How long till first feed takes place?

Oh yes - definitely good luck with the first feed - we'll probably do ours Monday/Tuesday. She should be starving by then.

Our heat mat is just a normal one - still having some trouble with it - hot end is now fine but cool end is not high enough - have raised it up on wooden blocks so air will circulate more hopefully and be able to get to the cool end. If we still have trouble with it i'll get a thermostatically controlled one.

Do you leave your heatmats on all day?

Yep, we just fiddle with it if need be but we don't turn it off. We definitely need a thermostat from Matt LOL.


~~Jo~~

I'm going to find out what I can get in the UK - this heat mat drives me mad - first it's too hot then it's not hot enough. The humidity seems as bad - it was up to 55-60 yesterday and this morning it is down to 40! Time to get a digital for both thermos and humidity guages I think.

It's really my 17 year old daughter's snake but I have so fallen in love with her I want to do whatever's best for her - I made her a new hide today for her hot end - we had a store bought one that she never seemed to like much so I just cut up a smallish box and cut an entrance way in it and she went into it almost as soon as I put it there - so much for spending money on flashy ones :P

Just got to get her really settled now so I can offer her a mouse ...

LOL exactly! It's not like they have home designers in the wild. Seems like simple is best (and far cheaper) in the end with these snakes. After learning so much from this site we have yet to spend much of anything in a regular pet store and have gotten our snake's stuff from department stores, super stores and good old DIY stores. Seems like anything marked "reptile" is jacked up in prices enormously.

Just keep a good eye on that cardboard box in case the snake messes in her hide and it gets dampish. Our snake has been known to drop a feces in her hide (then used her other hide till we cleaned up her mess LOL) so it can get a bit messy and stinky.


~~Jo~~

She fed today!!! She had an extra long sleep today and we scarce waited till she came out of her hide to offer the mouse. This time we put it in really hot water (not boiling) to warm up, did the pierce the brain trick and she did one or two practise strikes then nabbed it. Went in tail first (I thought it should have gone in head first but guess that's OK).

We've now left her strictly alone and covered her up - last seen the mouse was a third of the way down. One thing I was wondering was should we make sure she stays in her hot end overnight (i.e. take out the cool end hide) so she digests it better?

Leave everything the way it is now. Your snake knows when to selfregulate its own temperture and taking something out will just stress your snake. Congrats on the feeding

Excellent about that feeding! Our snake usually messes about with her mousey meal so she can swallow it head first so I don't know about the butt first approach but I'm sure someone here that's more experienced will comment on that. We watched her a few weeks ago dragging her meal around by it's tail after she'd "killed it" (it's pre-killed but hey why shouldn't she have her fun LOL). She finally got it positioned the way she liked it and down it went.

Ditto what Daniel said....once she's eaten don't mess with her or her environment at all for a good 2 days (other than a fast discrete water change maybe). The snake knows what it needs as far as temps for digestion. As long as you've provided an environment with the right temps and hides it will move where it needs to.

Isn't it a great feeling to get them eating!

~~Jo~~

;) Head first or butt first....doesn't matter. It's all going to the same place. It just looks easier head first. Mine have done the butt thing a couple times. Dandylion seems to like hers wet. She drags it into the water and swishes it around a couple times before eating it. :confuse: Weirdo!

Wow that is odd Christie. Dandy's your rescue right? Maybe it's some sort of odd reaction she learned to do when her husbandry was not quite up to par. Either that or she's just in touch with her inner raccoon LOL.

~~Jo~~

Yeah she's the rescue. She finally seems to really settled in. She doesn't freak out every time I check on her and isn't nearly so ready to ball up. I can only get one mouse down at a time but she is gaining weight well so we'll leave her alone. Apparently both shed while I was on vacation, but neither had a problem. I'm just glad Dandy is doing so well. I won't worry if she has some weird love for water. (of course her water was a lovely shade of pink when I picked her up and her humidity was nonexistant. Grrrr .... stupid people! :stab: