need some advise !

[quinten801]

well this is my first post, and i need some good advise (please bear with me this is going to be long). so about 3 weeks ago me and a couple friends were visiting some friends a couple towns down the coast, and i spotted a pet store, so i decided to take a look. so i was looking at the various reptiles they had, ( green iguanas, some gecko's, and anoles). all of the sudden an employee walked up and told us that they also had a bp and a rtb that were feeding.
So I come back an hour later, and what i saw was really bad :eek:. they had the bp and rtb in the same enclosure . So having an extreme soft spot for bp's I decided to take him/her with me. So when i got home i called up a freind who keeps corns, got him to bring over one of his extra thermostats and some flexwatt. so we go his new home all set up and i got the temps to 94 on the hot end and about 82 +/- a degree. put two hides in and fresh water.
so i got him to the vet and he didnt seam to have any mites or internal parasites. well i haven't gotten a chance to weigh him yet, but he doesn't look to underweight, only problem is ive offered f/t, and live twice a week and every time i put it near the cage he hides and balls up. So i called the store and talked to the owner, and when he heard what i saw he assured me that everything would be made rite, and told me that he/she whould be feeding.
so my question is, what should i do? should i just let him be for another week or two. ill appreciate any advice and or criticism.

thanks and sorry for such a long post i just want to be sure to give him/her the live it deserves.

[tmlowe5704]

well this is my first post, and i need some good advise (please bear with me this is going to be long). so about 3 weeks ago me and a couple friends were visiting some friends a couple towns down the coast, and i spotted a pet store, so i decided to take a look. so i was looking at the various reptiles they had, ( green iguanas, some gecko's, and anoles). all of the sudden an employee walked up and told us that they also had a bp and a rtb that were feeding.
So I come back an hour later, and what i saw was really bad :eek:. they had the bp and rtb in the same enclosure . So having an extreme soft spot for bp's I decided to take him/her with me. So when i got home i called up a freind who keeps corns, got him to bring over one of his extra thermostats and some flexwatt. so we go his new home all set up and i got the temps to 94 on the hot end and about 82 +/- a degree. put two hides in and fresh water.
so i got him to the vet and he didnt seam to have any mites or internal parasites. well i haven't gotten a chance to weigh him yet, but he doesn't look to underweight, only problem is ive offered f/t, and live twice a week and every time i put it near the cage he hides and balls up. So i called the store and talked to the owner, and when he heard what i saw he assured me that everything would be made rite, and told me that he/she whould be feeding.
so my question is, what should i do? should i just let him be for another week or two. ill appreciate any advice and or criticism.

thanks and sorry for such a long post i just want to be sure to give him/her the live it deserves.

just leave him alone and try again another time. 2 weeks is nothing for snakes. he could be getting stressed because you are offering food so often. only once a week is needed anymore than that and your snake will likely stress out. ask the owner what they fed the snake at the store and see

[Amy05]

Glad to hear you took him home
Leave him be for another week, he might be stressed out. How big is your enclosure? You might try putting some balled up newspaper in his enclosure, it helps them with the transition (worked wonders for one of my BPs). My first BP didn't eat for the first week either, just wait a week, if he doesn't eat, no biggie, just try in another week. They go a while without food.
Good luck with your new snake!!

[smasharama13]

I found this info online: at Constrictors.com


"Problem Feeding. When you first receive your Ball Python, introduce it into the enclosure and allow it a couple of days to settle in before attempting any feeding. If you find after waiting a couple of days, that your snake still does not want to feed for you, follow these instructions.

1. Get a LIVE small mouse or rat fuzzy.

2. At night, not dark, NIGHT, open the enclosure and place the prey item in the cage. Secure the lid.

3. Turn the lights off in the room and LEAVE. Do not sit and stare through the glass even in the dark, just leave.

4. After an hour, sneak into the room, make sure the snake is not in the process of eating before you turn on the lights. If the prey item is still uneaten, remove it and do not attempt any feeding for at least 5 days.

5. Repeat these steps every 5 days for 3 attempts. Do not try to feed every day. This can stress the already stressed animal. It also lessens the scent and heat stimuli of the food. Just trust me and don't try to feed every day, wait."


I copied from this web page:
http://www.constrictors.com/Informat...thonsCare.html

Again this is not my info, just a referance that I found.

[quinten801]

Glad to hear you took him home
Leave him be for another week, he might be stressed out. How big is your enclosure? You might try putting some balled up newspaper in his enclosure, it helps them with the transition (worked wonders for one of my BPs). My first BP didn't eat for the first week either, just wait a week, if he doesn't eat, no biggie, just try in another week. They go a while without food.
Good luck with your new snake!!

the enclosures not very big, right now hes in a small rubbermaid container, about the size of a shoe box. i will defiantly try the newspaper, and leave him alone. its good to know theres a place like this and people like you i can come to for advise. thanks

[frankykeno]

Ask the pet store whether they were feeding live, f/t, or p/k and what size mouse or rat was being offered that this snake was supposedly eating (be aware pet store often exaggerate a snake's feeding response). Try a search here on feeding for lots of ideas to help settle the snake in. Stressed snakes simply do not often feed well so it's important to get the snake settled in and feeling safe and secure before it will likely eat for you. The newspaper trick is very handy and often helps with that. Pick an evening that will work for you, offer once per week in the evening hours and do not leave the snake alone with a live prey item that has fully erupted teeth. You can lower the lights and remain nearby to monitor the live feeding but do not hover over the enclosure or move about a lot as this will disturb some snakes enough to cause them to refuse. If the snake is used to f/t or p/k then of course you can leave it alone with it's prey to feed in total privacy. Make sure whatever type of rodent you use, you are picking a size that is correct for this snake. Compare the largest girth of the prey item (it's hips and butt area) with the largest empty girth of the snake and make sure the prey is smaller than the snake's girth. If in doubt go smaller (though a pinky mouse is too small so too small can be an issue as much as too big).

[AzureN1ght]

I found this info online: at Constrictors.com


"Problem Feeding. When you first receive your Ball Python, introduce it into the enclosure and allow it a couple of days to settle in before attempting any feeding. If you find after waiting a couple of days, that your snake still does not want to feed for you, follow these instructions.

1. Get a LIVE small mouse or rat fuzzy.

2. At night, not dark, NIGHT, open the enclosure and place the prey item in the cage. Secure the lid.

3. Turn the lights off in the room and LEAVE. Do not sit and stare through the glass even in the dark, just leave.

4. After an hour, sneak into the room, make sure the snake is not in the process of eating before you turn on the lights. If the prey item is still uneaten, remove it and do not attempt any feeding for at least 5 days.

5. Repeat these steps every 5 days for 3 attempts. Do not try to feed every day. This can stress the already stressed animal. It also lessens the scent and heat stimuli of the food. Just trust me and don't try to feed every day, wait."


I copied from this web page:
http://www.constrictors.com/Informat...thonsCare.html

Again this is not my info, just a referance that I found.

I'm willing to admit I have no personal experience here, but from everything I've read, leaving a LIVE prey item in with your pet for an hour unsupervised is definitely not a good idea. Injury or death to your snake can occur--my uncle lost a snake by feeding it live and leaving it unsupervised overnight (I found this out over my spring break--I hadn't realized he had even owned a snake till then).

That's not to say that feeding him live in a dim room couldn't work--but leaving him alone for an hour I don't think is a good plan.

[tmlowe5704]

How big is the snake in question? If it is still small enough, a large hopper can be perfectly safe if the eyes are not open.

[piranhaking]

I dont think leaving a fuzzy in with it unsupervised would be a problem, but i wouldnt want to leave anything that could bite unsupervised at all. Kim, do you have any more info about the size of the snake and the size of the mouse/rat your uncle was feeding?

[AzureN1ght]

I dont think leaving a fuzzy in with it unsupervised would be a problem, but i wouldnt want to leave anything that could bite unsupervised at all. Kim, do you have any more info about the size of the snake and the size of the mouse/rat your uncle was feeding?

No--this was back when he was in his 20's (In his mid-40's now). I was telling him about my BP purchase and when I'd be picking him up and he told me that when he was younger and in Florida he had a Python. From the rest of our conversation, he didn't sound like he had been a very well-informed snake owner (and then again, it seems like a lot of information about the keeping of snakes has come around in the last 20 years or so). So whether his "Python" was a Ball Python or a Python, I couldn't say for sure. Or what he was feeding it at the time. All he said was that he found his snake chewed up and dead one day after he had fed it--and then I explained that I wouldn't be leaving my snake alone with live prey and that he would be eating frozen/thawed anyway so something like that wouldn't become an issue for me. That's about all we said on the subject.

He wasn't very encouraging about my getting one, either. I guess his opinions on herps has changed over the years.