Hi all, this is my first post. I thought I'd share my first experience with you all! Bought my first BP 'Lottie' last week, its a boy despite having a girls name! (I wasnt responsible for naming him! :-) ) I gave him several days to settle in, and had handled him several times with no problems. I was unsure which method to choose to feed him, so I put him in a separate tub with some substrate and dangled a large f/t mouse in front of him. I thought he would take it quickly as the pet shop told me he'd been feeding regularly on the same. He struck at it several times and started hissing loudly but did not seem in the least bit interested in eating it. So, I tried to dangle it in front of him again only to get more strikes and LOTS of hissing! He was starting to get quite angry by now, so I gave up and left him and mousey in the tub together for a few hours to see if he calmed down and ate it, but to no avail. He had calmed down by now, so I put him back in his tank and put the mouse in the hide with him, and this morning it was gone, what a relief! However when I walked past his tank later when he was out, I heard a bang to see him strike at me through the glass and coil into an S position.

You are all far more experianced than I so I just thought I would bounce it off you all! What did I do wrong? Perhaps not give him enough time to settle in? Or maybe I should feed him in his cage next time? Of course I want to do the right thing, so hopefully you can give me some guidance on what to do next. When I have handled him, I notice that he is very head shy and will pull his head back if you make a sudden movement, no matter how small. He is about 8 months old. I now plan to leave him for 2 or 3 days before handling him again, give mousey time to digest. Thanks for your time.