First feeding update

So I posted in angst the other night after my boyfriend and I tried to feed our new pastel female after moving her (stupid stupid stupid!) and the mouse attacked her, etc.

Well, we waited until last night but we fed her the dead mouse and she took it! It was her first time being offered F/T and she struck and constricted it...and then tried to eat it backwards. :rofl: She eventually gave up when she couldn't get past the rear legs, so we put her back in her tank with the dead mouse overnight and by morning she had eaten it! (We put her in a separate tub to feed her as we heard this is a good way to avoid getting bitten when sticking your hands in their tanks).

I feel so relieved that she ate. That must mean she's at least fairly healthy and stress-free, right? lol. I mean, she seems fine, but we have no practical experience with snakes at all.

And on top of all that, she ate F/T instead of live! Hooray! :banana:

Hey there - Congrats on the your first feeding and the rare occurance of 'rear-end first' feeding...

Now that you have fed you little girl make sure you give her 24 hours before you handle her again, let her digest properly. Sounds like you just got her so I would let her acclimate to her new surrounding and tank for a week or so with a very minimal amount of handling, this will limit the amount of stress being put on her.

One thing with regards to feeding mice, your BP will outgrow mice fairly quickly. I would switch her over to rats while she is still young, she will be able to feed on them for the rest of her life.

Grats on the good feed :)

I would second the switching to rats I have an adult mouser and 2-3 large mice takes a while to feed

Quote:

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We put her in a separate tub to feed her as we heard this is a good way to avoid getting bitten when sticking your hands in their tanks

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This is a myth, a BP isn't going to mistake your hand for a rodent. You are actually more likely to get bit when moving your BP to and from the feeding tub.

Moving a BP to a separate feeding tub can also stress the BP out (this is on a case by case basis) Most people will advise you to just feed in the enclosure. Either way is fine but if your Bp stops eating your best shot is to try feeding in her cage.

Well it would definitely be easier to feed her in her own tank, so that's good to know.

She was being fed rat pups by her breeder but they didn't have any available at the store where I work, so I figured the next best thing was an adult mouse. I'd like to find a place to order F/T from as the live and frozen at the store where I work are the same price, and kind of expensive.

Forgot to add, she hasn't really been handled since she ate. She seems pretty happy!

Congrats! Just feed her in her tank, bps are not cage aggresive.

A couple of places to order F/T Mice and rats are:

Big Cheese Rodent Factory

www.bigcheeserodents.com/

Rodent Pro

www.rodentpro.com/

Mice Direct

https://micedirect.com/

I know there are more, but here are a couple that I know off the top of my head.

Also remember that mice smell different than rats, so once you get her on something, stay with it. So if she eats mice for a while and then outgrows eating mice, you then have to start working on getting her to eat rats. The earlier you get her on rats the better.