DavidButton
New member
I know this sounds like a strange request, but read on and you will understand.
After I recieved my adult pair of LTC northern emeralds earlier this year I had a problem with one of them regurging. After that happened and after speaking to an emerald breeder that told me that they had to put down 10 or 12 imported adults because of cronic regurging I started doing some deep research into emeralds in the wild and what they eat. That led me to the aboreal rice rat which by all accounts of research on emeralds in the wild was their staple food. Then I started doing research on aboreal rice rats which is a very obscure thing on the internet I assure you. But I finally tracked down enough information about them and found some interesting differences in what they eat and what the feeders that we normally buy eat.
The aboreal rice rat eats only fruit, seeds and nuts that are found in the rainforest canopy as opposed to it's terrestrial cousins that eat seeds, bugs and a large assortment of other things including scavenging on carcases of dead animals.
SO the big difference comes down to protiens. Animal based Vs. plant based. And we all know that most big rodent breeders bulk their feed with high protien dog food which is high in animal protiens.
All this led me to start a breeding project with some mice in which I would feed them only seeds and fruit. So I started with a 1.2 trio of mice and fed them papaya, starfruit, mango and an assortment of seed. At first they weren't too interested in the fruit, but readily ate the seeds. Then after a week or so they sarted eating the papaya(which has become their favorite) and other fruits readily, but still only a little at a time. Then came the second generation. They eat the papaya slices down to and including the rind and devour all the seed they can get. They are lean but healthy and have nice smooth and glossy coats.
I started feeding them to my male when they got big enough and what do you know, he had no regurge problem and passed them through with no problems at all.
Now I am on my third generation of these fruit and seed eating mice and am trying to find someone that has an emerald with a regurge problem so that I can send them some of my mice so that they can try feeding with them to see if the snake keeps them down.
If all goes well I will setup a rodent rack and start breeding more of these SF(seed and fruit) mice so that more people can get them for their emeralds. So if you know of anyone that has an emerald with this problem please contact me and I will send out some frozen mice as soon as they are big enough which should be in about 3 weeks. That is unless it is a neonate or juvi, in which case I have some ready now. These will be sent free of charge to the person just to help prove my theory. I have already pretty much proven this already, but I want more data from other sources.
David
After I recieved my adult pair of LTC northern emeralds earlier this year I had a problem with one of them regurging. After that happened and after speaking to an emerald breeder that told me that they had to put down 10 or 12 imported adults because of cronic regurging I started doing some deep research into emeralds in the wild and what they eat. That led me to the aboreal rice rat which by all accounts of research on emeralds in the wild was their staple food. Then I started doing research on aboreal rice rats which is a very obscure thing on the internet I assure you. But I finally tracked down enough information about them and found some interesting differences in what they eat and what the feeders that we normally buy eat.
The aboreal rice rat eats only fruit, seeds and nuts that are found in the rainforest canopy as opposed to it's terrestrial cousins that eat seeds, bugs and a large assortment of other things including scavenging on carcases of dead animals.
SO the big difference comes down to protiens. Animal based Vs. plant based. And we all know that most big rodent breeders bulk their feed with high protien dog food which is high in animal protiens.
All this led me to start a breeding project with some mice in which I would feed them only seeds and fruit. So I started with a 1.2 trio of mice and fed them papaya, starfruit, mango and an assortment of seed. At first they weren't too interested in the fruit, but readily ate the seeds. Then after a week or so they sarted eating the papaya(which has become their favorite) and other fruits readily, but still only a little at a time. Then came the second generation. They eat the papaya slices down to and including the rind and devour all the seed they can get. They are lean but healthy and have nice smooth and glossy coats.
I started feeding them to my male when they got big enough and what do you know, he had no regurge problem and passed them through with no problems at all.
Now I am on my third generation of these fruit and seed eating mice and am trying to find someone that has an emerald with a regurge problem so that I can send them some of my mice so that they can try feeding with them to see if the snake keeps them down.
If all goes well I will setup a rodent rack and start breeding more of these SF(seed and fruit) mice so that more people can get them for their emeralds. So if you know of anyone that has an emerald with this problem please contact me and I will send out some frozen mice as soon as they are big enough which should be in about 3 weeks. That is unless it is a neonate or juvi, in which case I have some ready now. These will be sent free of charge to the person just to help prove my theory. I have already pretty much proven this already, but I want more data from other sources.
David
