First feeding ever! Advice?

Hola peeps,

First post here, first time BP owner. I recently acquired a little girl who's only around 2 weeks old, almost 3-ish. I already have a snake, but Lola's a 6 year old corn and is a well-established feeder. Lily just shed for the first time so from what I've been told she's gonna be ready to eat for the first time soon. I reeeeeally wanna get her on f/t right from the get-go. Feeding live doesn't sit well with me and I'd rather not do it unless I absolutely must. So anyone wanna give me tips and/or tricks to get her eating? I use mice for my corn so should I start her off on mice too? If yes, when should I switch her over to rats? TIA!

I would try a rat pup. Get it real warm since they are attracted to heat with they sensory pits and she should take it....

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Originally Posted by Yuka

Hola peeps,

First post here, first time BP owner. I recently acquired a little girl who's only around 2 weeks old, almost 3-ish. I already have a snake, but Lola's a 6 year old corn and is a well-established feeder. Lily just shed for the first time so from what I've been told she's gonna be ready to eat for the first time soon. I reeeeeally wanna get her on f/t right from the get-go. Feeding live doesn't sit well with me and I'd rather not do it unless I absolutely must. So anyone wanna give me tips and/or tricks to get her eating? I use mice for my corn so should I start her off on mice too? If yes, when should I switch her over to rats? TIA!

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Where did you get a BP from that had not eaten a first meal? That's usually not the norm for people who are not experienced with BP's.

Anyways, from what I've seen it's not very easy to get them started on FT. They usually require at least a couple of live feedings to get them going on the food thing. It's not always the case, but you should be prepared to have to do some live feedings for that BP.

You can try starting her on frozen. Mouse hopper or rat pinkie is a good size for their first meal. If you can get her to eat either of them FT, keep feeding that until she's big enough for rat pups. That's usually 110g to 120g but this varies a bit.

My hatchlings all start on live rat pups.

Yeah I figured it's not the norm but hey, I didn't think it was the end of the world haha. She was a present from a friend who has his own herp business. He got a batch of baby BPs from a friend of his for ridiculously cheap and he gave one to me. All unsexed and all normals except for one normal male because he's het hypo (and bigger than the rest strangely enough. We figured he was from a slightly older clutch). So it was basically like, "Ehhhh why not, you're not a reptile n00b, you got this."

After all the snooping around I've done, I guess feeding her live is my best bet then, eh? Shame too...I used to have rats and I'm quite fond of them. :( So if I start her off on live, how do I switch her over to F/T? Do I just heat up a dead one and go from there? I must say, my corn's spoiled me lol. Eats F/T and doesn't even care if it's warm or not. xD

Just offer it and see what happens.

What works for me is this. I start with the prey in a zip bag and place it in the sink with something on it to submerge it completely in the water. I think let it thaw. This time will vary by prey size but 30 to 45 minutes should be more than enough for a large mouse. Remove the prey and squeeze its head and guts, they should not have any cold or cool spots. If they do submerge a bit longer.

I then drain the water and again fill the sink with the hottest water I have in the tap. I again submerge it for 15-20 minutes to get it warmed all the way through to represent a real live rodent.

You may not need to thaw as long. This is with all my feeders in the sink including a XXL rat. Just check after 15 minutes and see how it is.

Live rodents have a body around 100F so you feeders need to near that for best results. Once pulled from the water feed quickly, they start to cool pretty fast.