RenegadeQuinn
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- Mar 1, 2021
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Hey guys!
I've only just gotten my jungle, she's almost four months now. She was started on weaner mice and we've been trying to switch her over to fuzzy rats due to her size and the nutritional content.
We picked her up just after a feed so she had a week to settle in before we introduced food. She went from a bin to a 4 foot tank (don't crucify me please let me explain) but it was her choice. When we got her we placed her small bin in the new enclosure and kept the lid on her bin. Her heating has always been consistent. She had some leaves, a water dish and a hide. At night as an experiment (day three of her being home) we took the lid off the bin to see if she was interested in a bigger space (breeder said she ate better/was happier when moved to an oversized tub). She adored it, she was out in the open, exploring, but slowly. She wasn't frantic, no signs of stress.
We did this for the first few days and then removed her bin. While her current enclosure is large for a baby it is chock full of stuff. She's got five formal (size-appropriate) hides but plenty more that she's found/created (hiding between hides and the wall, using her plants as a hide, ect). She's also got two large ferns, plants hung up in the walls, and a few leafy plants draped around as well as a grass patch. Heated with a CHE ambient temp around 28-30C. Her cool end is 24-26C.
With this setup she ate her first week. She was right out in the open, living it up on her fern under her CHE, and when we offered her a frozen thawed mouse she struck at it and constricted (which she never did for her breeder). We left her alone and she chowed down within half an hour.
The problem came next week when we decided to try switching her over to rats. We offered a rat and she didn't like it so we went to move her into her old bin to leave her in a smaller space with the rat. She absolutely flipped out, most freaked I've ever seen her. She was so frantic we couldn't even get the lid on so we just let her run back into her big enclosure and hide. I'm not sure why she flipped out so much. She has been handled before (a bit by the breeder and twice by us in the week after she ate - 15mins each time and with a rest day in-between) and managed it without any noted additional stress. Same night time behaviour, slow exploration broken up by long periods of relaxation. Comfortable and fully relaxed while fully exposed.
When we went to move her into her old tub to eat we wanted to be careful to not over handle her. We really didn't want to overwhelm her or stress her out. We picked her up on her snake hook (which she's used to) and gently set her down into her old bin with the exact same setup it had when she was in it before. As soon as she touched down she shot forward really frantically moving around, I removed the snake hook and tried to accomodate the run with my hands (hand under hand so she had somewhere to go and her body was supported) but she was absolutely not having it, she peed and musked and refused her old tub. Only tried to settle her for maybe 5-10 seconds max before realising it wasn't worth her stress and she could just skip a feed this week.
Since then she's been acting funny. We've left her alone because the experience was obviously incredibly stressful and scary for her but we're worried because she's stopped coming out at night to explore and enjoy her enclosure. We saw her once when we needed to move her to tidy/re-humidify her enclosure (had to move her hides and she scooted around to avoid my hands while I tidied - moved slowly and went from one side to the other so she could easily avoid me - we've done this before and she didn't mind)). Once we were done (poop gone, substrate damp) she was obviously really stressed. She was moving really quickly around her closure and climbing the walls like she was looking to get out, which she has never done before. After a few minutes she calmed down and hid again and we haven't seen her since. She doesn't seem sick, normal tongue flicks, no mouth gaping, no excess spit, I had a look while I was cleaning the cage (didn't pick her up, just kept an eye on her as she was moving around)
We've got to try and feed her again tomorrow but I'm worried about doing something wrong again and scaring her. I'm also a bit extra worried because I'm still not sure exactly why she freaked out last time.
We normally feed her at night once she's come out into the open on her own terms so she feels secure in her hides but I'm worried about trying to feed her if she won't come out, especially because she felt so vulnerable last time, I don't want to remove the hide she's using and expose her.
I want to try another rat tomorrow and if she really doesn't want it I'll give her two mice next week so she's got some food in her and then I'll try scenting a rat.
I want to try and scent but I'm not too sure what to use to appeal to carpets. I'm thinking of thawing in an egg or in tuna water to see if she'll like it. If I can't get her to take a scented frozen thawed rat I'll try quail. I know it's a bit more expensive but my understanding is that they're as nutritionally robust if not more so than rats which is all I really care about.
Obviously we're not handling her anymore since she's so stressed. I also know that it's not the end of the world if she skips a few feeds, I'm only worried because she's a baby still and needs good, consistent nutrition to grow properly.
Sorry for the ridiculously long post, I just wanted to make sure to offer as much information as I can so that someone smarter than me might be able to pick up on what's going on. Basically I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea why she flipped out last time and any advice on how to transfer picky eaters over to frozen thawed rats.
I've only just gotten my jungle, she's almost four months now. She was started on weaner mice and we've been trying to switch her over to fuzzy rats due to her size and the nutritional content.
We picked her up just after a feed so she had a week to settle in before we introduced food. She went from a bin to a 4 foot tank (don't crucify me please let me explain) but it was her choice. When we got her we placed her small bin in the new enclosure and kept the lid on her bin. Her heating has always been consistent. She had some leaves, a water dish and a hide. At night as an experiment (day three of her being home) we took the lid off the bin to see if she was interested in a bigger space (breeder said she ate better/was happier when moved to an oversized tub). She adored it, she was out in the open, exploring, but slowly. She wasn't frantic, no signs of stress.
We did this for the first few days and then removed her bin. While her current enclosure is large for a baby it is chock full of stuff. She's got five formal (size-appropriate) hides but plenty more that she's found/created (hiding between hides and the wall, using her plants as a hide, ect). She's also got two large ferns, plants hung up in the walls, and a few leafy plants draped around as well as a grass patch. Heated with a CHE ambient temp around 28-30C. Her cool end is 24-26C.
With this setup she ate her first week. She was right out in the open, living it up on her fern under her CHE, and when we offered her a frozen thawed mouse she struck at it and constricted (which she never did for her breeder). We left her alone and she chowed down within half an hour.
The problem came next week when we decided to try switching her over to rats. We offered a rat and she didn't like it so we went to move her into her old bin to leave her in a smaller space with the rat. She absolutely flipped out, most freaked I've ever seen her. She was so frantic we couldn't even get the lid on so we just let her run back into her big enclosure and hide. I'm not sure why she flipped out so much. She has been handled before (a bit by the breeder and twice by us in the week after she ate - 15mins each time and with a rest day in-between) and managed it without any noted additional stress. Same night time behaviour, slow exploration broken up by long periods of relaxation. Comfortable and fully relaxed while fully exposed.
When we went to move her into her old tub to eat we wanted to be careful to not over handle her. We really didn't want to overwhelm her or stress her out. We picked her up on her snake hook (which she's used to) and gently set her down into her old bin with the exact same setup it had when she was in it before. As soon as she touched down she shot forward really frantically moving around, I removed the snake hook and tried to accomodate the run with my hands (hand under hand so she had somewhere to go and her body was supported) but she was absolutely not having it, she peed and musked and refused her old tub. Only tried to settle her for maybe 5-10 seconds max before realising it wasn't worth her stress and she could just skip a feed this week.
Since then she's been acting funny. We've left her alone because the experience was obviously incredibly stressful and scary for her but we're worried because she's stopped coming out at night to explore and enjoy her enclosure. We saw her once when we needed to move her to tidy/re-humidify her enclosure (had to move her hides and she scooted around to avoid my hands while I tidied - moved slowly and went from one side to the other so she could easily avoid me - we've done this before and she didn't mind)). Once we were done (poop gone, substrate damp) she was obviously really stressed. She was moving really quickly around her closure and climbing the walls like she was looking to get out, which she has never done before. After a few minutes she calmed down and hid again and we haven't seen her since. She doesn't seem sick, normal tongue flicks, no mouth gaping, no excess spit, I had a look while I was cleaning the cage (didn't pick her up, just kept an eye on her as she was moving around)
We've got to try and feed her again tomorrow but I'm worried about doing something wrong again and scaring her. I'm also a bit extra worried because I'm still not sure exactly why she freaked out last time.
We normally feed her at night once she's come out into the open on her own terms so she feels secure in her hides but I'm worried about trying to feed her if she won't come out, especially because she felt so vulnerable last time, I don't want to remove the hide she's using and expose her.
I want to try another rat tomorrow and if she really doesn't want it I'll give her two mice next week so she's got some food in her and then I'll try scenting a rat.
I want to try and scent but I'm not too sure what to use to appeal to carpets. I'm thinking of thawing in an egg or in tuna water to see if she'll like it. If I can't get her to take a scented frozen thawed rat I'll try quail. I know it's a bit more expensive but my understanding is that they're as nutritionally robust if not more so than rats which is all I really care about.
Obviously we're not handling her anymore since she's so stressed. I also know that it's not the end of the world if she skips a few feeds, I'm only worried because she's a baby still and needs good, consistent nutrition to grow properly.
Sorry for the ridiculously long post, I just wanted to make sure to offer as much information as I can so that someone smarter than me might be able to pick up on what's going on. Basically I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea why she flipped out last time and any advice on how to transfer picky eaters over to frozen thawed rats.