# Colubrids > Pituophis >  Fun stuff for snakes?

## OoohShiny

My new little bullsnake, Totoro, is just awesome, but he's also a learning curve after having only ball pythons until now! He's MUCH MUCH more active than my ball pythons, naturally. He will sit and staaaaare at me for a long time sometimes, and if I take him out, he's really wiggly and curious and just seems to enjoy being out. I think he's just smarter and enjoys the interaction (whereas the ball girls are very tame and sweet, but they would be fine if I never picked them up, lol). Totoro seems to enjoy being held, like he loves to push into my hands if I make little tunnels with my fingers. But he REALLY seems to pay attention when I'm helping my niece with her schoolwork, he will watch the computer screen sometimes, and he really likes digging around in her pencil case. Just a really active, curious, funny little guy. (I'm besotted, can you tell?)

Right now he's living in a small quarantine enclosure, and will be getting a bigger one in a few weeks with more stuff to do in it. Other than hides and sticks to climb, what are some good, fun, SAFE things I can put in there for him? He just seems so aware and smart, and I want him to have enough enrichment.

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*Bogertophis* (09-10-2020),_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020)

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## Bogertophis

Yes, way more interesting snakes to keep, IMO.  Same for rat snakes.  No offense to ball pythons, but this is why people joke & call them "pet rocks" by comparison.

So bull snakes love to burrow...you could give him a large deep box full of something like Carefresh to tunnel thru.  When I kept bull & gopher snakes, I got a few large 
terra cotta strawberry pots*...the kind with little "balconies" all around the main large body of the pot.  I fastened the pot to a base so the snake couldn't tip it as they get 
easily strong enough, but my snakes LOVED climbing in & out the holes on those pots.   You can also provide various "tunnels" (cardboard or PVC pipes/elbows).  Or you 
can make a large ladder (out of wood dowels, tree branches or bamboo) to lean inside his larger cage when he's out of quarantine...make the "ladder" very wide, not 
vertically narrow.

Like these*

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_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020),Craiga 01453 (09-10-2020),_GoingPostal_ (09-11-2020),_jmcrook_ (09-10-2020),OoohShiny (09-10-2020),_Reinz_ (09-20-2020)

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## Craiga 01453

Great thread topic. Now that I've gotten into Morelia I've been more interested in providing enrichment for them. 

Basically, your imagination is your only limitation. Just avoid any adhesives like tape, avoid sharp edges and metal wire (often found in fake plants), avoid aquarium decor designed for fish. 

With BPs sometimes something like a hide change or decor change can lead to food refusals and such.  You won't have that problem with a curious species like a bull. 

You can use cardboard boxes, tupperware, take out containers, paper towel tubes, pvc pipe (wide enough to climb in or build a perch type structure), terra cotta, sticks, rocks, etc...  Have fun with it. 

If you have any doubts as to whether or not it's safe, don't use it. Or at least ask around here first. 

Build little rock caves, being careful they can't crush the snake, tunnels, etc... 

But have fun with it, mix things up sporadically. Inquisitive snakes definitely appreciate the opportunity for enrichment.

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_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020),_jmcrook_ (09-10-2020),OoohShiny (09-10-2020)

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## OoohShiny

Strawberry pots, what a great idea, I love it! I can definitely see him getting all tangled up in one. He loves his stick, but he definitely needs more!

I knew a bullsnake would be more active, but it's his little personality that kills me. I love my ball pythons, they really are very friendly and have great personalities too, but this bullsnake is on a whole other level.

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*Bogertophis* (09-10-2020)

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## OoohShiny

I can see myself regularly redecorating his enclosure for sure, just to watch him explore! Right now he's got a hide, a stick, and some loose fake flowers and leaves that he uses as a sort of cool-side hide. He definitely needs more, though. 

I just looked over and he's staring at me again. I love that.

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*Bogertophis* (09-10-2020)

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## Craiga 01453

> I can see myself regularly redecorating his enclosure for sure, just to watch him explore! Right now he's got a hide, a stick, and some loose fake flowers and leaves that he uses as a sort of cool-side hide. He definitely needs more, though. 
> 
> I just looked over and he's staring at me again. I love that.


Hahhahaha, I hear ya!! I love going into my snake room and actually SEEING snakes. Don't get me wrong,I love my BPs but I rarely see them unless it's feeding time or handling. My hognose and KSB are out and about fairly regularly, but otherwise burrowed. The Morelia are out and perched more often than not.

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*Bogertophis* (09-10-2020),_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020),_jmcrook_ (09-10-2020),_Reinz_ (09-20-2020)

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## OoohShiny

I'm lucky that my younger BP, Tonks, really prefers to either sit out in the open, or on top of her hide, or half-in-half-out of her water dish for some reason. She's got a perfect climate in there, she just doesn't like to be inside her hides, so I do get to admire her pretty self a lot! But she does mostly sleep, so it's fun to watch this little guy get a burst of energy and tootle around several times a day. Plus he's a false ghost (Trumbower/whiteside) and a really light-colored one at that, so he's just visually gorgeous. He's a great little display snake - add on his funny little personality and I'm just totally in love.

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*Bogertophis* (09-10-2020),_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020),Craiga 01453 (09-10-2020),_jmcrook_ (09-10-2020)

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## jmcrook

Ive got a buddy with a 5-6 Kankakee Locality male bullsnake. And man is that thing fun to handle. Very expressive critter too. 
Cork bark would be a fun thing to enrich with. Big flats can act as a great hide to burrow under.


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*Bogertophis* (09-10-2020),Craiga 01453 (09-10-2020),_Reinz_ (09-20-2020)

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## OoohShiny

> Ive got a buddy with a 5-6 Kankakee Locality male bullsnake. And man is that thing fun to handle. Very expressive critter too. 
> Cork bark would be a fun thing to enrich with. Big flats can act as a great hide to burrow under.


Oh I cannot WAIT until he gets to be a big boy! He's pretty small, he was only hatched around the end of July, which is another reason I'm so impressed with his laid-back personality. HE's such a tiny little noodle now, it's hard to imagine him being 5-6 feet long someday! But I've seen his parents and they're both big beefy snakes, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what he looks like as an adult.

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*Bogertophis* (09-10-2020),_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020),_jmcrook_ (09-10-2020)

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## Bogertophis

> Oh I cannot WAIT until he gets to be a big boy! He's pretty small, he was only hatched around the end of July, which is another reason I'm so impressed with his laid-back personality. HE's such a tiny little noodle now, it's hard to imagine him being 5-6 feet long someday! But I've seen his parents and they're both big beefy snakes, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what he looks like as an adult.


Now you know why colubrids are so addicting!   :Very Happy:   But just one thing...IF you do use something like those "strawberry" pots, you'll have to take it away once he gets anywhere close to being able to get stuck in one of the holes...so check carefully, some holes might even be tighter than others.  But by the time he starts to out-grow it, he'll be ready for a change of scenery anyway...and then you can just grow some strawberries.   :Snake: 

As far as his laid-back personality, these snakes have always seemed pretty smart to me.  And they're FUN to feed, you can put that hair dryer away too, or just dry your hair for a change, lol.

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## OoohShiny

Well I finally set up Totoro's big boy tub - he got a large plastic tub, big enough to last him probably until he's about a year old, with aspen shavings, a couple UTH's (one large one small), a nice water dish, some driftwood and a fun mossy climbing thing because I had a Petsmart coupon I needed to use. He dove right into the aspen and loves swimming around in it, though I have to admit, having a white snake living in aspen shavings isn't ideal for a display animal, lol. He likes to hide so well that I have a mini panic attack every time I go to look for him, I always think for a minute that he's somehow escaped!

I definitely plan to use many of the idea you guys gave me, especially the strawberry pot, I'm going to grab one the next time I'm in town (I live up in the mountains). He enjoys climbing on his stuff, he'll like the strawberry pot a lot I think!

I'm feeling guilty today, I offered him a mouse yesterday and he was TERRIFIED. Full on hissing, striking, flailing and trying to get away from it. He even accidentally bit me, and he's usually very very tame. About an hour later I went to check on him and realized he's in blue... oops, my bad. No wonder the little guy was so scared! (Though in my defense, both of my ball pythons will eat even when in blue - once Ana Gwyn ate, then shed 10 minutes later! So Totoro being in blue possibly being the problem didn't immediately occur to me.) But true to his nature, after about an hour he was back to being completely handleable, even though he can't see me very well, so I feel like he's getting used to my scent meaning "it's okay, this lady is safe."

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*Bogertophis* (09-20-2020),_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020)

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## Alex Lehner

If you looks at bird toys and perches they have little wooden ladders like mentioned above that you can purchase for pretty cheap. 

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## OoohShiny

I like this idea, too! He does love to get up high - right now I'm not piling his stuff up too tall, because he's just tiny and I'm scared of him falling (into three inches of soft fluffy aspen shavings, lol - yes I'm a worried mom!). But once he figures out he has a tail and how to use it (he sometimes seems to forget it's back there and it overbalances him) I'm going to work on getting him more height to play with.

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## Caitlin

With little snakes that seem interested - they're out and about a lot and/or are asking to come out of their enclosures - I like to set up what the reptile training and enrichment folks (I'm definitely in that category) call 'snake in a box'.

I use a big Sterilite or Iris tub - the size of the tub depends on the size of the snake I am working with; you don't want to totally overwhelm a hatchling. I fill the tub with stuff they can climb over and into. That can be anything from empty cereal boxes, cardboard egg cartons and the cardboard rolls from toilet paper or paper towels, to branches, ladders, and those plastic balls for dogs that are mostly holes (I think they're called 'holee rollers' and are available in various sizes in the big box pet stores or on Chewy.com). Be sure she can't easily climb all the way up and out. I'll set the box + snake up next to me so I can keep an eye on them, and just let them explore. As she gets more comfortable with the 'snake in a box' routine, you can also set up food mazes or scent trails in the box.

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*Bogertophis* (09-20-2020)

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## OoohShiny

Oh wow, that does sound fun! I bet Totoro would love that, he's such a curious, active little dude - well normally he is, right now he's in blue and all grumpy about it, lol. But he's generally very active and I think he'd appreciate being a snake-in-the-box. That would be a really fun thing to have my niece help me set up, too, she loves my snakes and we could probably even find a way to make it a science project for her schoolwork!

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_Caitlin_ (09-20-2020)

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## Caitlin

> Oh wow, that does sound fun! I bet Totoro would love that, he's such a curious, active little dude - well normally he is, right now he's in blue and all grumpy about it, lol. But he's generally very active and I think he'd appreciate being a snake-in-the-box. That would be a really fun thing to have my niece help me set up, too, she loves my snakes and we could probably even find a way to make it a science project for her schoolwork!


If your niece wants to do a science project, I'd suggest that the two of you watch some videos by Lori Torrini, who is my sensei as far as this enrichment stuff goes. I'll link her youtube channel below. Lori does training, behavioral modification, and enrichment with a large group of snakes - mostly pythons, but she also works with colubrids. If your niece needs a couple of formal scientific articles on food mazes and target training for snakes, let me know and I can link some. A simple target training study or an observational study of the snake's response to offering enrichment could work out well for a project.

I try not to dump an overwhelming amount of information on newcomers to enrichment, but I'll just say there's a whole world of research, info, videos, and even online classes.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...y=lori+torrini

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*Bogertophis* (09-20-2020)

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## OoohShiny

That is so cool, I never knew about any of this, I'll definitely check it out! I'd love anything you want to link to  :Smile:  And hey, if the project requires pythons, I've got two of those, lol. Niece will be very excited about something like this, even if we only end up doing it for fun. but I definitely think Totoro will enjoy it!

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## Bogertophis

Just make sure that any enrichment "toys" have no holes that your snake can get stuck in, because sooner or later it will happen.  Plug any unsafe holes first, don't rely on 
your memory for when your snake grows larger.  With the strawberry terra cotta pots, I got ones with a drainage hole in the center bottom, so I used that to run a bolt* thru the hole & into a sturdy board underneath it for a base, to prevent it from being tipped over by the snake having fun; any time you have a rock or other items that are heavy, you need to prevent injuries by making sure they cannot be toppled on your snake.  (*you'll probably need a fender washer & a nut too)

I like Caitlin's idea of a "play-ground"...I've actually constructed mazes out of clean cardboard boxes (shoe boxes etc) & my snakes absolutely loved them & felt very safe 
with so many hiding places and multiple doors to peek out of.   Very sad when they finally out-grew them...I did that when I first got my pair of Trans Pecos rat snakes as 
tiny c/b hatchlings, shipped un-fed right out of their eggs.  After air shipping, I knew they'd be stressed, & it really helped them quickly adjust & eagerly gobble up pinkies.

Ladders:  while bird ladders will work ok, they're vertically arranged.  What I do is construct a "ladder" that is much wider (at least 2' wide), with the total length = to the 
diagonal distance from the bottom to the top of the tank, so the snakes can not only go up & down, but bask horizontally as they would on branches.  It can be made of 
real branches, bamboo, or store-bought wood, whatever's handy & appeals to you.  Even a large tub set up with natural branches intersecting diagonally every which way 
would be well-received for climbing, I can assure you.

This is all taking the place of things snakes would actually do in nature...it's like "kindergarten" for snakes, lol.

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## OoohShiny

I had to come report back - yesterday I finally got a chance to add some fun stuff to Totoro's tub, and I'm so glad I did! I found a way to securely hang some of that fake leafy vine from the dollar store about halfway up in his tub, and got him one of those cat toys that's a ball in a circular track. I swear, you'd have thought Totoro was a toddler at an amusement park! He spent about an hour hiding from the new stuff in his hide, but then he came out to investigate and it was ON. He was climbing vines, tunneling under the ball toy, all over the place... he started around 6 pm, and when I went to bed at midnight he was STILL at it. Apparently the very BEST thing is to climb up onto the vine above the toy, then dive down through the middle of the toy and into a tunnel that he dug. He did that for hours, over and over again. It was awesome to see him having so much fun. I'm definitely going to use some more of these enrichment ideas and keep changing things up for him, since he so obviously appreciates it  :Smile: 

Then, this morning when I went to feed him, he ATTACKED his mouse with more enthusiasm than I've seen from him since I got him. I bet all that playing made him hungry!

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*Bogertophis* (10-02-2020),_Caitlin_ (10-03-2020),_dakski_ (10-05-2020)

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## Caitlin

I LOVE hearing this. Good job, and it's just wonderful to hear how well your little guy responded to this. There are lots of studies demonstrating that snakes provided with enrichment are better able to cope with changes, are more apt to explore, and are quicker to learn than snakes without those opportunities. But actually seeing it happen with your own pet is a wonderful feeling.

Congratulations! Please keep us updated!

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*Bogertophis* (10-03-2020),OoohShiny (10-04-2020)

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## OoohShiny

> I LOVE hearing this. Good job, and it's just wonderful to hear how well your little guy responded to this. There are lots of studies demonstrating that snakes provided with enrichment are better able to cope with changes, are more apt to explore, and are quicker to learn than snakes without those opportunities. But actually seeing it happen with your own pet is a wonderful feeling.
> 
> Congratulations! Please keep us updated!


Aww, thank you. it makes me feel good to give my pets happy, healthy, interesting lives (looks down at dachshunds under blankies in lap). I never thought about snakes needing enrichment, and I don't think the ball pythons really care much - they have stuff but don't interact with it much - but this little boy obviously does! He's SO MUCH more active now that he's got some interesting toys, and it's so entertaining to sit and watch him climb and dig and be so active. I even go in every couple days and purposely fluff up his substrate, and he immediately starts digging new holes, lol. He's doing it right now, in fact!

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## OoohShiny

Thought I'd give a little update on my boy! Totoro is growing like crazy, I'm about to have to upgrade all his toys because he's getting too big to climb on most of them. He still uses the cat toys and vines I have in his tub, and he even climbs all over the little tinsel Christmas tree I got him, lol. I saw some fun balls made for dogs that have holes all in them that I want to get him, and I definitely plan to go to the garden store for a strawberry pot that was recommended here. HE's not ready for a bigger tub yet, but soon, and I have a new, teensy baby cornsnake I can move into Totoro's current tub when he outgrows it.

Toto continues to be the absolute sweetest boy, especially for a baby bullsnake - Emily from Snake Discovery did a video recently about her holdbacks from this year, and she held back two of his siblings, which she said are very hissy and attitude-y, but Totoro is just lovely to handle, so calm and trustworthy, never hisses or bites. HE's obviously very smart and curious and still watches me all the time!

The only problem I've had with him is that he REFUSES to upgrade to eating hoppers, they seem to scare him to bits. It's the only time I see him upset. He wasn't growing and I was startled to see how much smaller he is than his siblings, so I started just feeding him two fuzzies at mealtimes, and he'll down those with no problems. Since I figured that out, he's growing again, thankfully! I keep his sheds and I can see that he's getting bigger by the size of the newer ones compared to the older ones. 

Anyway, just thought I'd share! I'll try to take some pics and post them soon. He's still the prettiest thing I've ever seen (false ghost/Trumbower-whiteside) and just so sweet I can't wait to see what he's like as an adult!

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## Bogertophis

> ...
> 
> The only problem I've had with him is that he REFUSES to upgrade to eating hoppers, they seem to scare him to bits. It's the only time I see him upset. He wasn't growing and I was startled to see how much smaller he is than his siblings, so I started just feeding him two fuzzies at mealtimes, and he'll down those with no problems. Since I figured that out, he's growing again, thankfully! I keep his sheds and I can see that he's getting bigger by the size of the newer ones compared to the older ones...


Are you feeding live rodents?  If so, try offering a fresh-killed or frozen-thawed hopper.  If he's good & hungry, he should take it alright.  It's NOT okay to keep feeding 2 fuzzies instead- BECAUSE the more mature the rodents are, the better nutrition they are for your snake, in terms of more protein & larger bones providing minerals so he grows & is healthy.  The younger "baby" rodents are less filling due to being more digestible (tiny bones, less hair, etc) and they're higher in fat because they're still nursing.  So you see, it's not a good trade off, your boy needs to grow up & "eat his Wheaties".  :Wink:    Don't baby him, he needs to grow strong, not just fat.

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## OoohShiny

> Are you feeding live rodents?  If so, try offering a fresh-killed or frozen-thawed hopper.  If he's good & hungry, he should take it alright.  It's NOT okay to keep feeding 2 fuzzies instead- BECAUSE the more mature the rodents are, the better nutrition they are for your snake, in terms of more protein & larger bones providing minerals so he grows & is healthy.  The younger "baby" rodents are less filling due to being more digestible (tiny bones, less hair, etc) and they're higher in fat because they're still nursing.  So you see, it's not a good trade off, your boy needs to grow up & "eat his Wheaties".    Don't baby him, he needs to grow strong, not just fat.


I only feed F/T, so he's not scared of live hoppers, he's scared of DEAD ones, lol. I've only done the two-fuzzies-at-once thing 3 times (so, less than a month), and I was going to try another hopper at his next feeding tomorrow, though he may not eat since he's in blue. I know he needs to move up in prey size, but if the other option is him not eating at all, and thus not growing or shedding, I'd rather give him what he will eat even if it's for a limited time, ya know? He had gone almost a month without eating, which I know isn't that long, but he hadn't shed since early November so I know he wasn't growing, and he was about 1/3 the size of his siblings in the SD video and it worried me. At least now he's having a growth spurt and about to shed again, so I feel better that he's back on track and plan to offer him another hopper now that he's bigger - maybe it won't be so scary this time, lol.

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## Bogertophis

> I only feed F/T, so he's not scared of live hoppers, he's scared of DEAD ones, lol. I've only done the two-fuzzies-at-once thing 3 times (so, less than a month), and I was going to try another hopper at his next feeding tomorrow, though he may not eat since he's in blue. I know he needs to move up in prey size, but if the other option is him not eating at all, and thus not growing or shedding, I'd rather give him what he will eat even if it's for a limited time, ya know? He had gone almost a month without eating, which I know isn't that long, but he hadn't shed since early November so I know he wasn't growing, and he was about 1/3 the size of his siblings in the SD video and it worried me. At least now he's having a growth spurt and about to shed again, so I feel better that he's back on track and plan to offer him another hopper now that he's bigger - maybe it won't be so scary this time, lol.


Shouldn't be scared of dead hoppers...was it only this time?  Because snakes know (can feel) they're going into shed before we can see it, & many snakes act afraid of food when they don't want to eat because of their impending shed.  Hopefully this will self-correct once he sheds.  I wouldn't bother offering food when he's in blue...snakes don't eat in the wild when in blue, & it's totally not necessary even if they have "room service".  Better not to push food on snakes...just be patient, they usually know what they're doing, & there's nothing wrong with growing slowly- in fact, it's better for them.

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## OoohShiny

> Shouldn't be scared of dead hoppers...was it only this time?  Because snakes know (can feel) they're going into shed before we can see it, & many snakes act afraid of food when they don't want to eat because of their impending shed.  Hopefully this will self-correct once he sheds.  I wouldn't bother offering food when he's in blue...snakes don't eat in the wild when in blue, & it's totally not necessary even if they have "room service".  Better not to push food on snakes...just be patient, they usually know what they're doing, & there's nothing wrong with growing slowly- in fact, it's better for them.


I offered him hoppers 4 weeks in a row, and each time he responded with hissing, striking, and trying desperately to get away. He's normally very calm, very easy to handle, these were the only situations I saw him behave this way which definitely looked like fear to me. When I offered him fuzzies again, he didn't display the same behavior and ate readily. I did assume he refused to eat the first time (this was early November when it all started) because he was in blue, but he continued to show this behavior with hoppers for 3 weeks after shedding then ate the fuzzies without a problem when I offered them, so I figured it wasn't that. Thankfully my ball python Tonks is a garbage disposal who will eat anything, any day, any time, so the hoppers didn't go to waste!

I think I'm spoiled because my other 3 snakes - 2 ball pythons and a corn snake - all eat no matter if they're in blue or not, so I always offer food regardless. Totoro is the only snake that has refused food, and he's my sweet little guy so I worry about him, and I sometimes wonder if it's because he's my only snake that's not a wild type. I know there's theories that fancy morphs can be difficult eaters, and he's definitely got a lot of special genetics going on. I definitely don't agree with power feeding and that's never my goal, I was just shocked at how HUGE his siblings were in the video and felt like maybe his growth was being delayed with the refusal to eat, and now at least he's growing. But he definitely needs to start eating hoppers soon, he's almost too big for them already!

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## Bogertophis

> I offered him hoppers 4 weeks in a row, and each time he responded with hissing, striking, and trying desperately to get away. He's normally very calm, very easy to handle, these were the only situations I saw him behave this way which definitely looked like fear to me. When I offered him fuzzies again, he didn't display the same behavior and ate readily. I did assume he refused to eat the first time (this was early November when it all started) because he was in blue, but he continued to show this behavior with hoppers for 3 weeks after shedding then ate the fuzzies without a problem when I offered them, so I figured it wasn't that. Thankfully my ball python Tonks is a garbage disposal who will eat anything, any day, any time, so the hoppers didn't go to waste!
> 
> I think I'm spoiled because my other 3 snakes - 2 ball pythons and a corn snake - all eat no matter if they're in blue or not, so I always offer food regardless. Totoro is the only snake that has refused food, and he's my sweet little guy so I worry about him, and I sometimes wonder if it's because he's my only snake that's not a wild type. I know there's theories that fancy morphs can be difficult eaters, and he's definitely got a lot of special genetics going on. I definitely don't agree with power feeding and that's never my goal, I was just shocked at how HUGE his siblings were in the video and felt like maybe his growth was being delayed with the refusal to eat, and now at least he's growing. But he definitely needs to start eating hoppers soon, he's almost too big for them already!


So exactly how are you offering them?  Some snakes will take food that seems to approach them, but it terrifies others.  Could that be it?  It's often best to elicit a chase, by moving the prey slightly away from the snake, never toward them. (using tongs of course)  Also, some snakes (like BPs, that are ambush predators) prefer to grab prey from inside their hides when it appears near their doorway (& never while they're "out in the open") & still others prefer that we "drop feed" (just leave it & go away).  I even have snakes that like to eat while I'm holding them, lol.  You just have to find out their preference.  But others (mellow snakes like yours) may eat poorly because of too much handling- that can distract from their feeding instincts.  You might try leaving him alone for a couple days before you feed him (until he outgrows this phase).  If he's just a shy feeder, try feeding him in seclusion (in a container).  I'm surprised you're having this problem with a bull snake, to be honest- it's not typical of them at all.

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## OoohShiny

> So exactly how are you offering them?  Some snakes will take food that seems to approach them, but it terrifies others.  Could that be it?  It's often best to elicit a chase, by moving the prey slightly away from the snake, never toward them. (using tongs of course)  Also, some snakes (like BPs, that are ambush predators) prefer to grab prey from inside their hides when it appears near their doorway (& never while they're "out in the open") & still others prefer that we "drop feed" (just leave it & go away).  I even have snakes that like to eat while I'm holding them, lol.  You just have to find out their preference.  But others (mellow snakes like yours) may eat poorly because of too much handling- that can distract from their feeding instincts.  You might try leaving him alone for a couple days before you feed him (until he outgrows this phase).  If he's just a shy feeder, try feeding him in seclusion (in a container).  I'm surprised you're having this problem with a bull snake, to be honest- it's not typical of them at all.


Sorry, got busy and forgot to respond! How i offer prey depends on the snake - one of my BPs likes to strike and wrap her prey so I dangle and wiggle it a little, never takes more than 10 seconds for her to grab it. The other BP prefers me to leave her prey and she'll always eat it, usually within an hour, but she's not much of a striker, she just wants to come out and eat at her leisure. My corn snake needs his pinky to touch his lips before he'll bite, but he grabs it the moment it touches him (and he will eat while I'm holding him, too! He's the only one of mine that eats while being held). 

Totoro is pickier, but in general he wants his prey to be just lying there waiting for him to eat. If he sees it move, he acts scared and either tries to get away, or hisses and fear-strikes. So with him, I usually put his prey in a small tupperware container, let the scent fill the container for a minute or two, then put him in and he always eats within a few minutes. Except when I tried to move him up to hoppers, then he refused to eat no matter what I tried, but he ate right away if it was two fuzzies. It's definitely weird, because everything I hear about bullsnakes is that they are such good eaters! 

And I don't *think* I handle him too much? I handle all my snakes maybe twice a week each, for about 10 minutes at a time. Never in the two days after being fed. Totoro generally very sweet and easy to handle, but I still don't want to stress him so I keep it to a minimum to keep them used to being handled while mostly letting them just be snakes. 

That said, he finally ate a hopper yesterday! I checked my notes - I fed him two fuzzies at a time for 4 feedings, once a week, and in that time he put on significant weight (he's almost 80g now), had a good shed last week, and visually looks a lot bulkier. I offered him a hopper yesterday, there was no fear response and he ate pretty much immediately! I still think the size of the hoppers must have scared him, since he ate fuzzies just fine, and once he got bigger the hopper didn't seem as intimidating. Either way, he's finally eating the size he should be!

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## Bogertophis

Great news!  Your "little guy" is growing up... :Wink:   And yes, it could be his fancy genetics at work, who knows?

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