Re: Got my first BP today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by CanadianNinja
I picked him up from a nice breeder. Very healthy, VERY attentive, a little nervous it seems, but not too bad. Hes on a live rat pup every 5 days, and when I gave him his first tonight, he looked it over for twenty seconds then went to town on it. I was glad to see he wasnt too stressed or nervous to eat. He should start a shed in a week or so, which will be nice. Ill get some pictures up soon, but I didnt want to bug him too much. Nobody likes indigestion :)
Congrats on the new baby! Sounds like a good decision to get him from a breeder that sold you a well-started baby. We usually keep the little ones on every 5 days until they hit about 200 grams, then go to feeding once every 7 days.
Just to review here for the other posters with new baby snakes. A prey item should not leave a big lump in your snake. Compare the rodents greatest girth (it's butt) with the empty largest girth of your baby for the right "fit". Here's a few links about prey size and life stages....knowing your prey helps you feed appropriately and that helps your snake be in the best shape possible....(in this thread are two other links to prey info)....
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=52429
Most folks here will tell you that a pinky/fuzzy mouse isn't much of a meal at all.
As far as feeding live or "having" to switch to f/t, that's an owner's decision really. Since very small bp's have very specific sizes they need sometimes it's easier to go to f/t if you don't have a regular supplier of that specific size of prey. However, trying to switch a baby you just got either in type of prey (mice to rats for instance) or method of feeding (from live to f/t for instance) will often cause the snake so much stress it stops feeding. You do not want to have a very tiny baby bp stop eating so it's usually best to stick to what the snake knows for awhile before considering a switch.
As for live feeding being unsafe, that's been covered in many, many threads here so I'd suggest spending time with our excellent search function to read up on member's opinions and direct experiences with all the feeding methods.
Re: Got my first BP today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by trumetal96
my bp wont come out of its hide. do they usually just sit in there rolled up in a ball?
Yeah thats normal, leave him alone for about a week, this means no handleing, only change his water, after that week is over and he's settled in, give him a F/T hopper, that should be alright.
Hope this helps
Mitch
