Darwin carpet python

[bubbaloush]

Hi i thought i might introduce myself, I'm kys i have a Darwin carpet python who is 4yo and im assumin male lol going by what the reptile shop i bought it from told me. His name is Sakima and hes a bit snappy when handling him at the moment as my partenr has taken that over cos i have little time atm and dont want him not to be friendly! I have had so many problems feeding him and he went for around five months with out eating as he just wouldnt take any heated mice so i went from frozen mice to live mice and havent looked back, did any one else have this problem with their pythons? But we now have a very pregnant female mouse even though i didnt want to breed mice i had lil choice in the matter as it was pregnant when i got her, at least now i can fatten them up for my sakima! I'll try to get some pics of him when my camera comes back to me to me he seems quite small for being 4yo but i just call him my runt!
Ok i should head to bed but figured a intro was needed after readin all the messages!

[Greebo]

At 4 years of age, you should be feeding him rats not mice. My advice would be to try to get him back on to defrosted rats.

I have a 6 year old Darwin male that I traded for a Diamond python. The fool who I traded with didn't know how to look after him properly and eventually called me to complain that he could only get him to eat live mice. I bought him back and he was in a sorry state. It took me about 3 months to get him eating defrosted rats again, it just took a little persistance. He is now a much healthier (and happier I think) python and he looks spectacular once again.

[peterjohnson64]

Hey Bubbaloush. Welcome to APS. Are you in Adelaide? and down south? speak to Jason at ReptileCity he'll help you out with any questions. Except buying Diamond Pythons from Newcalste. sorry, I cant type tonight. dont know why.

[pythonrockchik1]

Welcome to the site Kys. I'm with Greebs on this one, a 4 year old should be receiving rats for food, preferably already dead. And you never know, he may just prefer rats to mice, I know of a lot of snakes that do. If that doesn't work there's a wide variety of things out there you can try apart from rodents such as rabbits, chicken necks, etc...
Look forward to seeing pics of your baby

[ponybug]

hi,
i have to disagree with you both,
just because a snake is 4 years old doesn't mean it should be on rats, yes rats are better, but in some opinions rabbits are better then rats, does that mean your going to make all your snakes eat rabbits, i don't think so,
greebo you may have missed the first post, she said it was on frozen mice, you said to put it back on frozen rats,

i know from my own experiance that same snakes just won't eat rats, i have 50 snakes and almost all of them i've got onto rats, even some of my hatchlings are eating pink rats, but i also have about a 4 year old darwin x coastal that won't eat rats no matter what i do, and trust me i've tryed everything, even not feeding her for a couple months, so i don't care how good you are, sometimes it's not possible to get them onto rats,

as for feeding live, i don't understand how you can say don't feed live, hello, they eat live in the wild and we see time and time again how certain people say we should try to keep things as close to the way they live in the wild as we can, again most of my snakes eat dead, some fresh killed and some frozen, but i also have a couple that won't eat anything thats not running around under their log, and again i'm not some bloke that only has 1 or 2 snakes, i've managed to get almost all my 50 snakes onto dead, but sometimes it's just not possible, so what do you do if your snake only likes live mice, do you let it die or starve for weeks on end just to keep everybody happy, like hell, i'll feed my snakes to their individual needs,

i'm my opinion kys keep doing what ever your snake likes, but never give up trying to change it onto dead, you could try feeding it the first mouse live and then straight away try giving it a second one thats just been killed, just keep trying, but in the long run as long as your happy with what your doing and your snake is eating, thats what matters,

cheers,
steve.............

ps. remember this is just my opinion and i'm sticking to it, if you don't like it bad luck.....

[kahn_10]

hey kys welcome to the site, i would just put it down to him bein a boy wanting a girlfriend for this season just gone, give him time and have patience as he will start again when he does though better have food ready lol

cheers kahn

[moosenoose]

Originally Posted by steve6610

ps. remember this is just my opinion and i'm sticking to it, if you don't like it bad luck.....

lol Get into em Steve, tear em a new one!!! hehehe

Hi Mate, welcome to the site

[SG]

WELCOME Kys and hope to see some pics of ya snake

[Snow1369]

hii and welcome to the site mate !

[Livewire]

Welcome to the site Bubbaloush.

[aussiesnakelover]

where do you live?

[bubbaloush]

Ok good news he took a warm up dead rat today, i kept him an extra few days to make sure he would be hungry and he went up to it and gave it a good sniff then started to chow it down so to say. Yeah i'm from Adelaide about five mins away from reptile city as was in there on sunday buying the rat and no idea the name but the guy was quite helpful considering i never have bought a rat before and theres so many different sized adults! I think i ended up getting a medium one and he got that down ok.
Hopefully my brother gives me back my digi camera when he comes down from the central coast so i can get some photos up here cos i'm a bit picky and wont take them with a crappy one.
One more question for you all: hes never had a problem with shedding before his last time and he has a bit left over his eye n covering half the top of his head any clues on this one?

[munkee]

I have a similar problem with one of mine. The advice I was given on this site for a retained eye scale from shedding was to put the python into a snake bag that has been wetted in warm water. and leave them for a little while (15 - 20 mins is the length of time I used) After this I popped her back in her enclosure and the next day the scale was no longer there.

Hope this is of use for you. Cheers

[TrueBlue]

Steve6610,- sorry dont agree with that at all. Feeding live prey is a very bad idea IMO. If the mouse/rat bites the snake in a sensitive area it can sometimes put the animal off that prey indefinitley and another food source will have to be found. I have seen this happen to people a number of times over the years. Plus the prey will always try and bite back while being consticted and WILL leave scars on the animal. Hell I keep up to 200 snakes and they all eat dead prey, even, (legal), wild caught adults, its not that hard at all to get them to eat dead prey.

[Moreliaman]

Bubbaloush. Welcome to the nuthouse !

And well done getting that snake on dead, ive never come across a snake i could'nt get to feed on defrost!