Don't roll your eyes! It is yet another newbe with a feeding question!

Hello all,
I got my first BP last month (Feb 28th) She is a 6 month old captive bread normal. She was fed by the breeder on Feb 22. She was being fed live and F/T. I have only been offering F/T rat pups and have no interest in going live.

1st feeding- March 4 (in feeding box) refused
2nd- March 10th (in enclosure) Fed F/T rat pup
3rd- March 17th (in feeding box) refused and hissed :(
...threw out feeding box and will feed in enclosure
4th- March 20th (in enclosure) refused no interest
5th- March 24th (in enclosure) struck and coiled but did not eat
6th- march 27th (in enclosure) refused and slithered away to hide :(

She is being housed in a glass vivarium which I have covered all the sides and part of the top on. Only 1 door remains uncovered. She has mulch substrate and an under the tank heater, a day lamp and a red lamp. We set up the enclosure and monitored temps/humidity for 1 month before putting the snake in. Hot side 85-90 degrees on top of basking rock is 95 cool side 75-80. Water dish she can soak in, 2 hides, climbing branch and humidity is at 50-65. She is in the living room which is high traffic but she will come out during the day to hang out on her branch if the house is quiet. She is not being handled right now (we took her out 2 days the week she fed 48 hrs post feeding) until I get her feeding regularly.

She is very cautious of the rat and I am afraid that she will develop a fear of it. I have been feeding at night with tongs.

Help or advice would be appreciated :(

Hi,

First thing that jumps out is that you are offering the prey a little too often after a refusal.

This can actually stress them out and make them less likely to eat.

I would wait another 7 days and during that time do not handle her or mess with her enclosure any more than your really have to.

How are you preparing and offering the prey? Do you prescent?

What was it eating at the breeders?


dr del

Thawing in fridge overnight and warming in water in a zipbag till it's warm to the touch (39C with the temp gun)
This snake not eating is stressing me out and I agree I should probably space the feedings out more.

If you're set on her eating f/t then you just need to be patient and persistent. Keep in mind that some BPs won't fully convert to f/t. Try mice if she's pretty afraid of the rat.

I read somewhere that thawing in warm water in a tupperware dish next to the cage and then warming it slightly with a hair dryer once thawed over the vent works well. It entices the snake to eat.


Of course I have just seen it in videos and read it. I'm gonna try it for the first time tomorrow!

Good luck! I tried that tonight and had no luck with making her hungry it certainly made a nice "rat aroma" though LOL

I'll let you know if mine feeds. I am using f/t mice hoppers instead of rat pups. I have no interest in feeding live either. But if she doesn't wanna eat by wednesday I probably won't have a choice.

since you offered and got a refusal today do NOT offer again till next saturday.

My first BP will not take a f/t even after her yearly winter fast (4 mos.) ended last week. I've had her two years and have tried the switch a few times. I held out giving her a live one for a couple of extra weeks to entice her to switch, but she wasn't having it. My second BP takes them no problem without even striking and constricting. It seems to really depend from snake to snake. I guess the new method for conversion is "Tough Love", but I settled for feeding two small live ones.

:rolleye2:
ok guys I will hold out trying to feed her again till next week. Hopefully she will get over being rat shy and take it like she did in the 2nd feeding. Patience I guess is the way to go as hard as that is.