First feeding, how to go about it?

I bought a few frozen fuzzies and some feeding tongs tonight in hope of feeding my new bp. The little guy has been actively prowling the tank every night after lights out, and I suspect he/she is hungry. Having never owned a snake, all I have to go off of is the research I've been doing, and I have a couple questions you all can probably answer!

When feeding frozen, have you had better success waving the mouse in front of the snake first or simply setting it on the floor of the inclosure?

For the first feeding, should I leave my new snake in its enclosure or go straight to feeding in a separate box?

How long do you typically leave the mouse with the snake before you toss it if the snake has not eaten? I've seen conflicting answers with this. Some say no more than 20 minutes, and I've seen other threads with people leaving the mouse overnight.


Please add any other tips or tricks you may have for getting a snake to eat! Thank you very much!!


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1. This is kind of a snake by snake thing. I have some snakes a wave the mouse in front till they strike it and i have some snakes i set it down close the tub and walk away. You can always try the first then try the second.
2. You almost always want to feed inside the enclosure. Moving a snake in feed mode or one that has just eaten is not a good idea. They are more comfortable eating in their enclosure where they feel more secure.
3. I usually leave the mouse in over night. If its still there in the morning i throw it out.
My only tips are to try to heat the mouse to 95/100 degrees especially on the head. Having a temp gun makes this easy.
Try not to be too close to the f.t. pray because the snake will sometimes track your heat signature because it is larger \ stronger. (I got nipped like this once)

First fuzzy mice are not appropriate for a BP even out of the eggs they get started with hoppers and quickly move through sizes.

If the animal never ate for you and was fed live before, switching my not be that easy and might not even happen at all, animals that has fed live should be fed live upon arrival until they are settled in completely. An established animal that is eating for you will be easier to switch than trying to switch a new animal that has never been offer F/T.

If the animal is feeding F/T simply thaw the prey nearby the enclosure, warm it up with a hair dryer and offer in the enclosure, the best way to do it with animal that are young is by grabbing the prey behind the neck with the tong and moving the prey in the enclosure as if it was alive. When feeding F/T I do this for up to 5 min if it fails I will leave the prey in the enclosure until the morning sometime it will be gone sometime not.

Do not feed outside the enclosure.

Thank you for your replies! I'm feeding this sized mouse simply because that's what the snake was fed previously, so I thought I should start there and move up after a round of feeding or two. I was told the snake had eaten frozen previously, so I'm hoping that rings true tonight. I'll use your suggestions and let you know how it goes! Thanks again for the help!


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Don't feed outside enclosure IMO I did that with my bp when I first got him and just recently iv started to notice when I get him out just to get him out he goes into hunt mode and gets jumpy so I'm switching now iv been feeding him in the enclousure and he still gets jumpy out of his enclosure but it is not as bad as it was hopefully continuing to do this he will improve and go back to be my little puppy lol... Like another post said it's all snake to snake no snakes behaviour is the same.... As for feeding frozen well my little guy refuses to eat frozen so I can't help their but I would assume that you should just dangle it by the tail and he will pick up the heat from it and hopefully for you strike and eat.... Also as posted before you want the food the be the same size if not a little bit bigger than the biggest part of the snake (usually the mid section) hope this helps

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Well, I tried waving the mouse around for probably a good ten minutes. At first, the bp came out to investigate, but then curled up and hid its face as if a little spooked by the mouse. I sat the mouse right outside the hideout the snake is currently in and again he/she came out to investigate, but didn't seem entirely interested. If this mouse is not consumed by morning, should I try a live one tomorrow night or wait a while longer before anymore feeding attempts?


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Just to clarify: I held onto the mouse a little longer than mentioned above only because the snake came out for awhile to give it a look over, but after retreating, I only tried with the tongs for a few minutes longer to see if there was anymore interest. I left the room so maybe he'll feel a little more comfortable and go for it.


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I personally wouldn't try live just yet. If the breeder said it was eating frozen before, I'd stick to that. Try again in 5 days. Not sure if you mentioned how you heated the mouse up, but if you heat it up with a hair dryer to about 95-100F, it'll make it much easier to find the prey and the smell will kick em into feeding mode. If you DID use the dryer method, the mouse may have lost some heat from being waved around for a while. If that's the case, then just reheat it again. This is just how I do it with mine and he's naturally just a great eater [emoji16] Hope this helps!

I thawed it by putting it in a plastic baggy and warm water first, then used the hair-dryer method.

He didn't eat it last night after leaving the mouse in there. Do you mean reheat in the morning or just in general at the time of feeding?

Thank you!


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If the animal was indeed feeding on F/T (which means had more than 5 consecutive F/T in the past with the previous owner/breeder on it's own) you do not want to offer live just yet unless you are willing to do so for an extended period of time.

You also do not want to offer next day after a refusal, when you have a refusal you offer a week later, offering too soon can lead to more refusal.

The key is appropriate size prey, already established it is not even if it was fed this previously.

optimum husbandry. 99% of food refusal in new animal arriving to their new owner is husbandry related.

How big is the snake (weight?)

How big is the enclosure?

What type of substrate are you using?

What are your temps? How do you measure them? (where and with what type of thermometer)

How tight are your hides?

Have you been handling your BP since it arrived/was purchase?