Humidity, Biting, Learning...

[Bishop]

Ok, so I havent posted in a while. But I have saved up some questions for a super post.. Hopefully this finds all the knowledge holders out there

1. My BP tank has 3 differnt measurments for humidity. I have 2 digital thermo/hygrometers and a analog hygrometer. The analog will read 55%, one digital will read 49% and the other will read 61%. Is this normal? I wouldnt think so, but thought id ask... thoughts???

2. I just feed my BP today, and he seemed very hungry. So much to the point he didnt wait to strike his prey. I feed him every 5 days at 12-14%. Yet him jumping the gun, i think he got a bad strike. In this, the adult mouse, i think, might have got a nip in. After the mouse was struggling he constricted tighter and wrapped more. I think he has been rather lazy latley. Can a BP "learn" to strike n wrap better, tight or anything like that?

ok so that wasnt very many, p.s. i wish to feed live so there goes the f/T talk.

[Kaorte]

1. Well if they are placed in different areas of the tank, low or high, hot side or cool side, the humidity will differ. I would probably just ignore the analog one as those are pretty inaccurate.

2. With live feeding, there isn't really much else you can do to get a better feeding response. Bites will happen, its leaving the prey item alone with the snake and allowing it to much on the snake that is the problem.

[nixer]

typically the warmer the air the higher the humidity that can be in the air.

you didnt say how big the snake is but it might be time to up the prey size some. i have found that you get this more if the animal is really really hungry, but i have some that just do it even if you feed them every 4 days.

[rabernet]

The humidity is probably just fine, and doesn't seem odd to me that they're different.

As for the rodent biting the snake - he did what he was supposed to do - constrict tighter so that the mouse releases to try to breath. Snakes are wonderfully designed with the scales to protect their bodies. I suspect if you check him over, you won't find any injury.

I feed live exclusively to my ball pythons, have been doing it for 4 1/2 years now, and in all the time, the worst "injury" I've had is a scratch, and that's only happened about 5 times in over 5000 live feedings.

[Bishop]

you didnt say how big the snake is but it might be time to up the prey size some. i have found that you get this more if the animal is really really hungry, but i have some that just do it even if you feed them every 4 days.

my BP isabout 4 months and i have been feeding him rat fuzzies/ weened rats. With this particular feeding it was an adult mouse because the stores rats were too little.

How would uping the prey size prevent the rodent from injuring the snake? Or is it to prevent him from being AS hungry?

[Kaorte]

Upping the prey size triggers the snake to basically kill better and faster, or so I have noticed.