BP noob looking for feeding/mite tips

Hmmm, no I didn't thats a great idea though. I've never heard of doing that in my research. Like I say though I am a total noob at this :P. Should I wait til next weeks feeding time to try that out or maybe wait 5 days before attempting to feed again? That seems to be the concensus from the people that I've talked to about feeding. If they refuse one week to wait til the next scheduled feeding time to try again.

Hi,

Yeah I would wait the 5-7 days - at worst it gives her a little longer to settle in and feel hungry. :)


dr del

I'm going to assume you're talking about f/t pinky mice here (it's best to be specific as there's a lot of size difference between rats and mice).

Pet stores are infamous for feeding far too small. F/t pink mice, unless you're dealing with the world's smallest BP, have never cut it for me. That's just basically not much of a meal for a BP and likely uses up more energy to eat and digest it than they actually get from that dinky little f/t mouse pinky.

Wait 5 to 7 days and try a more appropriately sized prey item. Decide in that time whether you want to feed mice or rats and which prey you can get consistently where you live. These aren't snakes that always do well if you switch up prey type or feeding methods on them too often.

When you feed f/t you need to try and keep that prey item putting out a heat signature. Ball pythons aren't natural scavengers so something dead, cold and unmoving doesn't always read "food" to them. If you don't have hemostats or a long pair of tweezers to use to wiggle the f/t item, you may want to run out and get a pair.

Focus right now on settling the snake in, providing an appropriate home that is stable in temps and humidity (in the correct ranges), don't handle other than for basic cage maintenance and get those mites dealt with. Mites are never "just one mite" and they can put a snake off eating and be a vector for disease. Most of the stuff pet stores sell is pointless and a waste of money. Provent-A-Mite used exactly as the instructions say (it is NOT sprayed on the snake) will get rid of that mite issue for you and is well worth the money spent. Personally I'd be having a strong word with the pet store that sold you a snake with a "free" case of mites!

A pinky mouse is like.. A snack.
Now if you want to give her pinky mice, you'll need to feed them very often. Like every two or three days. If you do this you won't be able to handle her much or she'll blarf on you at some point. She's probably so stressed because of hunger and/or a new environment.

If she truely does have mites, you'll need to sanitize the cage. I agree that PAM is a good choice. If you don't have any, you have to do it the hard way.

Take everything out of the cage. Bleach the cage and dishes.
Freeze branches and hides. Let them thaw and examine them for movement. If you see anything, freeze them again, etc. Your snake won't like this, but she would benefit from a quick bath or soak. You'll need to use fresh substrate as well.

Mites are no joke. They spread disease and cause extreme discomfort to your snake. If you have continuous problems with them, you may consider a vet visit or some antidotes.

Yeah I spent about 2 hours this weekend taking care of our little "uninvited guests" cleaning and bleaching everything in the cage. I used some "mite-away" on my snake and it seemed to take care of the problem. I went by NERD after I was done to check the place out and they suggested using stuff called Black Knight II if they do come back. The guys I was talking to said that they don't use PAM as it can cause serious harm to the snake if used incorrectly but the BKII is actually safer for use and it kills 100% of the time. So if the little buggers do decide to make a repeat appearance I'll be using that stuff.
I went by the pet store that sold me her and I gave them a piece of my mind. There were 3 other BPs in the enclosure with her and they all had mites also. When I went in I was looking at them and 2/3 were doing the whole soaking in the water dish and had black mites all on their backs. I don't know how they missed that at the store but I don't believe I'll be buying any more animals from that store. I wish I had known before hand that NERD/Zoo Creatures was so close to me! I would totally have gone there for my first animal. But live and learn I guess :oops:.
So I'm gonna try feeding another F/T hopper mouse tomorrow night and we'll see how that goes down. I got some good feeding tips from the guys over at NERD so I'll be trying those out. I think now that we've taken care of the mites she'll be more apt to try and eat.
Thanks everybody!
Adam.