How do you deal with shy/skittish when feeding?

Winston is almost a year old and he's growing, just slowly compared to the others. He's really skittish at times when it comes to feeding and more often than not will curl up and hide. Other times he will start to sniff the food but lose interest or moves away. Leaving the food in his tub overnight doesn't work as he will ignore it. If I keep at it, he will strike but more often than not lately he's not interested.

Any tips on feeding a shy or skittish snake who is afraid of food?

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Originally Posted by andrewross8705

Winston is almost a year old and he's growing, just slowly compared to the others. He's really skittish at times when it comes to feeding and more often than not will curl up and hide. Other times he will start to sniff the food but lose interest or moves away. Leaving the food in his tub overnight doesn't work as he will ignore it. If I keep at it, he will strike but more often than not lately he's not interested.

Any tips on feeding a shy or skittish snake who is afraid of food?

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If you're feeding F/T try a smaller live prey item for a while or Prekilled. Sometime animals need the added stimuli of pre-scenting the room in order to get a really good feeding response fropm them. Think of it like smelling Christmas dinner cook all day verses having turkey and gravy for school lunch.

Prey warmth is another factor to keep in mind. I hear people have success using a hair dryer on a hot but low speed setting to warm the meal for a minute or two. Doing that in front of the cage seems to help with scenting.

I have to get my snakes' dinner just the right temp or he won't even bother. Once it is up to temp however he constricts almost immediately.

You may also want to try later in the night feeding. As these are mostly nocturnal yours might be more active at night and that might help with a feeding at say 9 or 10 at night.

I personally allow my f/t rats to thaw over their cage an it's like a circus with all 4 (3 BPs and 1 RTB) out and about trying to move around their trees up to. The top of their enclosures lol perfect photo op, my RTB almost acts like a tree limb, very amusing to watch


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Prime example of my RTB ready to eat searching for her dinner lol


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I just offer an appropriate sized rat and if they eat they eat. If not I give it to someone else and offer again in a week.

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Originally Posted by Aerries

I personally allow my f/t rats to thaw over their cage an it's like a circus with all 4 (3 BPs and 1 RTB) out and about trying to move around their trees up to. The top of their enclosures lol perfect photo op, my RTB almost acts like a tree limb, very amusing to watch


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I've been thawing food on the lid above his tub and he's all over the place but still pulls back and tries to hide.

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Originally Posted by cletus

I just offer an appropriate sized rat and if they eat they eat. If not I give it to someone else and offer again in a week.

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That's what I've been doing. If he's hungry, he will eat, if not, it goes to one of the others. It's more frustrating than anything because my other BP is a little more than a year and almost double his size. I know they all grow differently but it's hard to stay out of your own head at times.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

If you're feeding F/T try a smaller live prey item for a while or Prekilled. Sometime animals need the added stimuli of pre-scenting the room in order to get a really good feeding response fropm them. Think of it like smelling Christmas dinner cook all day verses having turkey and gravy for school lunch.

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He's on large adult mice at the moment and is ready to go up to the next size but refuses to eat rats. I try offering a rat that's a bit smaller than him every few weeks in the hopes that he will take to them but no luck so far. He's probably going to be on mice forever at this rate and that's fine as long as he's willing to eat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andrewross8705

I've been thawing food on the lid above his tub and he's all over the place but still pulls back and tries to hide.



That's what I've been doing. If he's hungry, he will eat, if not, it goes to one of the others. It's more frustrating than anything because my other BP is a little more than a year and almost double his size. I know they all grow differently but it's hard to stay out of your own head at times.



He's on large adult mice at the moment and is ready to go up to the next size but refuses to eat rats. I try offering a rat that's a bit smaller than him every few weeks in the hopes that he will take to them but no luck so far. He's probably going to be on mice forever at this rate and that's fine as long as he's willing to eat.

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Mine came to me shy.

Beyond what others have mentioned regarding the feeding issue directly what I did was:

Give him lots of cover. Loose substrate, PVC pipes, plants. Assure only one side of his enclosure is non-opaque. Allow him to scoot around unseen to me.

Thaw in late evening, when I see him already poking out (he's a watcher/lurker).

Heat completely, with heat being heated via blow dryer over my body temp.

Offer via tongs in the most stable way, so the rodent can't swing/fall free/etc. Settled on hind feet.

He would take 10-15 to strike and 30 minutes to actually get it down, to start. No wonder he was skipping weeks with the breeder, since they probably couldn't sit there and wait for him to muster up the guts to strike, and his coiling response sucked back then too.

Now he strikes soon as he lines it up and can have it down in under 5 minutes.

Really focus on how your items are heated and how secure the animal feels in its home overall, IMHO.

Ah yeah, re: switching to rats since it's too late to back edit.

Know when he's shedding next? Try holding off the feed for the week before and the week during, then offering him a scented and well-heated rat once he's done shedding. They tend to be ravenous after a short forced fast and a shed, by my experience. Lot less picky (usually), just like females after a breed/lay.