Question about feeding.

Ok, little back story. I got my snake last Sunday. Breeder told me he hasn't eaten in a week due to the show. He doesn't feed a week before the show. My mom wants to take me out shopping and there's an exotic pet shop in the area she wants to take me shopping. She suggested we go in a buy my snake's first rat.

Here's the question: What's the difference in waiting one(1) day and if there is no difference how do I get him to eat if he is hiding in his hide?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Sorry if they sound newbie as I still am a complete newb when it comes to owning snake(s).:D

Get the appropriate sized rat, I would get a smaller one for it's first meal, then drop it in the tank, they ambush from their hides :). Monitor feeding though, have tongs or chop stick in hand in case of a bad strike, to prevent rodent from biting snake.

The breeder told me he has this partiicular snake on weaned(sp?) rats. I don't know how big those are. I've never dealt with feeding a snake a rat before.:D

How large is the snake? Can you weigh it?

Weaned rats weigh around 20g

When I brought it home, last sunday, I thought I h

When I brought him home, last sunday, I thought I had my scale set to grams. So I weighed him and it said 466. Come to find out it was set to Kilograms. So I have not taken him out of his cage since that day to give him space.

I have, however, been opening his cage to check temp/humidity and to pet him a little to get him used to me.

I will take him out and weigh him if that will help get better answers.

Ill take him out to weigh him before he eats today. Ill post his weight pre feed.

If he looks like he is still hungry I know to give him a little bit bigger rat next week.

If the snake is above 300-350 grams, he/she could handle a small rat. Just be sure to monitor the feeding. Don't just drop the rat in and leave it unattended with your snake. If you don't have a pair of feeding tongs, get a pencil or something long that you can use just in case your snakes first strike is not a good one (use the tongs/Pencil to keep the rat from biting the snake). Most likely if it won't do any real damage to the snake's skin, but you wan't to be safe than sorry. Only leave the rat in with him/her for 20-30 minutes. If it is not eaten in that time, take it out. Enjoy your new addition and welcome!

One thing that you can do to increase your chances of a successful feeding is to pre-scent. Most pet shops have some type of little transport boxes for rodents. When you get the rat home, set the box on top of, or next to the enclosure. This will allow your BP to smell the rat first, and become alert and get into feed mode. Sometimes the snake will just poke it's head out of the hide and look around, and sometimes they will come all the way out and search for the prey. Once you see that your snake is interested, put the rat in the enclosure.
Since you will be feeding live rats from a pet shop, it's a good idea to ask if they have a return policy should your snake decide not to eat. If they don't, then I would suggest keeping a Critter Keeper with a water bottle on hand, that way, if your snake doesn't feed, you have a way to house, feed and water the rat for a few days until the next feeding attempt.

Ok, Templar weighs 446 grams. I pre scented the room and even had the box in the cage with the box opened. I took everything out of Templar's cage beside the hide he was in. He was in the Exo Terra 2 in 1 hide. I took the top part off and left him in the bottom part.

I picked up the weaned rat by tongs and held it infront of his face. He struck it and hid. Then I tried again. He struck it again and hid again. Then I left the rat in the cage for 20 - 30 minutes. Templar struck at it 2 more times and nothing.

The rat is now back in the box the pet store gave me. The box is sitting ontop of his cage. What should I do now? Should I try again a little later tonight? I say this because the pet store is already closed or else I would have returned the rat.

I doubt they'd let you return a feeder rat. You have a pet for a week, I wouldn't advise attempting to feed again for another week. Please make sure you feed that rat before you put in in the snakes cage, it WILL chew away at your snake if you leave even for a second. Next time, I'd try feeding at night when it's dark instead.

The pet store I go to already told me as long as the feeder mouse/rat/rabbit isn't harmed they will take it back and keep it for me until my snake is ready to eat.

I'm going to wait till a little later tonight to try again to eat. If he doesn't eat tonight then I don't know what to do with the rat. If I should wait till the morning to return it or what.

I know if he doesn't eat tonight to wait another week to try again.

I think trying to feed him too many times is going to stress him out more. If you try again tonight, which I don't advise, I'd wait a full week to try again, and at night next time. They are nocturnal and "hunt" when it's dark.

Ah, alright. I guess I'll just keep the rat in the box I was given by the pet shop till tomorrow.

I'll try again next week and at night.

The multiple strikes at the rat sound like defensive strikes. He clearly wasn't interested in eating the rat, he was frightened or felt threatened. Don't try to feed him again tonight. I'd wait about 7 days to try again. He'll be fine waiting another week without food since he ate one week before you bought him. I'd stop "petting" him though, at least until he's taken a couple meals. That may be stressing him out more that anything. ("Big scary hand trying to kill me.") With the BPs I have now, I left each completely alone (only opening the tubs if they were soiled) for one week, then offered them food. Again, I left them completely alone and only began handling them after they took two or three consecutive meals for me (approximately 4 weeks).


EDIT: I guarantee the rat will chew through that box.

I brought the rat back. I'm not going to open his enclosure anymore. I just gave him fresh water and check his cage for poop and pee and nothing.

So, I'm not going to touch him for a week and try to feed again. This time on Sunday and at night. Hopefully he takes the food this time.

First of welcome to BP.net
Although actually I've only had my BP since 6/10/11.
haha
But I made the exact same mistake of handling it a lot when I first got him.
I tried to feed It a week after I got it like the pet shop told me too and he wouldn't eat.

But this is the first I've heard of Pre-scenting.
So I'm definitely going to have to try that next Thursday.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by templarknight

I have, however, been opening his cage to check temp/humidity and to pet him a little to get him used to me.

I will take him out and weigh him if that will help get better answers.

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Whatever you do don't weigh your snake before you feed him. You do not want to stress your snake out before you feed. Your snakes instinct is to only eat when its safe. After it eats its going to be less able to escape cause its dragging around its new meal. Best to be extra stress free before adding the rat. I tell my fiancee that feeding day is quite day. No loud noises in the snake room.

Thank you all for the replies. I have to tell myself to not touch him even though it's going to be so dang hard. He's so cute.

My mom came into the room last night to see what the snake was up to. She told me he was flying around the cage and when he saw her he came right up to the glass door and did long flicks of his tongue. So, Im happy that he's interested to what's going on outside and isn't really afraid.

Next week I'm going to try to feed him on Sunday night. I work 3rd shift at my job and my last night of work is Saturday, so I couldn't feed him until Sunday night at the time I want to feed him. I know, from what I read via this website, that he is more likely to take food at night when he's roaming around his cage. I'll keep you all updated next week to see if he ate or not.

Thanks again everyone for your helpful tips.

So tempted to go to the pet store and try to feed again tonight. I don't know if I want to try tonight or try Sunday night(like I originally planned). He seems really hungry at night, so I'm at a tug-o-war with deciding if I want to try tonight or Sunday night.

Grr...:D

i think a weaned rat would basically be the equivalent to the smallest of the smalls.

rats apparently have an instinctive fear of snakes and i've seen rats go on the defense after being offered more then once. the last one causing my girl to not eat for a couple weeks & i've had to drop down to rat pups that are just barely weaned. one of the next feedings will be slightly bigger then the smallest of the small rats.

do not constantly offer a rat to the snake, it'll only stress him out, resulting in more refusals/defensive strikes.

i have a wire coat hanger the is bent/shaped to a 16" long stick-like thing that i use to distract the rat at one end of my girl's terrarium so it wont move around alot. this hanger-rod keeps my hand far enough away from the action.

I'm going to wait till Sunday night to try again. I don't have the same rat and I won't get the same rat from the pet store. I just hope Sunday will be a much better feeding day for him.