Feeding live

[Henry]

I recently bought a male spider and a femal lemon pastel. I feed them both f/t my spider has a great feeding response every 5 days he has been eating. My lemon on the other hand not so good. She has eat twice since ive had her neither time she went at the mouse. I had to leave it in her cage over night. Its been 8 days since she eat last. She just doesnt seem interested in the mouse. Her temps are good she is housed in a rbi rack 91 hot 80 cool. I even put newspaper balls in there. should i go to petco and try a live mouse or wait it out a little more. she's not in blue or anything either.

[LGL]

How often are you offering food to her? If you are offering food to her too often and/or didn't allow her to settle into her new home when you first got her (that means handling only when necessary and leaving her alone), she may just be stressed out. Offer food to her and if she refuses, wait until her next scheduled feeding day (like seven days) before offering food to her again.

A healthy adult Ball Python can fast for many months, so unless she is losing a significant amount of weight, she should be fine. Eight days without food isn't going to harm her.

If you want to try offering live, that'd be fine. Just wait until her next scheduled feeding day and do not leave the live prey item unattended while it can come into contact with her (in the cage, feeding box, or wherever you are feeding her).

Also, what type of cage are you housing her in and what size is it? How old and how big is she?

[Henry]

she has been here for allmost a month now. I waited a week before i fed her for the first time. I waited 3 days after her first rejection she is still a baby on about 80 grams. I will wait another 5 days if she rejects again should i wait a couple more day and try live.

[LGL]

In that case, I'd wait a full week (seven days) and offer live. Once she's feeding consistently, you can try to switch her back over to F/T if that's what you want to feed her.

[cobweb2000]

Also make sure you have a back-up plan for what to do with the feeder if she rejects it. You'll either need to house it until your next feeding attempt, return it or humanely euthanize it.

Hopefully she'll eat for you though. Good luck!

[Henry]

I hope so too she is going to produce my future bee