what just happened?

ok so ever since i got my male pastel he has been feeding on a regular basis every 5 days, it got to a point, that once i took out the water dish, seconds later he stuck his head out since he knew food was coming, this has been going on for the 3 or so months i have had him.

Well today i bring a mice in to feed him like usually, only yesterday was his feeding day but due to work i did not have a chance, so i do the usuall, take out the water dish, and usually y the time i take the water dish out and bring it to the bathroom, i get back and his head is already out, well this time nothing, so i say ok, anyways, and threw the mice in. Mice was all over the place including sticking his head in the hide where he was in, nothing. So after 5 minutes i got a little fustrated, and i know i broke the rules by doing this, but i lifted the hide where he was in and thre the mouse back again, after about 30 seconds of staring he struck and coiled, and ate.

Now what could have caused this? is it because i missed a day?

Right now he just finished taken the mouse down, and since his cold side hide (where he always is in) is out, im waiting for him to go into the hot side hide, so i can place the cold side hide back in and rearange the decorations that got all messed up in the process, (mouse was fighting with the fake plants). So he is in the middle of the tank in S defensive strike mode. And actually i just tried to put the cold side hide on top of him and he quickly got in S postion again and hissed.

dammit, i know, i know im wrong with that i did, and he is EXTREMELY stressed out most likely, but anybody have any thoughts on what just happened here?

man, ill be lucky if he dosent regurg

I would leave the hide out and let him be. He will figure out where he wants to go.

how are the temps, they didn't change at all did they? Has anything changed in his tank?

the only thing that has changed is a bit hotter now, since its summer, his usual ambient temps are between 88-90 and now its 92-96.

There is a hear wave here in NYC, however my temp gun still shows a solid 93 on the hot side hide (which he never goes into) and 88-89 on the cold side hide, mostly 88. Oh and the hot side hide UTH is on a dimmer, and like i said i constantly check the temps on it and it never goes over 93, but he is NEVER in there, havent seen him go in there since the winter.

lover your temps... When Ambient temps stay high like that I try dont go over 90 degrees on hot side...:gj::gj::gj:

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Originally Posted by FrankieCarbone

the only thing that has changed is a bit hotter now, since its summer, his usual ambient temps are between 88-90 and now its 92-96.

There is a hear wave here in NYC, however my temp gun still shows a solid 93 on the hot side hide (which he never goes into) and 88-89 on the cold side hide, mostly 88. Oh and the hot side hide UTH is on a dimmer, and like i said i constantly check the temps on it and it never goes over 93, but he is NEVER in there, havent seen him go in there since the winter.

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Sounds like it's way too hot, especially if you've never seen him in his hot hide.

It sounds to me like your snake may have been asleep when you put the mouse in, that's why he wasn't at the entrance like he usually is.
Bring down your hot temp to 93ish.

i make sure my snake is fully awake and aware of whats going on before sticking any prey in her terrarium. i remove the hides, including the one she's in & recently i've been removing the water dishes too cuz she has ended up coiled in one of the water dishes & has dropped the rat in the water upon letting go to start swallowing it & then spent time searching for it. with everything out the feeding sessions are alot less complicated and i believe my girl has already picked up on that little routine & it's like she knows its feeding time when i start removing her "furniture" :P.
i put things back in when she's done eating, make sure her water dishes are full & then leave her alone for 2 days to let her digest.
anyways,
from what i hear around here, actual handling during those 2 days following a meal is what causes most regurges.
those temps definitely look to be a bit high. they should be around 90 warm/80 cool. since its darn near impossible to keep one steady temp on both sides with the influence of room temps, i'm able to maintain temp ranges of 87-93 warm/75-80 cool.

Is he in shed? I only have 1 of my snakes that will even entertain the thought of eating while in shed. I have a few REALLY great eaters so when they refuse food I know they are about to go into shed (and usually like clockwork the next day their eyes are blue).....the one cinny I have usually refuse food at first if he's in shed but if I give him a chance he'll end up eating (he can't help himself he's a pig) ;)

So maybe either your temps are a little off, or else he may be coming into shed.

Also, when are you feeding? It's been a trial and error process for me, but I have found I am most successful feeding at night time when it's totally dark outside. Even my picky eaters are more apt to entertain food than when it's during the day. Good luck!

i fed him at the same time i always do, right after work, between 5-8pm, and it kind of did cross my mind that he was probably asleep when i dropped the mouse in there, since he has been eating the same way for so long, and also the fact that the mouse crawled in him hide a few times, let me to believe that he wasent asleep. The temps have been usually high lately, so im gonna go its that, im keeping them down, and hopefully, hell eat normal next week.

Oh and now he is not in shed, however, he is such a great feeder that he has eaten while in FULL SHED, as in cloudy eyes and eveyrthing, as soon as i take out the water dish, seconds later he was out. Also this BP ate only 2 days after i received him from the breeder i bought him from, i thought he wasent going to eat but the breeder told me to give it a chance and if not wait 10 days, i did, and he destroyed that mouse, this, after being overnight shipped just 2 days earlier, i said it before and i will say it again, breederscircle is the greatest! This pastel has not given me a drop of trouble, until yesterdays event, and that was my fault....

ha ha!
I think sometimes we get overexcited and try to fix everything for them and they have to tell us to QUIT MESSING WITH IT! I do this sometimes and I can garauntee those days they will be fussier or crankier! I'm sure he'll be fine, but maybe he prefers to be fed exactly on schedule! I'd say if his head isn't out there when you bring back the water, tap gently on the side of the cage or something so he can at least feel something going on. My guys know somethings up when i tap on their hide or cage.

yeh i found it really strange because, the more time passed, the more and more active he got after i took out his water dish,, like the first few times nothing, then half his head would pop out, then after that his neck and head would be out, the the last 2 feedings by the time i got back after taking the water dish out (seconds), his whole head and like 5 inches of his body was out and streched out UPWARDS, half way up the tank looking up! So it really suprised me with what happened this time around. I remember like 2-3 feedings ago he was so eagered to eat, he was just watching for me to drop the mouse in, (i dont like touching those things) so i was kind of fighting with the mouse to drop from the box it came in, and he caught on to a piece of the end of the box and i was like shaking it to get him to let go and drop into the tank, and i can just see my BP head like moving side to side like "hurry up dammit and fall, im hungry!" and when finally the mouse let go, i got to say it was the most viscious strike he has giving, it was like "finally!" and strike! i think i head him break the sound barrier he struck so fast.

hopefully it was just that he was sleeping and maybe i have to be on time, and not miss a day, so well see how it goes next time, in the mean time i have lowered the temps...

Yeah, it's not a big deal. He was either asleep or he's going into shed and he just had to think about it for a while.

How big is he? Listen, he won't always eat regularly. It's normal for their eating habits to change with the seasons and with hormones and as they get older. And sooner or later he's going to hit the juvenile fast, and he's just not going to eat for a couple months. It's going to scare you but it's really perfectly normal. So try not to panic when his eating habits start to change and he begins refusing for real.

hes now at 316 grams

yeh i know its inevitable, but he has been feeding so well, wishful thinking had me that he will always eat this way. But i know thats not going to happen.

well somethings just came to light now, today i decided to handle him a bit, and to my suprise when i lifted his hide, i found a full shed. I guess he was shedding that day when he sorta hesitated before eating, yet he still did during full shed which is good!

Also, my concern. I found, along with the full shed in his cold side hide, also some poo, but it was kind of runny, not too runny, but it was like 80 percent solid and 20 percent runny, green and white in color. Is that something i need to worry about? Since i have gotten him the poo has always been bone dry, this is the first time its somewhat runnny. Should i be worried?

Oh and when i handled him he was very tamed and nice. Also his new skin looks very nice since the shed...

He just probably had some urine with th poo. Gald he doing ok for you

well i fed him yesterday, and it was bussiness as usual, with a little kick. I took out the water dish as usuall, and thank god by the time i got back, he was sticking his head out the hide. So i thru the mouse in there and this time he meant bussiness. As soon as the mouse dropped in the tank, he quickly came out the hide and positioned himself to get a head shot and BLAM, and i mean visciously! After he choked the mouse out, i swear this is true, maybe its not what im making it to be but this is how it happened, after the mouse was chocked out, he turned and looked dead at me then went back and started to swallow the mouse, almost as if saying "this is what u wanted! you got it!" to top it off, he struck at the mouse so hard, he drew blood. Its almost as if he was saying "yeh last time i was asleep and hesistated to eat, but this time im not playing!"

Tommorrow he gets introduced into his new enclosure, it is now complete and i got the herpstat to the temps i needed it to be on after fiddling with it for 2 days. 92.3 average on the hot side surface, below the bedding of course.