Fussy Eater

Hey, I've had my BP for about a month. He's doing well ate last week for the first time. He didn’t have any problems and only took him about 3 minutes to take the mouse. I'm feeding him Pre-killed frozen hoppers with these metal barbeque tongs. So I went to feed him again last night. I did it at about 11:30 and got his attention very quickly. He bit at the tongs and the mouse probably 10 times in total but wouldn’t hold on or take the mouse. I felt like he was trying too but wasn’t taking it for whatever reason. He started biting defensively; he turned around and attacked my hand a few times. Just his way of saying piss off I guess. I'm not sure why I wasn’t successful this week. I tried holding the mouse by the skin on the back and facing it towards him. It got his attention but it seemed like he had trouble finding the head. Any thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Andrew666

Hey, I've had my BP for about a month. He's doing well ate last week for the first time. He didn’t have any problems and only took him about 3 minutes to take the mouse. I'm feeding him Pre-killed frozen hoppers with these metal barbeque tongs. So I went to feed him again last night. I did it at about 11:30 and got his attention very quickly. He bit at the tongs and the mouse probably 10 times in total but wouldn’t hold on or take the mouse. I felt like he was trying too but wasn’t taking it for whatever reason. He started biting defensively; he turned around and attacked my hand a few times. Just his way of saying piss off I guess. I'm not sure why I wasn’t successful this week. I tried holding the mouse by the skin on the back and facing it towards him. It got his attention but it seemed like he had trouble finding the head. Any thoughts?

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Temps and humidity right? Does he have hiding spots? You can try live rat pups since they are much less harmless then a mouse can be.

Temps and humidty are perfect, he has 2 identical tight hides. They told me he ate pre-killed hoppers when I bought him.

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Originally Posted by Andrew666

Temps and humidty are perfect, he has 2 identical tight hides. They told me he ate pre-killed hoppers when I bought him.

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Sometimes BP's are slow eaters. Mine I leave the rat pup in with him and he eats it within 24-48 hours. Try that.

You mean a live one? cuz i've heard thats dangerous, and my snake has never had live before. I've left dead ones on a small piece of cardboard over night and he hasn't touched that.

i don't see any reason to leave a food in for 24 hrs that is just not good to do i think so.

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Originally Posted by reptilesnr/c

i don't see any reason to leave a food in for 24 hrs that is just not good to do i think so.

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Some reptiles eat at weird times. My BP has eaten as soon and I put the rat pup in there, or in the middle of the night or when I'm at work.

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Originally Posted by Andrew666

You mean a live one? cuz i've heard thats dangerous, and my snake has never had live before. I've left dead ones on a small piece of cardboard over night and he hasn't touched that.

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Leaving a full grown rat or mouse is dangerous. A rat pup is not dangerous since most will walk around blindly since their eyes aren't even open yet. Also, like my BP he only eats live since the movement of live gets his interest. Many thing to watch is if there's any weight loss. Sometimes reptiles can go long periods and not lose any weight. If he loses weight then you should be concerned.

i dont have a snake yet (waiting till i can affford it) but im trying to learn all i can before i get it. i just wanted to know if anyone fed live to their snakes only to have them never go back to f/t. just curious :)

I have tons of snakes some of my hatchling will eat frozen one week and live the next and P/K the next. It depends on the animal.

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Originally Posted by Andrew666

I felt like he was trying too but wasn’t taking it for whatever reason. He started biting defensively; he turned around and attacked my hand a few times. Just his way of saying piss off I guess. I'm not sure why I wasn’t successful this week. I tried holding the mouse by the skin on the back and facing it towards him. It got his attention but it seemed like he had trouble finding the head. Any thoughts?

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My thoughts would be related to heat signals.

Was your prey warm enough?

Did you thaw it properly and then warm it up either by placing it in a baggie submerge in hot water for 3-4 minutes, or using a hair dryer.

If the BP does not get the heat signal from the prey he is likely to try to strike the first thing that emit a heat signal in that case your hand, this could also explain why he did not seem to find the head easily.