So proud of my new BP, I could kiss him!

[jjc]

Okay, I intended to wait until Saturday to feed him, but the pet store had crappy records and multiple snakes in his tank, and their answer when I asked when they last ate was, "...about a week or so ago, I think." Eh...

So, he's been in his new digs for five days, and the temp situation is now under control (we are rocking 82F belly on the cool side, 93F belly on the hot side, and the ambient ranges from 78F to 88F from one side to the other).

I thawed his mouse and warmed it up a bit, and then I simply dropped it in his tank, since I don't have any decent tongs, and I figured I'd at least see what he did with a boring, still mouse (really figured I'd be throwing this mouse away). He wandered around for about an hour, but kept seeming to overlook the mouse. You could tell he definitely smelled something interesting, but I figured the mouse had now cooled off too much, and he would eventually lose interest.

I turned on his light, so I could retrieve the mouse, but he was still roaming around, and I was waiting until he made it to the other side of the cage (I'm new at this and a little nervous about poking around in there while he's worked up over a mouse). Well, he was sort of randomly poking around and finally flicked the tail with his tongue. That's all it took. He promptly grabbed it and ate it without even hesitating! With his bright light on, at that!

So, please tell me this is a good sign for future eating habits...? Is it too early to get excited about my "good eater"?

Pics of his first meal are here.

Also, any advice to secure the sensor cords with the thermometers? They're pretty long, which means a lot of extra cord bundled up in there.

Thanks for reading my excited ramblings! All of my friends and family are grossed out by his (her?) existence, so you poor people are my only real outlet for snake news, lol. I know BPs all over the world eat every day, but I'm not much of an optimist, so I figured mine would be one of the finicky ones. That, and the only snake people I have talked to in person are die-hard live feeders, and they kept insisting it would be soooo difficult to get him to eat f/t that I shouldn't even bother.

[BPelizabeth]

And he did it all the while you were snapping pics.....congrats!!! Its a great feeling when a new guy eats right away!

[Bruce Whitehead]

Congrats!!! That is fantastic.

If he took an FT right off, just stick with it and see how it goes. Always remember that your husbandry is key.

She/he is a lovely looking animal, seems like a lucky snake to have a keeper as excited as you are.

Bruce

[butters!]

good job......but you have to remember that petshops are a profitable organization and keeping animals in the same cage is efficient.the time they spend in the cage is temporary.yes they might get stressed but its how they make profit.no,its not the best way to keep animals but its what they do.

its great you got yours to eat so fast....some get stressed and takes a bit more time but you have to realize its a business....it takes alot more effort to guarantee the animals health.

anywho good for you for having great husbandry to assist the bp

[jjc]

good job......but you have to remember that petshops are a profitable organization and keeping animals in the same cage is efficient.the time they spend in the cage is temporary.yes they might get stressed but its how they make profit.no,its not the best way to keep animals but its what they do.

I hope I didn't come across as bashing pet stores for keeping several BPs in a single enclosure...just pointing out that, for whatever reason, no one working at the time could confirm/deny that this snake had eaten at any point during his stay (or his life, for that matter, lol). To be fair, the "reptile person" wasn't there when I purchased the snake, and that person may have been able to give me a lot more information. As it was, with no feeding history, I figured it couldn't hurt to offer him something.

Thank you (and everyone else who responded)!

[Oxylepy]

the "reptile person" wasn't there when I purchased the snake, and that person may have been able to give me a lot more information.

In my experience that is simply the person who owns reptiles and feeds/cleans their enclosures. It's not often that they really know what is going on with the reptiles, and it's even less common for them to keep track of individual animals.

Pet stores are often over priced and usually don't give you all the information you need to take in an animal, and often they will pull things out of thin air or send you home with a lot more stuff than you really need or is really good for the animal.

Mind that this isn't all pet stores, and a lot of my anti-petstore feelings are directed toward the big chains (Petco, Petsmart, etc). Often the local stores have knowledgeable staff and the pets tend to get more attention there (while in the chain stores its the pet supplies getting the attention).