanks' routine, or even staying put in her hide show. This girl was going out of her way to avoid food, almost as if she was fleeing from a fire. Most bizarre behaviour I've ever seen an animal exhibit around food, especially as she was so small, and hadn't eaten in a fair while for a snake so young.
So, at the end of June (2013), I finally caved and took her to the exotics shop I use. The 2 guys who deal with reptiles have had her since then, and tried all the same tricks I had (you know the list!!) with rats and mice. No luck. The only 2 options left where feeding from a syringe like an abandoned baby hedgehog or live.
I'm sure we can see where this is going now!
She is a live feeder.
I have never seen her react to food like such a beast. I mean, if you're covered in fur and have a pulse, you don't stand a chance!
She's been at the shop for coming into 3 months, and although she's fed, its only been a handful of times, 7-8, on medium-large mice.
Every attempt to get her back onto frozen thawed has been made; bedding, scenting, leaving one to thaw with live, fresh killed, not interested.
Th only thing the guys at the shop can say is to breed my own mice and keep trying to wean her off.
My only problem with this is that my snakes are in the bedroom, and as I live in a family home, with 8 dogs (6 of which are Jack Russell's) I don't have anywhere I can keep mice, let alone breed them. Plus I have no interest in rodents at all.
I've emailed the breeder numerous times, with absolutely no response. I even approached him at the Kempton show, and spoke to him to one side about the situation, in the hope he may know a new trick, or hold his hands up and admit she either wasn't feeding or was live feeding when he sold to me. I tried (very hard) to keep calm and just see if there could be progress towards a solution, but instead got a very rude response. To say the air was left blue when I left him is probably an understatement!
So my question to everyone is:
Do you have any other suggestions?? |
Edited by - Jayde on 02/09/2013 18:38:16 |
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Evolution Morphs
Old Royal - I Post too much!
United Kingdom
2265 Posts |
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Foremand
Sub Adult
United Kingdom
968 Posts |
Posted - 02/09/2013 : 20:32:48
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Have you tried strangling the guy who sold it? Lol
I'm sorry to hear about this. Must be a huge pain. Especially as you have good intentions for the snake.
I hope you get it sorted. |
1.0.0 Royal python- Kaa
1.0.0 German shepherd- Riley
0.3.0 Cats- Does not matter they won't come to you
1.0.0 Red Footed Tortoise- Nemo
1.0.0 Boa- Bison
0.0.1 Brocky- Bearded dragon |
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Lotabob
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
5008 Posts |
Posted - 02/09/2013 : 21:32:50
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A mouse body temperature is 37°C, I would try to get a mouse this warm, maybe even warmer to try fool the snake into thinking its alive, it's not taking its pulse so It's heat pits should pick up the heat, add movement without being too disturbing to the snake and for all intents and purposes its alive. Keep the mouse dry, you don't want any scent washing off.
Try this with all different prey types, multis in particular are a good prey item for picky feeders. |
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carlb1981
Fully Grown Royal
United Kingdom
1527 Posts |
Posted - 02/09/2013 : 22:09:21
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I bought my female butter pin from a well known Essex breeder too and have had problems feeding her she ate the 1st 3 attempts then stopped and didn't eat again for over a month then had 1 rat fuzzy then again went without for 7 weeks all this time trying the usual braining and different ways of defrosting and warming with no luck so gave mice a try and still no luck then i tried using the same setup the breeder used as explained in a leaflet i got with the snake which was aspen bedding and a cardboard tube hide as i had been using kitchen roll as substrate and exo terra hide as i do with all my royals. I left the exo terra hide in and added the tube to cold end and place the rat fuzzy in this and to my surprise she took it. But that was it she went back to refusing for a further 5 weeks so in the space of 6 months she had ate 5 times 3 of which were in the 1st 2 weeks and she had went from 199g to 182g so was starting to worry. i spoke to my local shop about this problem and he had just getting multis in so i bought one to try so that night i defrosted it on top of my beardie viv then warmed it in a sandwich bag to keep it dry and offered her it expecting the usual not interested and i **** myself when she struck for the 1st time lol she has now took 4 more multis without hesitation so fingers crossed she keeps going until she's at a size im comfortable with trying to wean her off them again.
Not sure if its the same breeder as you but id give multis a go and see what happens, forgot to add i put her back on kitchen roll and left the cardboard tube in before trying the multis as aspen didn't really help and didn't want the risk of swallowing it.
Hope you get it sorted as i know how you feel |
3.3.0 Royals,Yellow Belly -Marty,Fire YB-Fred,Mojave-Mo,Butter Pinstripe-Betty,Pewter-Newt,Normal-Molly
0.1.0 Snow Cornsnake- Lumi
1.1.0 Hypo Sonoran Dwarf Boa-Bart and Maggie
0.1.0 Albino Pine Snake-Ruby
1.0.0 Bredli Python-Brian
1.0.0 Western Hognose-Hal
1.0.0 Kayuadi Retic-Kaa
0.1.0 Honduran Milksnake-Jubbly
1.1.0 Salmon Boas-Hershey and Sam
0.2.0 Leopard Geckos-Spot and Chocolate
1.4.0 Dune Geckos
0.1.0 Beardie-Cookie
0.3.7 Tarantulas
0.0.1 Pandinus Imperator/emperor scorpion
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ob_wan
Hatchling
67 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2013 : 14:21:32
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I have a Mojave male that was off rodents. No to mice, no to rats, no to multis.
Chicks went down a storm. Give it a go. If chicks work, try this...
http://www.theroyalpython.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12610
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1.0 CB12 Het Albino - Caesar
0.1 CB12 Vis Albino - Cleo
1.0 CB10 Mojave - Anubis
0.1 CB11 Pinstripe - Isis
0.1 CB11 Lesser - Poggle |
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Out of options?
