I survived our first shed, BUT ...

[BPdad]

Well, our BP had his first shed since we owned him. He's just a young BP and we've only had for about 6 weeks now.

Last Monday we noticed that he hadn't come out of his hide for 2 days. So I opened his hide to see if things were all right. I noticed he looked a bit dull and I decided to boost the humidity a bit figuring he was going into "shed mode". Saturday night he still hadn't come out so I opened his hide and pulled him out only to find him with eyes FULLY hazed and REAL dull looking. I carefully placed him back, luckly not getting bit. I kept up the extra misting until tonight Thursday. I decided to open the hide and BEHOLD inside his hide was a shed. 100% intact, all in one piece, and no eye caps retained!!!!

I moved him a bit and he was REAL defensive, never striking, but REALLY annoyed. I figured he would've shed some night outside his hide???

Questions, why is he so shy and wanting to hide all the time? He was always out and about in the evenings.

Is there a period of time after a shed that you should not hold them?

Also, he missed his last feeding because he was in his hide during this shed period. He's about 9 days now since his last meal. How should I start up his feeding schedule again? Wait for him to start looking around for food or pull him out and show him a hopper?

[JLC]

He may still be feeling a bit defensive after the shed...especially if he just completed it. Some snakes are more touchy than others. And he may just be hungry, too.


Why would you have to pull him out of his hide to show him his meal? Trust me, if you put a hopper in there, he's gonna know it and if he wants it, he'll go for it. Just feed him on your usual feeding day, if you have a set day.

BTW...a hopper what? Mouse? Sounds like a pretty small meal for a BP that's probably at least a couple months old. You might try upping the prey size a bit.

[jason221]

BTW...a hopper what? Mouse? Sounds like a pretty small meal for a BP that's probably at least a couple months old. You might try upping the prey size a bit.

Judging by the avatar, that BP looks like it could take a weanling mouse. I agree that a hopper is probably a little small at this time. Of course, he could feed him two hoppers..

[BPdad]

Thanks for the info.

Well, going by the diameter of the snake thing a hopper isn't to far off his body diameter. The picture you mentioned was actually taken on my 8 year old son's arm, so the reference of Monty wrapped around someone's arm is a mighty small arm. Also, his last weigh in he only topped the scales at 80 grams.

Considering all that, would you still up the size of his next meal?

PS ~ We just found him cruising around his enclosure about 15 minutes ago. He seems back to his usual self cruising about checking things out.

Just me, paranoid.

[JLC]

Well, without seeing the snake in person, I can only guess. But I would imagine a small adult mouse would be fine for it.

[SatanicIntention]

I bought a baby in August who was a CH July '06 baby, and she was only 80g when I got her. A week after I brought her home, she got a fat, small adult mouse and easily got it down. Now she gets a medium adult once a week and does just fine. She weighs 160g now and is a little chunker.

I'm sure ya'lls little boy would be just fine(and happier) with a slightly fuller belly.