Success! Ate on the first attempt!

[Wolfchan]

With no small amount of trepidation, I offered Mocha a thawed mouse tonight and he snatched it before it got halfway to him! I'm thrilled! He needs to gain some weight, and I was braced for him to turn down thawed or to otherwise be challenging to get eating, so I'm ecstatic that it looks like he's going to make it easier on me than I was expecting.

Since he does need to put on some weight, how often should I be offering food? He's small enough that two adult mice or one rat hopper is about an appropriate meal, though at the moment my freezer is full of mice to be used up.

[AlexisFitzy]

How much does your snake weigh? And do you know how old your snake is?


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[Wolfchan]

Derp, I don't have an accurate weight, I'll get one when he's had a couple of days to digest. No idea on age as he came into an animal shelter as a stray.

[AKA Dave]

Always a good feeling when they do that.

Dave

[ballpythonsrock2]

With no small amount of trepidation, I offered Mocha a thawed mouse tonight and he snatched it before it got halfway to him! I'm thrilled! He needs to gain some weight, and I was braced for him to turn down thawed or to otherwise be challenging to get eating, so I'm ecstatic that it looks like he's going to make it easier on me than I was expecting.

Since he does need to put on some weight, how often should I be offering food? He's small enough that two adult mice or one rat hopper is about an appropriate meal, though at the moment my freezer is full of mice to be used up.

Glad for you! I have a female who hasn't turned down a mouse yet. She is a little pig. She would eat 2 days later if I let her. But I wait a week/ 6 days soonest.

So I would say about once a week is a good time. Or if the snake is a mature adult then once every two weeks. Once you know his weight you can feed at 10-15 percent of his body weight. So if he is say 400 grams you would feed 40 - 60 grams. Or some pick a single feeder at the same size or a bit smaller even as the largest part of the snake. I like using the weigh method myself but sometimes that is not as feasible like say when using live. So then you would have to eye ball it. If it has been one week and your snake looks poised to strike just inside the hide I would say definitely go for it. If he is outside his hide he might or might not be hungry you would just have to try and see.

I would use the same technique you used when you where successful last. If it worked the first time it will likely work again, if the snake is in fact hungry. I personally recommend not touching your snakes head with the feeder, just keep it close up and let him decide to go for it or not. I would try holding it still at the beginning and see if he strikes, if not, try moving the feeder forward and back like a live nervous mouse does. Just like in fishing you imitate live, you want to imitate a live mouse, IMO.

[Wolfchan]

Excellent, thank you! He's 626g, I'll weigh his food next week to be certain he gets an appropriate amount of food. I've had colubrids for decades but never branched out much, and I'm enjoying him more than I would have thought possible.

[PitOnTheProwl]

10-15% is for hatchlings and not really meant for adults.
at that weight a small rat once a week is more than enough.
With feeding mice you could probably do two a week or alternate one one week and to the next.