Baby Ball's First Week Home!

Our beautiful baby arrived today and we could not be more pleased! We have put her in her viv and are letting her settle in. How long should we give her to chill out on her own before we try to feed her or handle her in general? She didn't seem terribly shy when we fished her out of the box. She wasn't balled up and she started slithering between my fingers after a minute or two. However, since we put her in the vivarium two hours ago, she's just hidden in her hot side hide and hasn't really explored at all, so I think she might be more shy than I originally thought.

I would give her a week or two to settle down in her new home before feeding. Also, ball pythons likes to hide, that's what they would do in the wild. Very short answer, but I'm sure tons of people will add things up for you :D Good luck with your new snake :)

Congratulations on the new arrival! The method that I personally like to follow is to allow a full week before trying to feed and not handling until a couple of days after they take their first meal. This seems to be longer than most people like to wait to feed but I just like to make sure that they are full settled before trying to feed. It has worked for me in the past so I stick to it. Is the new one the female spider that is in your signature block?

Yes, its the same female spider from my signature block. All the animals I've ever owned, I've purchased from a breeder, so I had to wait about 4 weeks to get her once we'd tracked one down.

Since a week seems to be the consensus, we'll give her the week before we try to feed. Thanks guys!

Congrats

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Originally Posted by gsarchie

Congratulations on the new arrival! The method that I personally like to follow is to allow a full week before trying to feed and not handling until a couple of days after they take their first meal. This seems to be longer than most people like to wait to feed but I just like to make sure that they are full settled before trying to feed. It has worked for me in the past so I stick to it. Is the new one the female spider that is in your signature block?

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x2 that is exactly what I do.

I do the same thing, only difference is that I feed a size smaller than what they were originally feeding that way they aren't nervouse. Idk if that is necessary but it worked well for me, then five days later I fed what they were feeding them.

For instance:
Draco was in his tub for a week
I fed him a small adolescent mouse
five days later I fed him an adult mouse (what he was being fed before I bought him)
a day after his second feed I held him for fifteen minutes
five days after the adult mouse I switched him to one small rat (rats are generally preferred by most people on this forum for nutritional purposes).

You don't have to do it this way but it just makes me feel more comfortable and it was a flawless transition. I hope this helps! Congrats and have a great time with your new baby!

Bit of an update at the end of our first week! We fed Bella this morning and she took the baby rat within about 16 seconds off the tongs. We've been thinking she looked hungry for the last couple of days because she's been a lot more active since Wednesday night.

We plan to handle her tomorrow evening (about 36 hrs post feed) and will post some pictures once we take her out!