advice needed - picky darwin

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Icarus

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Hey all,

We're having a bit of trouble getting our baby albino darwin to eat. He's approx 5 months old and probed as male. He's our 5th snake, so we're not exactly new at this, but we're confused. We offer food every friday to our snakes (or second friday for the 2 adults) and they all strike, contrict, and consume. If they ever refuse it's usually because they're in shed. The darwin however strikes, constricts for a few minutes... and then leaves it. We've had him for about 8 weeks and he's eaten twice. We've tried braining (all food is frozen thawed). He's in a rack system with an identical set up to 3 of the other snakes so i don't think heat/privacy/humidity is the issue. We don't handle him much, maybe for 5 minutes days before we offer food.

What could be going wrong? I've never seen a snake habitually constrict and then dump a prey item.

Any help welcome :)
 
p.s. i know it's winter and he could be brumating, but i didn't think they cooled in their first year, none of our others have.
 
All types of pythons are not the same.With Darwins it is very important not to let the cool side temps drop very much at all.25C on the cool side 24/7 as well as a warm side around 32/33C is what is needed.
 
All types of pythons are not the same.With Darwins it is very important not to let the cool side temps drop very much at all.25C on the cool side 24/7 as well as a warm side around 32/33C is what is needed.

My Albino Darwin female hatchling acted pretty much the same. She would strike, constrict, hold onto the fuzzy mouse for a few minutes and loose interest. I bumped up the temps a few degrees on the warm end and offered her frozen/thawed fuzzy mice that were dried off a little on paper towel and tore a wound on the face of the fuzzy. She eats every week without any problems now.
 
My Albino Darwin female hatchling acted pretty much the same. She would strike, constrict, hold onto the fuzzy mouse for a few minutes and loose interest. I bumped up the temps a few degrees on the warm end and offered her frozen/thawed fuzzy mice that were dried off a little on paper towel and tore a wound on the face of the fuzzy. She eats every week without any problems now.
It's good to know ours isn't the only one to do this and that yours soon stopped. I guess we'll just persevere weekly and hopefully he'll get better at eating.
 
I currently have a 5 month old albino male that is exactly the same. He didn't eat for over a month when still with the previous owner. I offered a fuzzy rat and he struck, constricted, then released so I left the fuzzy rat in the tub with him overnight and he had a big belly bump when I checked on him the next morning. I tried this again yesterday as he didn't even strike it (shed earlier that day which was assisted as he ate only a week beforehand) and unfortunately he didn't eat it. I'm just going to try again in a couple days and hopefully he will take it.
 
sometimes you need to offer it again that day after they have dropped it and again another the following day. We have a jungle that does this from time to time. It definitely is something you need to persist at when they get like this...make sure you are offering the same feeds as the breeder and as well and as the others said make sure temps are right, rack or mat heating can get low over night when there are cooler temps outside so need to check the temps arent dropping overnight which will not bother the older snakes but can the hatchies.
 
I probably sound like a broken record on this subject but try quail. Not many pythons will turn them down.
 
My albino male is funny but has always ended up eating it. A couple of times he has struck coiled and left it. I'd just keep offering it up until he ate it. My het female on the other hand is one of the best feeders I've ever owned.
 
I had albino hatchling if he strike at fuzzy rat on the neck coiled then I have to wait because I knew he would let go and leave it there knowing there a rat when he let go and play all over the clickclack then I pick the fuzzy with tong . I warm it up again then try get the hatchling go for the head not neck he's fussy where he suppose to latch on lol
 
My albino male is funny but has always ended up eating it. A couple of times he has struck coiled and left it. I'd just keep offering it up until he ate it. My het female on the other hand is one of the best feeders I've ever owned.


On the same boat as you Riffherper my male albino is fussy also but my het Darwin girl is an awesome feeder :) try feeding your albino at night time an with not soo much light :) it seems to work the treat for me :)
 
Also try feeding where the food is quite warm might work ;)
 
Ours ADCP is now 7 months old and he's only eaten twice in the past 4 months. We feed exactly the same as his breeder and evidently he fed weekly with the breeder. Temps are all spot on, he is in an opaque click click with perch, hide and water and the click clack sits in a disused enclosure so he has privacy etc. If you have a look at the thread I started there is also similar advice on it from last week when I put it up. He still hasn't eaten, not even quali, or quali scented fuzzies! We're in the same boat - perseverance is the key!
 
On the same boat as you Riffherper my male albino is fussy also but my het Darwin girl is an awesome feeder :) try feeding your albino at night time an with not soo much light :) it seems to work the treat for me :)

Thanks for the tip will do. And yeh the carpets with their heat puts prefer a warm meal. I generally put em in a bag and hot water before serving :)
 
Another thing you could try is go the next size up from a fuzzie. (Not sure what sizing options you have tho), certainly wont hurt him
 
Just thought I'd add to this...
The ratio of my picky Murray Darling taking and succesfully eating a Chick is 3/3 so far.
Same sized Quail stands at 3/7 (one of those times he was in shed). Just something to keep in mind.
Will have to try get him back onto (Weaner) Rats though because the Chicks go from 40g - 100g. I think it's too big a jump in size.
That will be interesting I'm sure. Haha.
 
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