New pet but a little problem!!

[DrGigglez666]

So i bought a Albino Nelson Milksnake today from a reptile dude at my local petstore for 90 bucks. The only reason he was selling it was because it was a pain in the you know what to feed. It only likes to eat like pinkies and nothing else. But i bought it anyway because of its nice looking color and very active and tame. The guy said if worse comes to worse he can get me some live pinkies from another place he works but they only live about 24 hours. Any other ideas i could do to get it to eat?? I would feed it fuzzies but their to big for him. But anyones ideas would be much helpful.

 

[ParabuthusKing]

breed your own mice.. problem solved:}

 

[DrGigglez666]

breed your own mice.. problem solved:}

Nah thats ok my mom would kill me and the snake she hates mice especially live ones.

 

[ParabuthusKing]

haha..sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, but I understand.. I live on my own and I still don't like those little fuzzy things called rodents.. yuck!!!, my snakes sure love them though.. I am thinking about getting a breeding colony of rats going, but am hesitant as they STINK!!!!!!...

 

[DrGigglez666]

Haha rodents dont bother me but they do like to get into things like chicken feed and stuff. And yes they do stink!!

 

[Jmugleston]

So i bought a Albino Nelson Milksnake today from a reptile dude at my local petstore for 90 bucks. The only reason he was selling it was because it was a pain in the you know what to feed. It only likes to eat like pinkies and nothing else. But i bought it anyway because of its nice looking color and very active and tame. The guy said if worse comes to worse he can get me some live pinkies from another place he works but they only live about 24 hours. Any other ideas i could do to get it to eat?? I would feed it fuzzies but their to big for him. But anyones ideas would be much helpful.

I suppose in the quote above you meant live right. (like pinkies = live pinkies) If it is only eating live pinks, try offering a live pink and a dead pink next to each other on a small plate or lid use small pinks so that it doesn't become full off the first. Sometimes reluctant feeders will grab the first and still be looking for food shortly thereafter. It sometimes works. Other options include going from live to recently killed, to thawed pinks. There is also the split brained approach which is a bit more gruesome, but works well for stubborn colubrids. I have three kings now that only eat reptiles and four corns that refuse anything but live pinks. Eventually the'll switch over, but until then it is a pain.

 

[Harrod]

I have bred many coulbrids and 90% of the time I could get picky eaters to start feeding off scented prey. Thaw a pinkie then rub it on a live pinky. Most of the time they will take the scented prey. If that doesn't work try anoles if available, they work well also.

 

[Tleilaxu]

Also dunking the food in chicken broth works well, When my snake was being stubborn I rubbed the pinkes on my naday conure and he ate the pinkies fine after that LOL. Also the conure thought this was pretyy fun LOL.

 

[DrGigglez666]

I have bred many coulbrids and 90% of the time I could get picky eaters to start feeding off scented prey. Thaw a pinkie then rub it on a live pinky. Most of the time they will take the scented prey. If that doesn't work try anoles if available, they work well also.

Why would you rub a thawed pinkie on a live one?? The live one should have a smell too so yea and anoles are expensive dude id spend so much money their like 6 bucks here.

 

[DrGigglez666]

Also dunking the food in chicken broth works well, When my snake was being stubborn I rubbed the pinkes on my naday conure and he ate the pinkies fine after that LOL. Also the conure thought this was pretyy fun LOL.

Might try that seems like it works.

 

[David_F]

Why would you rub a thawed pinkie on a live one?? The live one should have a smell too so yea and anoles are expensive dude id spend so much money their like 6 bucks here.

Because a pinky that has been sitting in the freezer for a while is probably not going to smell the same as a live one....especially after having been run under warm water to thaw. You say "The live one should have a smell too so yea..." and that's kinda the point. You want to the frozen mouse to smell like the live one.

 

[Drachenjager]

umm no more often than they need fed , just get a pinky when needed.

 

[ChrisNCT]

Because a pinky that has been sitting in the freezer for a while is probably not going to smell the same as a live one....especially after having been run under warm water to thaw. You say "The live one should have a smell too so yea..." and that's kinda the point. You want to the frozen mouse to smell like the live one.

Right but your missing one point....if you take a pinky out of the nesting and place it into a ziplock bag, toss it into freezer with others done the same, then take one out place it into another ziplock bag and heat the bag and pinky together. You still retain the mouse or rat scent. The pinky will be dry when you thaw it and still have the scent.