More pics of Thaddius and a feeding question

[GeckoStud]

Here's a few more pics of my new boy Thaddius. He hasn't eaten for me yet, he was on live before but I need to keep frozen since I'm at college. Its just alot easier to do and hide as well. But anyway does anyone have any good tips for converting a live diet to a frozen one?

 

[lytlesnake]

I don't know, I've heard that BPs are notorious for eating live, but I'm sure someone has good tips for you. I would almost think it would be easier to conceal live. If you have frozen mice or rats in the freezer, seems like those might get noticed. "Hey man, what the hell are these frozen rodents doing in the freezer?". OTOH, if you sneak a live feeder in your backpack once or twice a week, the snake will likely eat it right away and there will be no evidence.

 

[leonut]

same problem here. (besides goin to collage LOL.) hope this helps.

http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=28435

 

[GeckoStud]

There is no where close that has live pinkies for sale, or anything like that for that matter. And I think the school's post office would grow suspicious of mice coming in... So frozen is my only alternative. And my roomy is the only one in our fridge anyway and he knows about the snake.

 

[lytlesnake]

Ah, I see. It's illegal to ship live rodents anyway, so that wouldn't be an option even if you wanted to. You mentioned no pinkies in your area. I'm assuming you know this, but that snake needs a lot bigger than a pinkie!

So are you just having frozen mice/rats shipped to you or what? Or can you get the frozen ones at a nearby pet store?

My guess is that the ball python will eventually get hungry and eat a thawed frozen. It might cost you several unsuccessful tries before that though. It's a drag to throw a feeder rodent away, but you might lose a few before he finally eats one.

I'd think one trick would be to leave him in a different container with the frozen rodent overnight. Also sometimes putting the mouse right on top of the snakes' hide works for me. That's with kingsnakes, not BPs, but on some level they are at least similar... both rodent eating snakes anyway!

 

[GeckoStud]

Well I actually have fuzzies right now not pinks, my bad. But yeah I have checked around and the only pet store within an reasonable distance of me sells fish and pet supplies but no mice at all. And until I get some bigger mice he's gonna have to deal. But the good news is if he doesn't eat them on the failed tries they go right to my rosy boa, who will eat anything no problem. I know fuzzies are a little small too but I feed every 4 days or so for smaller more frequent meals until the next time I buy feeders.

 

[T&KBrouse]

Well, a few things you could try is, make sure that rodent is around 104* (normal rodent temperature)
Are you just putting the rodent in his tank? Or are you dangling it with tongs? Sometimes the wiggling on the tongs can stimulate a feeding response.
Another trick is to incise the rodent's nose to get a little fresh blood smell going.

If you know someone with a gerbil, rat or hamster, you can test your friendship and see if they will let you rub your dead rodent on their pet's butt to get some live smell on it. (I know... its bizarre, and gives new meaning to "rub some funk on it")

He's big enough to atleast eat rat fuzzies. We order from Big Cheese Rodent Factory and they come in bags of 25. Really nice and healthy looking.

Well, I hope this helped... or atleast amused.

 

[lytlesnake]

Thaddius looks like he's ready to eat hopper mice or rat fuzzies. I don't even know if he'd consider a pinkie food at this point. At least that's the size he looks from the pictures. I think he would probably take mice fuzzies if he's hungry though.

 

[GeckoStud]

Hmmmm... I'll look into some rat fuzzies then if he continues to not eat the mice fuzzies for me. As far as the live rodent rub on smell... I'll see what I can do but I doubt I'd be able to do that haha. I don't even know of any live rodents on campus.

Thank you guys for all the tips and advice, I usually try to wave the mouse in front of his face with tongs and he's not interested, it mosy likely is the size. I guess I'm just going to have to order some bigger feeders.