So out of the 15 snakes I’ve acquired over the last 3 months, only two wont eat
0.1 black pastel pied Mojave
1.0 black pastel pied
From two different breeders, weeks apart too.
And they act very similar about not eating.
The male literally ends up hiding his head when the rat starts looking around and the female stares the rat down but doesn’t take him…
Its weird they have the same gentics for the most part…
Any thoughts?
For every person that says x morph is a poor eater you’ll find one or more state they have no issues with theirs.
where they previously fed f/t? have you tried smaller or slightly larger sized rodents? What are temps and humidity levels at? Have you tried adding more hides or clutter?
It sounds like they don’t feel secure either due to enclosure or size/color/liveliness of prey.
My first question is, have you tried different feeding methods like frozen thawed? We also had a similar topic like this already and I can tell you that genes do not affect feeding response at least in my experience as well as a few other people. I’ve had some spiders eat better than some of my clowns, some of my pieds eating better then my other genes and vice versa. My last question is how long have you had them and what is the enclosure like? your best bet is to try different forms of presenting the food or adjusting the enclosure.
Were they well established feeders?
Have you try to emulate the original breeder setup to a T?
Have you try providing a hide?
Have you try mice?
Ok so the female is in a 70 tub in a pvc rack, the heated area is 90-91.5 and the front clocks about 78. Humidity is 40% with some drops to 30% (im in southern california and its dry) i have a humidifier if it goes lower then that. The male is in a 28qt sterilite in the rack. Same Temps and humidity.
I have tried every size, color, frozen, pre killed, live.
I have not added clutter or hides, the male had a hide but I took it out on the last attempt because it seemed like he didn’t want to strike and run into it. The rat was using it to hide from him also.
I have had the female for about 40 days and the male for about 25.
So what im seeing is maybe i need to change their tubs and stuff inside the tubs and kind of provide a change in environment?
It just trips me out because every other snake has eventually caved and ate within 10 days or so.
They are both adults btw.
Thank you guys for any tips and advice and ultimately, your time.
Because 13 do well in identical setups does not mean they all will.
Have you reached out to the breeder (this should be the first stop when experiencing issues) and ask them how they were kept from tub size to temps to substrate.
In my experience it pretty common for adults to take longer to adjust sometime it takes 6 months to a year, the key is patience.
50% of adults I have received (bought or loans) got back on track after 6 months and with an adult it’s not an issue.
I have spoken to the breeders, and attempted to match their initial husbandry decisions. I figured it would be a matter of patience.
Thanks