Beginning of shedding process...Feed?

I am at the beginning stage of my BP's first shed since I have owned it. I have read the shedding process post. It recommends not feeding/handling during the process. My snake is showing dull/blueish skin, and faintly opaque eyes. Tomorrow is feeding day, at this point in the process should I offer a meal and see what happens or just skip this weeks all together and wait until the shed has completed?

Also,

Just uploaded a profile pic. Is it visable? I cant see it on my posts!?

Some snakes will eat during shed, some will not. The only way to know is to offer it prey. Personally I just wait till after shed, but alot of people feed during shed. It's up to you whether or not you offer, and it's up to your snake whether or they eat.

To make your photo show under your name, go to "User CP". On the left hand side, click on "edit avatar" and load it there...

If it falls within feeding days some of mine will eat but most wont

Mine is going thru his first shed since we had him also....we dangled the f/t in front of him and he flicked at it for awhile and took it....you can tell he coudnt see....he was real unsure about taking it. I wouldnt have forced it on him though.

I feed all my ball pythons during shed. Sometimes they will eat and sometimes they won't.

I am going to offer a f/t hopper tonight and see what happens. This will be the third feeding since I purchased the snake, but the first f/t to be offered. The first two feedings were live hopper mice. Between temporarily changing to f/t and offering during shed...guess I'll have to wait and see. I'll let everyone know the outcome later!

So I offered the f/t hopper earlier tonight. Thawed in hot water and dryed/heated with hair dryer and prescented enclosure. Held the hopper with tongs at the entrance to the hide and did the mouse dance for a few minutes, no action. Removed the hide only to find the snake balled up with very opaque eyes, no way it could see anything. I continued to dance the mouse around the snake for a while, it looked like it was definately going to strike but never ended up doing it. Just seemed to be scared/irritated (understandably). Placed hide back over snake and left the mouse at the entrance to the hide few hours ago, if it is still there when I am heading to bed I will just remove it and trash it. Next time I figure I will just skip feeding during shed, unless I try live (which is all it has eaten) at least that way if it doesn't hit the prey it is not wasted garbage, just put the mouse back in its cage.

Hi,

I'd leave it overnight before throwing it away.

It just depends on the snake whether it will eat in shed or not - pretty much none of mine will.


dr del

Thanks Derek,

I'll do that, I was just worried about it going bad. Some snakes will still eat it if it is just cold and lifeless!?