My flippin bredli and his spotty appetite...

[user 29560]

Howdy from Canada, Aussies. I've had this adult male Morelia bredli for about 2 years now. He's about 7 years old. He's never been a star feeder for me, so over the couple years I have wasted many rats trying to get him to eat. I'm not too concerned about it and figure he's probably just a fussy feeder, but I wanted to run the story past some experienced Bredli keepers to see if this is common and all and if there are any suggestions on what I might try to decrease rejection.

I started out trying to feed him every two weeks and even to this day he is really reliable about snapping his prey and coiling. He has never once turned his nose away from food, but the problem is that after I leave him alone to eat his food, he very often eventually drops the food and just leaves it there until I remove it from the tank.

After a while of going through this, I started to scale back his feedings to once every three weeks and sometimes every four weeks depending on how his acceptance has been at the time. This has had somewhat improved results as he acccepts more often with 4 weeks between feedings, but last night, for instance, he still rejected his food even though it's been 4 weeks since the last one.

I'm not concerned about anything *wrong* per se, but I'd like to find less rats the next morning sitting in the corner of his tank needing to be cleaned up, so throw some ideas at me if you have them. Here are the answers to the usual questions.

Species: pure Morelia bredlia, nothing unusual
Age: roughly 7yrs
Size: 6' long, 2.5 kgs

Enclosure: 100cm wide 50cm deep, 50cm tall
It has a radiant heat panel on the ceiling so his hot spot is up on a perch and the coolest spot is on the floor on the opposite side of the tank. He uses both spots pretty much daily.
He has a huge water bowl, large enough to bathe in and a huge cave available which he only uses when he's in shed.

Hot Spot: 33c day, 28c night
Cool spot: ~28c day, 26 night (roughly)
Humidity: roughly 60%
Feed: large sized rats raised by a reputable local hobby breeder (not commercial animals)

Health history: nothing notable. I purchased him from a breeder who was replacing his older breeding stock. He looks and behaves in perfect health. No laboured breathing, no wheezing, never any signs of RI or any sort of mouth or scale.
Bowel movements are infrequent, and regular enough (based on his feeding schedule) that I'm quite confident in ruling out any sort of impaction issue.

Feeding method: I feed him inside his enclosure and I always feed him after dark so that once he snaps his prey, I flick the light off and leave him in privacy. I'll usually check him before I go to bed, but sometimes I feed him shortly before bed and check the next morning to find the rat dropped.


I'll probably let him sit around for a couple weeks now before trying to feed him again.

Thanks in advance for any feedback, or even just telling me "My bredli does this all the time" will make me feel better.

 

[Riffherper]

Might sound silly but what temp is the rat when it's fed? If its cold it may deter a feed.

 

[user 29560]

Might sound silly but what temp is the rat when it's fed? If its cold it may deter a feed.

Ah, one thing I failed to pre-emptively answer! I warm the rats by soaking them in hot water. I usually take them from the freezer and put them into a small tub of hot water from the tap. I let them sit there for about half hour or so and then once it's nearly ready for feeding, I dump the water and top it up with hot again just to raise the temp of the prey. Then 5-10m later I roll it around in some paper towel and then feed him and, as I said, he *always* takes it very eagerly - but then often drops it later on.

I don't make a real purpose of drying off the rat, though, and so it's still going to be somewhat damp when feeding. Is there any reason to think being wet would turn him off of it?

 

[Snapped]

I think your cool spot isn't cool enough, and they don't require night time heating, as long as it doesn't get below 20 at night you'll be fine.

Have you tried braining? A nice hide in both warm and cool end (not huge, just enough to squeeze into).

And the enclosure would benefit being taller rather than wider, as they like to climb.

 

[Snapped]

Some don't like wet prey, I dry mine off with the hair dryer, gets that nice rat smell happening. Gross. Lol

 

[JM1982]

Ah, one thing I failed to pre-emptively answer! I warm the rats by soaking them in hot water. I usually take them from the freezer and put them into a small tub of hot water from the tap. I let them sit there for about half hour or so and then once it's nearly ready for feeding, I dump the water and top it up with hot again just to raise the temp of the prey. Then 5-10m later I roll it around in some paper towel and then feed him and, as I said, he *always* takes it very eagerly - but then often drops it later on.

I don't make a real purpose of drying off the rat, though, and so it's still going to be somewhat damp when feeding. Is there any reason to think being wet would turn him off of it?

I warm myn the same way, only I keep it in a sandwich snaplock bag so it keeps most of its mouse / rat smell, and stays dry
(Not saying this would help, just saying)

 

[JM1982]

Braining can work a treat! The only reason I didn't mention it was because the snake was 'taking' the rat already, just not eating it. So it seems the feed response is there.
But definitely can't hurt to try!

 

[Wild~Touch]

Poor ol' boy is prob. thinking more about his past life as a breeder and misses his girlfriends.

Most males go off their food when in breeding mode...it is springtime in Canada ?

I wouldn't be too concerned if he is not hungry ,if he's not growing or breeding he doesn't need as much food as when he was younger.

I've been keeping and breeding bredli for a lot of years now and the scaling down on feeding is the general pattern as they get older.

Cheers
Sandee

 

[user 29560]

I think your cool spot isn't cool enough, and they don't require night time heating, as long as it doesn't get below 20 at night you'll be fine.

Have you tried braining? A nice hide in both warm and cool end (not huge, just enough to squeeze into).

And the enclosure would benefit being taller rather than wider, as they like to climb.

The enclosure has 100cm long perches running across its entire length at two staggered levels, so he has the ability to climb and does spend most of his time up on the perch beams, on top of his cave, or in the coolest area of the enclosure.

I will cut the night heat supplement. The hot spot will probably still stay around 25c or so based on the temp in that room with other enclosures around, etc. Generally the indoor temp here is never below 20c and probably averages closer to 22 or more.

For a change, I will thaw the rat in a plastic bag next time and for a while to see if warm, dry prey shows a higher acceptance rate compared to damp/wet.

Thanks for all the feedback.

(Off topic, but it's my own damn thread!) Looking forward to the V8s this weekend. Would you believe my fiancee actually suggested a trip to Aus to see a V8 race as part of our honeymoon because I love the series so much?! Not sure if I want to stomach the cost of that trip, but it may come to pass.

 

[The_Geeza]

I think your cool spot isn't cool enough, and they don't require night time heating, as long as it doesn't get below 20 at night you'll be fine.

Have you tried braining? A nice hide in both warm and cool end (not huge, just enough to squeeze into).

And the enclosure would benefit being taller rather than wider, as they like to climb.

I agree totally...my Bredli only has a heated tile for digestion and the rest of the enclosure has no heating...in summer it sits around mid 20's and in winter nights drops below 20 which helps with her cooling....she has never refused a feed..........i also think your ambient enclosure temps r alittle high with not enough variation...also seems must have been a fussy feeder as i think its on the small size for 7 yrs old.....Try Quail as they love them...then scent rats with quail and u may get some better results
Ta
Pete

 

[user 29560]

Poor ol' boy is prob. thinking more about his past life as a breeder and misses his girlfriends.

Most males go off their food when in breeding mode...it is springtime in Canada ?

I wouldn't be too concerned if he is not hungry ,if he's not growing or breeding he doesn't need as much food as when he was younger.

I've been keeping and breeding bredli for a lot of years now and the scaling down on feeding is the general pattern as they get older.

Hi Sandee, it's spring here, yes. The weather has been fairly nice this week, but until recently it has been cold, rainy and dreary for the most part. I used to assume the indoor animals with controlled light and heat on timers should be immune to this seasonal shift, but I have had ball pythons that clearly went off in the winter and spring. Maybe it's that bit of light coming in the window that tips them off, or they really have good internal clocks.

 

[marleehorne]

I would try the zip lock bag in hot water keeps the natural rodent scent. Yummy

 

[Trimeresurus]

Just sounds like a bad feeder if it's 2.5kg @ 7 years.

 

[pythonmum]

If your animal prefers dry prey, the blow drier works a treat. Every now and then my woma girl refuses a feed for no good reason. If I blow it dry, she takes it. The blow dry process makes it nice and stinky. My husband just shakes his head when I blow dry a dead rat.

 

[wokka]

I think the snake is only eating what he needs. At 7year old he has finished growing so a large rat a month is enough. Is he in resonable condition? If so just feed him once a month in summer and dont worry about winter. It would be nice to give it a bit bigger cage to allow some excersice which may even stimulate appetite.

 

[wokka]

Just sounds like a bad feeder if it's 2.5kg @ 7 years.

Sure ,it is at the smaller range for adult bredli but all animals achieve a range of sizes. 2.5 kilo for 6ft sounds about right to me.

 

[Trimeresurus]

Sure ,it is at the smaller range for adult bredli but all animals achieve a range of sizes. 2.5 kilo for 6ft sounds about right to me.

The weight to length matches up but seems small for a 7yr old bredli

 

[JM1982]

...For a change, I will thaw the rat in a plastic bag next time and for a while to see if warm, dry prey shows a higher acceptance rate compared to damp/wet...

Try braining as well, can't hurt!

 

[BIGBANG]

I think your cool spot isn't cool enough, and they don't require night time heating, as long as it doesn't get below 20 at night you'll be fine.

Have you tried braining? A nice hide in both warm and cool end (not huge, just enough to squeeze into).

And the enclosure would benefit being taller rather than wider, as they like to climb.

20 degrees at night??? you ever been to alice springs??? was just talking to my uncle that is there its 32 during the day and about 10-12 over night, they can handle much lower temps than that over night, my bredli are at mid-high 30's in their basking spot and no heat over night at all, is abot 15 degrees in their room over night at the moment and they are still feeding strong

 

[spilota_variegata]

I've had a reluctant jungle before and I found the trick to get it to eat was to ensure the prey item was always taken on the nose. If I got the snake to grab the point of the nose, it would eat - if not, it would almost certainly drop its food. Once the snake does take the food, avoid the temptation of checking it. Walk away for at least 1/2 an hour then come back for a look. The snake might sense your movement and lose interest in the food item.