baby wont eat, help!

It's a small world, ain't it? :)

That's wonderful that you aren't handling him/her. Also wonderful that you have a temp gun and the snake is secluded in a fairly dark room. Awesome stuff. :-D And yes, the thermometer unit goes on the cool side of the enclosure(on the floor) and the probe goes around to the warm side and sits under the hide. I prefer using those ceramic ones because they are heavy and dark. I've had to use plastic for now because mine is at an awkward stage and I can't seem to find anything suitable that is ceramic that she can fit in.

Here's a pic of what my enclosure looks like. I have two digi combo units, one on the warm side and one on the cool side. Measures the ambient temps, surface temps and relative humidity for each side. Guess I'm kind of picky ;)
Here ya go:
http://img132.echo.cx/img132/5325/pict00033xs.th.jpg

http://img132.echo.cx/img132/7557/pict00021nv.th.jpg

About the 75watt, I think it will absolutely fry the snake in a 10-gallon. Also, belly temps on the warm side should be a good 94-95. Temps should never go below 80 anywhere in the enclosure. 77 degrees on the cool side is a little too cool, especially for a non-eating baby, and it just asks for trouble. Bump it up to about 82-84 and you should be good to go. Those lamp dimmers help out alot and are easy to wire. You can ask Matt, aka justcage, for help on wiring, and when you are ready, there are a few people on this site that sell thermostats.

Anywho, I think that about rounds everything off. Try that sm. adult mouse and you can even darken the room and watch from a distance. That should help lessen the stress of eating. Try a younger mouse, and I doubt the snake will have any problems since the mouse will have no clue ;)

Good luck!

those are the EXACT hides i have in there right now, she pushes them around all over. I'm off to get all the stuff right now, thanks for the suggestions!

Edit: man, sure getting tired of these edits, but a quick once-over of her cage, and there were these little ball things, and a ring dried into the napkins. is this fecal matter or what? i'll post pictures in a few.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdapython

those are the EXACT hides i have in there right now, she pushes them around all over. I'm off to get all the stuff right now, thanks for the suggestions!

Edit: man, sure getting tired of these edits, but a quick once-over of her cage, and there were these little ball things, and a ring dried into the napkins. is this fecal matter or what? i'll post pictures in a few.

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???

Yep, looks like a slight amount of fecal material. Normal bowel movements look like cat poo with the addition of small white balls, called urates. These are a snakes form of urine, except dehydrated. Sometimes snakes will pass the liquid form of urine as well. With the next bowel movement, I would take a small portion(teaspoon) to the vet and have them perform a direct smear AND a flotation. Sometimes they can find parasites in the direct smear that normally won't show in up a float (ie: Giardia). If the price seems outrageous, find someone else. Any normal trained vet tech can perform a fecal and tell you how to treat the animal.

Glad everything is going well. :)

just got back from lowes, got some clay/ceramic overflows that i'm gonna make into hides, a dimmer, and a temp/humidity gauge. Now I'm off to get food, oh boy...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdapython

just got back from lowes, got some clay/ceramic overflows that i'm gonna make into hides, a dimmer, and a temp/humidity gauge. Now I'm off to get food, oh boy...

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Change isn't automatic with ball pythons ... once you change things for the better it still may take a couple of weeks for your snake to become comfortable enough to start eating. It could happen overnight, but you certainly shouldn't expect it.

-adam

I can't believe this nonsense! The first petstore I tried has hours from 9a.m.-3p.m. on mondays, which makes no sense to me at all. So I went to the other pet store in town and they had a sign up saying "sorry for the inconvenience but we closed at 3 today".

so Adam_Wysocki, should I leave the new hides out for awhile?

I'd go ahead and put the new hides in, after you clean and bake them in the oven to kill any nasties. I think what Adam meant is that the snake may still take awhile to get used to its new surroundings again, and it may be 2 weeks or more before it is comfortable enough to eat. I wouldn't worry about buying a mouse now. Try waiting another week after getting everything set up and running, and then try to feed. If no success in a week, wait another week and try again. These guys do take patience on our part :)

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

I'd go ahead and put the new hides in, after you clean and bake them in the oven to kill any nasties. I think what Adam meant is that the snake may still take awhile to get used to its new surroundings again, and it may be 2 weeks or more before it is comfortable enough to eat. I wouldn't worry about buying a mouse now. Try waiting another week after getting everything set up and running, and then try to feed. If no success in a week, wait another week and try again. These guys do take patience on our part :)

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just so we're clear here, the snake has never eaten, and hatched around the first of this month, are you sure i should wait a week?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

I think what Adam meant is that the snake may still take awhile to get used to its new surroundings again, and it may be 2 weeks or more before it is comfortable enough to eat. I wouldn't worry about buying a mouse now. Try waiting another week after getting everything set up and running, and then try to feed. If no success in a week, wait another week and try again. These guys do take patience on our part :)

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Exactly .... they almost never work on your schedule, they have thier own ;)

-adam