New BP, feeding questions...

[mr roboto]

Ok, so I just got a 6 month old BP, and I have a question about feeding. From what I've been reading, these snakes can be hard to feed, snakes in a new home probably won't eat for a week or so, and they only eat about once a week a this age. Well, I brought my snake home on monday, and decided to see if it would eat on wednesday. He immediately went for the mouse (frozen adult), no hesitation. This evening, I was looking at something inside it's cage with a mini mag lite (it was dark), and it struck at the side of the cage that the light wa shining through. I figured it was because of the small heat signature the light was giving off, so I thought it might be hungry. I thawed another mouse, and it went for it immediately again. Is this unusual, and is it too much food? Are these snakes opportunistic hunters, or do they only feed when hungry? I just don't want to overfeed, if that's possible. Thanks for any answers.

[ryandlf]

Just feed one adult mouse per week until you can either move him up to small rats, or 2 mice. Don't worry about overfeeding. If he doesn't want to eat, he won't. Congrats on the new snake...pics?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Ok, so I just got a 6 month old BP, and I have a question about feeding. From what I've been reading, these snakes can be hard to feed, snakes in a new home probably won't eat for a week or so, and they only eat about once a week a this age. Well, I brought my snake home on monday, and decided to see if it would eat on wednesday. He immediately went for the mouse (frozen adult), no hesitation. This evening, I was looking at something inside it's cage with a mini mag lite (it was dark), and it struck at the side of the cage that the light wa shining through. I figured it was because of the small heat signature the light was giving off, so I thought it might be hungry. I thawed another mouse, and it went for it immediately again. Is this unusual, and is it too much food? Are these snakes opportunistic hunters, or do they only feed when hungry? I just don't want to overfeed, if that's possible. Thanks for any answers.

In my experience you will get a better feeding response and a BP that feed with consistency if you feed your BP once a week, a prey slightly smaller then the girth size.
As an adult you still want to feed your BP once a week nothing bigger then a small rat (4 weeks old) or 2 to 3 mice (depending on their size)

Keep in mind that a common mistake is to overfeed BP in captivity and that they will fast at some point if it is the case, and ideally you want a healthy BP that feed weekly.

Mine are fed once a week an appropriated size prey, regardless of their age, and I do not experience any fast.