How would you go about this feeding situation?

[hops523]

I got an 09, 700 gram female about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Attempted to feed her f/t and she didnt take it a week after she arrived. Tried feeding her live this past week and she wasnt interested in that either. She moved away from the rat and started crawling out of her tub. Im guessing she is either going off feed for the winter or shes shy and doesnt want to eat during the day. Husbandry is fine, all other snakes are on feed. Now my problem is, the next time I feed her I wanted to make sure it was at night, since thats when shes active and out of her hide. But I dont want to leave her unattended with a small live rat in her tub. What would you all do in this situation?
Thanks

[Fataltix]

I got an 09, 700 gram female about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Attempted to feed her f/t and she didnt take it a week after she arrived. Tried feeding her live this past week and she wasnt interested in that either. She moved away from the rat and started crawling out of her tub. Im guessing she is either going off feed for the winter or shes shy and doesnt want to eat during the day. Husbandry is fine, all other snakes are on feed. Now my problem is, the next time I feed her I wanted to make sure it was at night, since thats when shes active and out of her hide. But I dont want to leave her unattended with a small live rat in her tub. What would you all do in this situation?
Thanks

I would stick with trying to feed f/t and leave it in her tub overnight. If that doesn't work though, patience is key. She's old enough to go off feeding for breeding season, its pretty common for that to happen, especially for a female. I would consider perhaps lowering you temps a bit, to get her to feed.

Cheers!
fatal

[hops523]

Thanks for the reply. I think what Ill do is try to feed her f/t at night the next feeding day. If that doesnt work, Im not sure if Ill try and feed her live at night or not, Im still not sure how to go about that.

[Kaorte]

leaving her alone for 15-20 minutes with a live rat will probably not end in injury or anything like that. Most feeding related injuries arise when people leave live rats alone with their snake for a LONG period of time. Long enough for the rat to get hungry or fatally aggressive.

I would at least try a live rat if that is what it takes to make her eat a few meals for you. Once you get her established, it will be easier to move her over to f/t.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

What do you know about her, previous setup, and previous prey type?

Are you housing her in a similar way, do you offer the same type of prey?

[mockwd]

I got an 09, 700 gram female about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Attempted to feed her f/t and she didnt take it a week after she arrived. Tried feeding her live this past week and she wasnt interested in that either. She moved away from the rat and started crawling out of her tub. Im guessing she is either going off feed for the winter or shes shy and doesnt want to eat during the day. Husbandry is fine, all other snakes are on feed. Now my problem is, the next time I feed her I wanted to make sure it was at night, since thats when shes active and out of her hide. But I dont want to leave her unattended with a small live rat in her tub. What would you all do in this situation?
Thanks

I would say your BP maybe stress because of the new living situation. As long as the temps and everything else is right and it is not sick, just keep trying to feed it and keep an eye on it weight. If you don't have a digital scale might want to get one, got mine for around 40-50 dollars. Try a rat fuzzy, that way if not eaten soon you don't have to worry of it attacking your BP.
I had the same problem when I got my second BP. Tried feeding live, FK and FT and would not eat and would try and strike at anything that went near his setup. It took him almost 3 months before he calmed down and would eat and eat regularly. During the 3 months he only eat once. He was just under a year old and weighed around 550 gram when I got him.
Each BP have their own personality and their own way of eating sometimes. My older BP would not eat unless I use a hemostat to grab the rats tail and make it squeal. While the younger BP I have to set it in his setup so he can stalk it.
Hope everything works out with you.

[hops523]

What do you know about her, previous setup, and previous prey type?

Are you housing her in a similar way, do you offer the same type of prey?

She was in a 32 qt tub, I have her in a 28 qt. Very similar hides set up. The week before I received her she ate a live rat, but has also taken f/t. Temp on hot side is 91, cool side is 84. She hides during the day, and shes out at night.

Kaorte: Thats what I was planning to do, try to get meals in her with live then switch her over, but since she didn't take live either, I was kind of stumped. Good to hear not many injuries have occurred within 15 minutes or so. Maybe I can try a live weaned rat instead of a small for right now.
Thanks go the replies

[hops523]

Just a quick update. Its been a week since the last time I offered her food, so I waited till it got dark and I saw her head poking out of her hide. I put a live weaned/smaller small rat inside the tub and left. I came back 5 minutes later to see her wrapped around the rat! I checked on her 20 minutes later or so, and voila rat was gone! Im really excited she ate. So from now on Ill just feed her at night.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.