Please help- i dont know what to do

Honestly, I wouldn’t be too worried about it. She’s a big, robust girl, it’s unlikely that a small amount of swallowed substrate is going to cause any problems.

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any tips on getting her to switch to frozen/thawed? had a major scare awhile back.

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any tips on getting her to switch to frozen/thawed? had a major scare awhile back. lemme know if you want to hear that story

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I had good luck with braining, albeit for a different species (adult sand boa who had only eaten live for a decade before I got her). I used a scalpel to slice open the front of the f/t feeder’s skull. Kinda gross, but I only had to do it a few times before she started accepting un-mutilated mice. But I know balls can be a bit trickier sometimes.

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ahh, ive already tried that… shes picky… and REALLY spoiled so :sweat_smile:

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The biggest thing is consistency. One thing I have heard worked is feed a live rat (smaller than you usually feed) then while she is still in food mode offer a F/T rat.

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Awesome! I’ll definitely give that a shot. Thanks a bunch, you’re a total lifesaver!

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Sometimes you just have to keep trying and out-wait them. A big girl like her can go quite some time without eating, so sometimes it’s just a function of keeping at it and being patient. You can also try making an incision in the abdomen instead of the skull (or do both). Some snakes seem to prefer intestines to brains. :nauseated_face:

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you know what they say, beauty is on the inside :sweat_smile:

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I second the “keep trying and wait it out”. I think most people cave and give up way too easily after a refusal or two, they’re not going to starve themselves. I’d wait until she’s nice and hungry, skip a meal if you have to, and then the morning you plan to feed stick the frozen rat in a ziplock in the fridge. Then in the evening stick the whole ziplock in hot water until the rat is body temp, pull it out and blow dry the head to get it nice and warm and waft that lovely ratty scent around, then grab it by the hindquartes with tongs and do the zombie rat dance, making it walk around like it’s alive.

Once you’ve gotten them to take a few meals this way, you can cut out some of the more labor intensive steps (blow drying, zombie rat dance) and they’ll just grab it

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have you tried to leave the rat in the enclosure overnight? Some are shy eaters when it comes to f/t

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I found when feeding my BP that temperature can be the deciding factor for some snakes so you want to use warmish-hot water to heat your thawed rodent up to 88f or a little higher.
My own BP has a high prey drive too and he will SLAM anything warm that goes into that enclosure while he’s in a Food Mood. Use a temp gun to ensure you offer a warm enough F/T Rat, and see how your noodle likes that.

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no, i will not leave a rat unsupervised overnight.

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I think you misread @logar’s post, he was talking about leaving a f/t in overnight, not live.

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Sorry for the misunderstanding

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No need for apologies, it was more of a giggle moment, I’m sure! Can only imagine someone supervising a dead rat overnight. :joy:

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Haha. That sounds like something I would do! I’m way too protective of my baby and would be worried it might somehow come back alive (even though it would have been dead for a long time) better safe than sorry!

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lol :joy: yes that is true :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

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I think it depends on the substrate, I am not familiar with yours, but if you remove any splinter like bits from the substrate then nothing should stick in her mouth and cause problems.
She can digest bone so a bit of bark is not going to be a problem if the mouth is OK.

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