NEWBIE - Stimson Feeding Question - PLEASE HELP

[louise77]

Well I dangled it in front of her for a good bit - but she just kept on avoiding it - thought it may get to the point where she'd get pissed off and go it - but no. Ah well - here's hoping in the next 5 days she sheds and then eats.....

 

[iamheretic]

have you tried braining yet?

a simpler method than the other one mentioned is to get a pin/needle and push it into the skull of the mouse/rat (that's what i have read at least)

 

[gold&black...]

Try leaving the pinky in the enclosure with her in a dark room. Try with dead and if it doesn't work, then with a live a week or so later. Also, make sure there is no movement around... If that doesn't work, then try gecko tail or even braining as suggested. But remember, the more often u try, the more u frighten her. Give a good gap b4 u try again... She will definitely eat when the time comes. cheers

PS. stop handling her till she feeds....

 

[louise77]

I fully admit that the idea of braining a mouse completely grosses me out - but then again at first so did the idea of feeding my snake and I'm over that!

She was out last night for the first time in a week (promise to not let her out again till after she does feed) but I took a few photo's and I was hoping if some people could tell me if she does look like she is about to shed - to me she looks darker and in one photo I can see a tinge of blue - but then again I've never seen a snake prior to a shed so I was hoping some expert eyes could have a look.....


Patience is no virtue of mine - so that's the hardest thing about it all - I know they can go quite a while without food and I keep on reminding myself that - so I know it will happen at some point

Thanks everyone though - you're all keeping this newbie with no patience a sane person

 

[chase77]

My 11 month old eats hopper mice. He doesn't react at all when i dangle it in front of him. so i leave it in front of him and walk away. I come back in 10 minutes and its always gone.

Chase.

 

[micksta9]

Keep trying mate! I also agree that perhaps you could just drop the feed in the tub and see if she eats it. Our guy has done this before as i dropped his dinner and thought oh well lets see what happens. He fed and took it bum first which made us have a giggle as he chewed the mouses bum.
Tell her we are all cheering for her if it helps

 

[louise77]

He fed and took it bum first which made us have a giggle as he chewed the mouses bum.

LMAO!

Yeah - I was actually hoping she would be the kind of snake that would feed on her own so I could just drop n go So I've always left it there for 15 minutes or longer - only to see her from a distance just slither right over the top of the food - I mean talk about completely not being interested huh! I'm still at the point where I'm not stressing - just be pleased when she does eat! I'll let her know she has a cheer squad

 

[micksta9]

For peace of mind it takes a fair while for snakes to loose condition from not eating so she will be fine. We just got our second legless friend a rather large 12 month old Woma from Snake Ranch in fact he's huge and tatally food orientated. Be grateful that our stimsons are very gentle and cute. This big fella has trashed his enclosure and when we fed him he nearly took my arm off!

 

[borntobnude]

try a pinkie first .our male is the fuss pot he will go a few weeks w/out and then turn his back onspeilign an xl mouse but when offered an entree pinkie has no hessitation and will then smash the xl mouse. our female has nevr missed a feed

 

[andrew_117]

Just a quick picture of my childreni Louise.

She's about to shed so I'll try another feed a few days afterwards and let you know how it goes. How is yours going, any luck yet?

 

[louise77]

Tried her with another pinkie rat today - nada - nothing - BIG FAT not interested :|

Plus she's back to being in a bad mood But she still seems healthy enough - I even managed to get one of those temp guns to make sure her body temp was good (to REALLY make sure I had the right temps going in her enclosure) and all seems good there (stays around 27 - 32 degrees).

Andrew, your girl looks gorgeous! Let us know how the shed goes and the feeding afterwards. No shed here though - she's still dark looking - but nothing is happening.

Mick, got any pictures of your new big boy?? He sounds like a wild one and you can understand why they recommend to start on the smaller ones!

 

[dickyknee]

Louise ,
Some stimmis can be a little fussy with food , i tend to feed most of mine a few smaller items rather than 1 larger item , they seem to feed better this way for me .
There is no need to have it on rats either , if it eats mice try offering a few smaller mice ...
DO NOT start braining food , it has obviously eaten before so no need what so ever .
Keep in mind this animals was most likely in a tub will ground heating , now its in a large cage with over head heating , plus you say your not heating at night ?? that might be half your problem if its getting at all cold during the night .... If it was me I would have heating 24/7 .
27-32 is not that great , you would be much better actually have a hot spot at 32 all the time , not dropping to 27 .The cool end of the cage should be around room temp

 

[louise77]

Hi Dickyknee,

I was thinking the same thing with how this 'summer' is going here in Sydney (I'm learning and starting to think like a snake owner ). I actually just started putting a night bulb in and see how that goes. Those temps are her actual body temps not the enclosure temps - the 27 is when she is in the 'cooler' end of the enclosure. But I'm hoping with having the enclosure on heat 24/7 will help things along - going to give her a week or two on that and see how it goes (after Christmas), got a name of a reptile vet nearby if nothing still happens - just to get her to someone professional to see for my own peace of mind. Still not freaking though (I keep reminding myself of just what you said - she would've spent a year of her life in a totally different set up so it's a big change) and just hoping all this will help

 

[dickyknee]

If she is looking healthy and not losing weight don't panic to much yet , but I would certainly heat her 24/7 ...
Hve you considered a heat mat or cord under the cage , ants love to belly bask in my experience.

 

[louise77]

I think I will throw one in under the area where her main hide is (the hot area). I have a glass enclosure (URS one) - 60cmL x 40cmW x 45cmH - would you recommend a heat cord or mat? And what size? Being a glass enclosure I would have to put it on the outside is there are problems with this?

Thanks so much for your help - it makes it easier when you think your being proactive about it all too

 

[derekm]

J saw your earlier post where you mentioned a temp of 24 and I thought that might be a bit too cool for consistent. I notice that dickyknee has given you some good advice about higher temps. To add to that, I can tell you that I use both a 24/7 red heat lamp above (50W in summer and 75W in winter) and a small thermostat-controlled heat mat under the enclosure's glass floor (with the hide positioned so that half of it is over the heat mat and half isn't) to heat my stimmie's enclosure. I have permanently mounted temperature probes in the warmest and coolest parts of the enclosure so that I can monitor temps easily. The warmest part of the enclosure is generally 30-34 (sometimes up to 42 on hot days) and the coolest part of the enclosure is generally 21-25 (sometimes down to 18 on cold Canberra winter nights. My stimmie is 2 years old and I have had him for 18 months, during which he has taken 58 feeds (yes I do keep records) and refused none. In that time he has grown from about 28cm to 92cm on a diet that started with pinkie mice, progressed through fuzzy mice to a mix of pinkie rats and small adult mice. He is now on alternate feeds of small adult mice and fuzzy rats.

I have had no problems with the heat mat under the enclosure, but I chose to put a slightly "springy" fabric mat (off a roll at Bunnings) under the heat mat so that the thermostat probe isn't jammed directly between the enclosure and the table.

Hope this helps.

I think I will throw one in under the area where her main hide is (the hot area). I have a glass enclosure (URS one) - 60cmL x 40cmW x 45cmH - would you recommend a heat cord or mat? And what size? Being a glass enclosure I would have to put it on the outside is there are problems with this?

Thanks so much for your help - it makes it easier when you think your being proactive about it all too

 

[louise77]

Derek - you helped HEAPS I was worried about having the heat mat and globe on together through summer (but if yours goes up to 42 - then I'm not going to worry at all - I would panic when the temp would get over 35 in case it would be too hot for her!). When I bought the enclosure the guy said I would only need the globe on during the day and I know a few people here turn the globe off at night so I thought that sounded right - but it would seem my girl likes it hot so I'll have to turn it up and see how she goes.... I'm off to purchase this heat mat. Thanks so much - hope this is what she's missing out on...

 

[micksta9]

Louise You are all over it! Temp guns and all, so just go with the flow of your littile lady and her feeding ways as fussy as they may be. Put a post up on our new lad so scroll through them it's there somewhere.
Despite being pretty big he's a dopey bugga except when food is concerned but that is the Woma!
Bart has a BIG brother, Julius Sqeezer
ps with the heat mat(stuck it on the underside of the tank) i have one with a thermostat which fed the chord and sensor into the enclosure and used sticky tape to secure it to the floor where the heat sits, this gives the surface temp of the glass inside the tank. I have it at 33'c and a 25watt globe at the opposite end which provides temps of aboout 26'c. I also put a sheet of newspaper over the area where the heat mat is and the put substrate over it. My boy burrows into the substrate so the newspaper offers some bedding so he is not directly on the glass.
Hope this is helpful?

 

[louise77]

Perfect (thanks again Mick) - I've got a thermostat with a probe in there at the moment (measuring ambient temp as I was nervous about it getting too high) so I'll just move that down to where the mat will be and stick there with some newspaper over it (I've seen where my girl has tried to burrow a little so I'll do that too).

Right I'm off to find the picture of Julius Sqeezer (LOVE LOVE the name :lol....

 

[micksta9]

Hey there fellow Stimsoni owner has she had something for dinner yet?