• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

why?

C

CornDude

New member
why is it that snakes that are fed live wont always accept dead food? is it the fact that they want the hunt? or is it that their instincts tell them that something may be wrong with it if its dead?
or what?
 
I think we might not give snakes enough credit for personality. IMO, if you feed them live all the time, they turn into culinary snobs. And they probably also associate sound/motion with food, so they never learn that something that is still and doesn't squeak is just as edible. I think when they're young, you can fool them into realizing that the only relevant sign of food is the warmth. My corn won't eat F/T mice unless they're pretty warm. He ignores ones at room temperature, probably because the first ones he got were live, and pretty toasty because of it. It took me a couple feedings to get him to reliably eat F/T pinkies. And now he's got me trained to warm them up under his lamp before offering them to him. Not quite sure who's running the show in this relationship.
 
There seem to be certain stimuli that trigger feeding. Heat (particularly in ball pythons). Movement. Scent. Salty moisture from urine, tears, or blood. Getting the right combination of stimuli isn't always easy and can vary from snake to snake, even in the same species.
 
Snakes by their very nature are not scavengers. They are predators. A corn snake can be "fooled" into eating pre-killed mice. This trick is not always successful.
 
Hmmm I always thought that snakes were opportunists and would feed on dead prey if they had to (in the wild).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top