BP Won't Eat

[LivingDeadGirl]

Okay, so I just recently (yesterday) got my first BP. She's a normal morph and she's about 4 months old. I bought her from PetSmart and she seems to be healthy. No wheezing or sneezing, no abnormal weight speculations or anything. I am concerned that she won't eat though. They gave me record that shows she hasn't eaten for 3 weeks, which is how long they had her I do believe. I'm not sure what to do if she won't eat next week either. Suggestions?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You need to leave your BP alone (NO handling) for a week before offering food, you got your animal yesterday and already tried to feed without giving it a chance to acclimate to it's new surrendering so it's no surprise.

Make sure your husbandry is optimal based on the animal's size, anything such as too big of hides, too big of enclosure wrong temps may lead to refusal, wait a week again NO handling and offer a live appropriately size prey in the enclosure.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I didn't offer her food. The store offered it to her. Their normal feeding days at PetSmart are Wednesdays. I got her on Thursday. They also feed frozen though and idk what the breeder that they got her from fed. So next week I am going to try feeding live.

[Craiga 01453]

I advise to make sure your husbandry is on point first and foremost. And leave your new BP alone for a week, no handling.

Have you studied the caresheets and stickies on this forum? If your setup follows what these stickies suggest, then feeding shouldn't be a problem. If you took advice from the employees at the store, your setup is probably lacking.

The snake probably didn't eat at PetSmart because their husbandry is awful. They aren't set up to keep animals there, they are set up to move animals as quickly as possible for profit.

Also, why would you try live? Offering F/T is the preferred method and offering live should only happen if you've exhausted other options first.

So, to recap: make sure your husbandry is on point, no handling for at least a week, and offer next Thursday (I highly suggest F/T unless you plan to offer live forever).

[LivingDeadGirl]

I was planning to offer live because I know that there are some snakes who will refuse f/t. I don't mind feeding live if that's what she'll eat. I know the precautions that I have to take when feeding live, because I know of the dangers that it can present. I haven't handled her since I put her in her terrarium yesterday. It's a 20 gal tank, but it is lacking a little. Next week when I get paid I'm going to pick up a few more things to make it less open. Temp is right on, but it is a bit humid right now so I'm trying to get that under control. I've got a fan on constantly to try and get the humidity level down.

[Kcl]

It might calm your nerves about it a bit if you'd like to post a picture of the snake to get an assessment of whether or not the snake is too skinny. If the snake isn't significantly underweight, it can go a very long time before not eating becomes a problem in and of itself. Just leave the new snake alone for a while in a good setup, offer it the same thing as it was eating before, and chances are you won't have any problems with it eating.

[Craiga 01453]

What are you running for equipment?

How are you heating the enclosure? Are your heat sources regulated with a thermostat?
How are you measuring temps/humidity? Where are you measuring your temps?

- - - Updated - - -

It might calm your nerves about it a bit if you'd like to post a picture of the snake to get an assessment of whether or not the snake is too skinny. If the snake isn't significantly underweight, it can go a very long time before not eating becomes a problem in and of itself. Just leave the new snake alone for a while in a good setup, offer it the same thing as it was eating before, and chances are you won't have any problems with it eating.

I agree. I would also suggest a few pics of the enclosure. The more we know, the more we can help you and your new snake.

[LivingDeadGirl]

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery//showimage

For the life of me I cannot figure out how to post a pic , so here is the link.

[majesticsami]

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery//showimage

For the life of me I cannot figure out how to post a pic , so here is the link.

You can post pics by downloading Tapatalk on your phone 🙌

Sent from my VIE-L29 using Tapatalk

[LivingDeadGirl]

The stuff in the tank is everything that came in the Zoo Med 20gal terrarium that I bought.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk