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Hairless Mice

StormRose

StormRose

Looking for Marbles
About a month ago I started switching over to hairless mice. Since I still had some leftover regular fuzzed mice to use up, and I'd been told that some snakes can sometimes have loose bowel movements when they're first switched to the hairless, I was alternating feedings between the hairless and the furred.

Well, last night my 4 year old caramel refused the furred mouse I offered, but snatched up the hairless.

Has anyone else that's switched over run into this behavior? I'm a little worried now that she's totally gone off the furred mice. The hairless are cheaper for me, but I have to order them in. I can't run to the store and grab one if I run out of food before a shipment arrives.
 
The hairless ones do seem to be better tasting to some individuals. I used to breed them specifically for WC Trans Pecos Ratsnakes.....for that particular reason. Hairless rats (frozen as crawlers) were like candy to them, too! The one problem you have with an all hairless diet is the lack of, well, hair. The hair really does serve as fiber, and seems to benefit the GI tract of adult snakes. I'm not sure if the above was a joke or not, but I would actually warn against using any fiber additives to your snakes diet unless you are very, very careful. They may pass through undigested (i.e., good - and this is what I suspect will happen), but you'd basically be experimenting with your snake in a way that might turn out bad.

I'm not sure if you'll see problems feeding all 100% hairless (I never did it because of the above concerns), but the chance that problems will occur is there. Just watch and be careful - and try to get some haired mice in that diet every few feedings. Use the same techniques you'd use to get a snake on mice in the first place: feed a haired and hairless at once, tease, switch feeding, etc. I'm surprised if the snake always refuses haired ones, but we all know it DOES happen.

I can't comment on the loose stool - I NEVER noticed that when I used to feed a lot of hairless rodents to my snakes. I think if you are seeing true loose stool, there might be something else going on. Also, realize that there are too different commonly available mutations that cause mice to be hairless. I never thought one would digest differently than the other, but the biochemical causes of the hairless condition are different...so who knows?
KJ
 
Thanks KJUN!

So far she hasn't had any loose stools, I was just informed that it 'could' be a side effect so I was proceeding with caution.

The thing that got to me is that she actually struck at the haired mouse, and then spit it out once she got it in her mouth and felt the fur. This is the first time she's refused one though, so I'll keep offering the furred mice and see if I can't tease her into taking one.
 
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