Re: HELP!! indigo feeding problems... long post

Posted by Fred Albury on March 27, 2001 at 15:40:18:

In Reply to: HELP!! indigo feeding problems... long post posted by Russ on March 27, 2001 at 14:44:40:

: Hi all.i hope you ladies and gents can give me some tips with this stubborn eastern i acquired a couple of years ago as a sub-adult. for the first year and a half he fed like an indigo..voraciously.then an indigo breeder at a show sold me some baby chicks.he said they like variety.well he was right about the chicks my big guy loved 'em.now the problem.after a couple of weeks of chicks he refused rats.after a while i got him taking large mice but as you can imagine not very cost effective.now he refuses rats,mice,and gerbils.after the winter fast he still wouldn't eat any of them.i did get him to take a couple of chicken wings recently but they're not to nutritious so i know thats not the answer.he seems hungry, even tried to eat a small rat(50 grams) last night but everything seems to large for his jaws. any suggestions or advice will greatly appreciated by my indigo and myself. thanks for taking the time to read this long post.
: Russ

Russ,

It seems that in introduceing your then sub-adult Indigo to chicks you have made him partial to them. This is common, my own indigos were offered chicks last year after a big reptile show, and it was a pain getting them to eat much else.
The fact that yours is only eating mice is normal also. I actually feed my adult breeders large mice, and they love them. Economically , it can be more costly, but understand that indigos do not have very wide mouths, so are designed to eat smaller prey items anyway. To get your Indigo back on rats, I suggest that you offer him small fuzzy rats, not even weaned yet. Yes, it is economically not a great idea, but if he gets used to feeding on these smaller unweaned rats, than he will be more receptive to accepting small and medium rats in a while. A medium rat is really to large of a meal for an Indigo, and is one bear of a meal for it to digest. I suggest useing weaning fuzzy rats and then slowly working the snake up to small rats. And dont offer him any more chicken products, even wings, unless you are in an economic position to be able to afford to continue this trend , should the need arise.
If you have any other questions, feel free to e-mail me at FA19@excite.com and I will do my best to answer them.

Sincerely,

Fred

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: : Hi all.i hope you ladies and gents can give me some tips with this stubborn eastern i acquired a couple of years ago as a sub-adult. for the first year and a half he fed like an indigo..voraciously.then an indigo breeder at a show sold me some baby chicks.he said they like variety.well he was right about the chicks my big guy loved 'em.now the problem.after a couple of weeks of chicks he refused rats.after a while i got him taking large mice but as you can imagine not very cost effective.now he refuses rats,mice,and gerbils.after the winter fast he still wouldn't eat any of them.i did get him to take a couple of chicken wings recently but they're not to nutritious so i know thats not the answer.he seems hungry, even tried to eat a small rat(50 grams) last night but everything seems to large for his jaws. any suggestions or advice will greatly appreciated by my indigo and myself. thanks for taking the time to read this long post. : : Russ : Russ, : : It seems that in introduceing your then sub-adult Indigo to chicks you have made him partial to them. This is common, my own indigos were offered chicks last year after a big reptile show, and it was a pain getting them to eat much else. : The fact that yours is only eating mice is normal also. I actually feed my adult breeders large mice, and they love them. Economically , it can be more costly, but understand that indigos do not have very wide mouths, so are designed to eat smaller prey items anyway. To get your Indigo back on rats, I suggest that you offer him small fuzzy rats, not even weaned yet. Yes, it is economically not a great idea, but if he gets used to feeding on these smaller unweaned rats, than he will be more receptive to accepting small and medium rats in a while. A medium rat is really to large of a meal for an Indigo, and is one bear of a meal for it to digest. I suggest useing weaning fuzzy rats and then slowly working the snake up to small rats. And dont offer him any more chicken products, even wings, unless you are in an economic position to be able to afford to continue this trend , should the need arise. : If you have any other questions, feel free to e-mail me at FA19@excite.com and I will do my best to answer them. : : Sincerely, : Fred

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