Live Prey

Now, I have always insisted that I will not feed any of my snakes live prey (not legal, not humane, inspires vicious temperant etc etc)....

However, one of my snakes, a male jungle python (Hayden, named after Nicky Hayden.... the new Motogp world champ) who I have only had for 6 or 7 weeks.. just wouldn't eat.

His girlfriend Bella, eats no problem, as a result she is starting to outgrow him... in 7 weeks you say... yeah.. I don't know why, but all my snakes seem to grow quickly and alot on not alot of food... (must be the water)... ANYWAY, was a little concerned.

The other night, a friend of mine who is also a herper, threw in 2 live fuzzy mice, citing that she couldn't stand to see a snake starve, and bang... he ate... he is still the most docile of snakes on the planet (all my snakes are), but I am a little concerned.

I have tried every trick in the book with feeding him warmed up, soaked in flavour enhancers etc etc... and he just wouldn't go for it... is this going to be a permanent trend? Has anyone else had this problem?

The only thing I would be cocerned about is thaty now the little devils tasted live yummies, he'll be more stubborn when it comes to frozen/thawed.

If it was only 6 weeks it hant eaten, I would've held off, as you know, snakes can go easy months on end without food. Our darwin went 8 months then ate again and went 6 months, it was only at this point Inny got fed up with wasted rats he started giving live.

The snake will eat frozen/thawed if your smear mouse blood n guts on it and its hungry enough, and it will eat chickens, but he reckons its easier to keep it feeding than muck with it anymore.

Dont worry about it, live food is natural, they die quick too. If your squeamish, then keep trying frozen, or fresh pre-killed, etc, when the snake is hungry enough, it will eventually eat.

The only drawback with waiting too long with young snakes, is that all their food goes into growth, if they dont eat much, they dont grow much.
As a result our darwin now 2yrs old is still only about 4 ft, but I must stress, its in great health, just not as big as it would be, had it not been a stubborn *** LOL

Heres a inportant warning, you probably dont need but for the benifit of new keepers, NEVER leave live mice or rats in with your snake unsupervised! EVER!
Some sites love to display gross images of half eaten snakes, the results of leaving them with live food unsupervised.
Its my opinion that if your offering live, If the snake hasnt nailed it in 10 mins (while your watching) its not going to, REMOVE THE FOOD ANIMAL!