How long should you wait before feeding a new animal?

Hey! So, I just got a baby western Hognose on Thursday of last week, and wondering if it's ok to feed her today? Breeder said she's eating every 4-5 days and shes on pinkies, I don't know when she was last fed. I'm assuming the 4 days in plenty but thought I'd check :) Thanks!

It's depends on multiple variables. For most of my collection they ate a couple days after me receiving them. The only two that waited me out a full week were my het albino pied male and my lavender albino het pied hatchling. It can't hurt to offer. Give roughly a 10-15 offering if a no go wait a few more days and try again. (IMO)

If it was an adult snake, I'd wait probably 2 weeks before feeding, especially if they were air-shipped & not purchased locally. But with small & young snakes,
you're usually ok waiting 5-7 days, as long as they've not been handled, & allowed to settle in. The whole reason to avoid feeding is that stressed snakes may
regurgitate their meals & end up in a downward spiral, because it takes a couple weeks for them to replenish their digestive enzymes once they barf their meal,
and feeding them too soon after just gets another regurge and they can also die of dehydration in this situation.

The main thing is to leave your young snake "in peace" after feeding...I think you're fine to offer, & if she refuses, then wait another 5 days before offering food
again...because offering too often can stress them further & just "backfire" on you.

I like to let new arrivals settle in for about 5-7 days before I offer food but I have had a couple that ate after 48 hours. If I'm feeding other animals and a newcomer is hanging out in the open they could get a meal.

It depends on the species and individual snake. For ball python hatchlings who are more nervous and finicky, I always waited 5-7 days.

For my rat snake and pine snake hatchlings who are ravenous and "chill" with food, I fed them on the 3rd day and they took it immediately.

Even though I don't own hognoses, if I were to get one, at least 5 days is more than enough! If he refuses, just try again in 5 days.

For the babies, I usually give them a few days to settle in, then offer weekly. Of the 3 youngsters I’ve purchased this year: a pied and a lemonblast purchased 7/21 (hatched in July as well w/ 1 meal before sale, per sellers), and a blue-eyed leucistic purchased 8/25 (hatched May/June eating steady on live adult mice per seller). The pied has eaten the last 2 weeks (2 live pinkies last week, 1 f/t fuzzy tonight), the lemonblast is still refusing each week (not losing weight, she is drinking and moving around, so not too worried yet), and the BEL ate a f/t mouse tonight.

I picked up my 3 year old dragonfly yesterday morning, she left a deposit last night, and I offered a small rat tonight when I fed everyone else. She didn’t eat tonight, which would have been a pleasant surprise this soon, so she’ll get offered again in 2 weeks with the rest of the adults. Any left over mice/rats are offered as a bonus to other snakes, anything not eaten gets offered to the crows tomorrow morning...local wildlife appreciates refused rodents. :)

Since snakes are opportunistic ambush predators who live on no feeding schedule in the wild I feed new snakes whichever night I am getting prey out and defrosted for the others. So if I bring a new snake home and it's feeding day for the others I offer that day and start that animals schedule then.
I've had animals eat the day they came home, I've had animals refuse after being settled in for 5 days.

I always offer they day I get them. If refused, I wait a week or so to offer again. Never had a refusal even with snakes that had been shipped.

Thanks so much everyone! I offered last night, thawed on top of her tank, and she ate it up! Hogs eat so different than balls, it was cool to watch :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GpBp

Thanks so much everyone! I offered last night, thawed on top of her tank, and she ate it up! Hogs eat so different than balls, it was cool to watch :D

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Awesome!! Hoggies have a very fast metabolism so feed every 5 days for a while.
...and yeah, worlds apart from how BPs eat! Hahahaha