First Feeding Fail...

So I've had my BP for about a week now and since I was told she was fed on Wednesdays I attempted to feed her a live hopper Wednesday night (I was also told she was being fed live so this being my first snake and not wanting to stress her out I decided to continue doing what was already being done to keep her schedule). She just totally ignored the mouse and decided that she wanted to explore her feeder tank instead. I waited about 20-25 minutes (watching closely every second) and tried doing things like dangling the mouse in front of her, pointing her in the right direction, etc but she would just turn away from it and continue trying to get out.

When I finally gave up and picked her up again she started having a grand ol' time climbing around my fingers and hands and exploring my clothes. She didn't seem stressed or anything, just uninterested. She wasn't too hot or cold and I waited until it was dark outside to feed so I'm hoping that it's just her getting used to her new surroundings and not going all food strike on me lol

Aye sounds like a little stress/ new surrounding aclimation If wensday is when you want to fee wait till next wed and try agian

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Originally Posted by Yaqcubper

So I've had my BP for about a week now and since I was told she was fed on Wednesdays I attempted to feed her a live hopper Wednesday night (I was also told she was being fed live so this being my first snake and not wanting to stress her out I decided to continue doing what was already being done to keep her schedule). She just totally ignored the mouse and decided that she wanted to explore her feeder tank instead. I waited about 20-25 minutes (watching closely every second) and tried doing things like dangling the mouse in front of her, pointing her in the right direction, etc but she would just turn away from it and continue trying to get out.

When I finally gave up and picked her up again she started having a grand ol' time climbing around my fingers and hands and exploring my clothes. She didn't seem stressed or anything, just uninterested. She wasn't too hot or cold and I waited until it was dark outside to feed so I'm hoping that it's just her getting used to her new surroundings and not going all food strike on me lol

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You could always try feeding in her regular tank, I find that moving them to a "feeding" tank sometimes adds to the stress..

Yeah, I'm hoping that's it. Yeah I think I'm just gonna wait until next week or maybe push it on to the weekends because the closest stores that sell feeders are 25-30 min drives one way and during the week it's harder to go than on weekends.

Today though I noticed her exploring her tank all by herself and getting into her water bowl for the first time and what not so I'm really excited that she's getting more comfortable in there :)

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Originally Posted by bivman

You could always try feeding in her regular tank, I find that moving them to a "feeding" tank sometimes adds to the stress..

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I moved her to another tank because she has Aspen bedding in hers and I'm worried that she might accidentally ingest the wood chips if she swallowed her food in there =/

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Originally Posted by Yaqcubper

I moved her to another tank because she has Aspen bedding in hers and I'm worried that she might accidentally ingest the wood chips if she swallowed her food in there =/

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As long as the rodent is pretty dry, the chance of the snake swallowing chips of aspen is small.

you wanna talk about a real feeding fail, read this.

the other day when I got ready to feed my little one I took the hide off of her and she started to run but then I dropped the first mouse in right in front of her, and she perked up and shot for it. well before she moved the mouse had already ran to the other side of the tub so she got a mouthful cage, re coiled and almost did head shake like "What hell" I smelt it there and seen it there but it wasn't there. then she found it in two seconds, the second one didn't even hit the floor of her tub. I wish I had of done a video of the feeding.

Okay so, tonight was my 3rd time attempting to feed my Normal Ball.

I left her alone all week (cept to spot clean and check her water, temps, etc). I put a hopper in her enclosure, left only one dim light on the far side of the room on, and watched her while keeping quiet. She would go up to the mouse, stick her tongue out a few times, seemed as if she was getting ready to strike and then completely lose interest and go somewhere else. This happened for about 15 minutes. When the mouse started attempting to bite her I called it quits.

I weighed her afterwards (finally got a gram scale) and she is 69grams (and about 2 1/2 months old). I will be trying again next week with a frozen and keeping track of her weight. :/

A local breeder showed me this trick and it works quite well for hatchlings. Take your little one and put it in a brown paper bag (lunch bag sized) with the hopper, close the bag with a clothes pin or something similar. Check back in about 15 minutes and more than likely the mouse will have disappeared like magic.

Just make sure not to stress out your hatchling with handling at all until the next try. It's advised to have plenty of hides and places to feel secure. You don't have anything to worry about yet, they can go a long time without eating.

Good luck!

I'll try that trick thanks! And yeah I'm not going to handle her at all until next weekend again. I only handled her just now to make sure I started documenting her weight. I feel like 69grams is small; am I wrong?

I also just added a fake plant that covers a part of the tank so e can hide in it/around it. And I'm also almost done covering up the sides of the tank. She loves the fake plant so far :)

Just be sure to try every feeding period like one time a week don't repeatedly try to present the mouse. Also, try and use a hair drier so the mouse gets extra warm so the snake can read the heat signature.

Mine weighed about 75g when she was about 3-4 months old. All snakes are different, but just tossing that out as a reference.

I didn't read all of the replies, but I personally think that a "feeding tank" is a bad thing. You put the snake in there and it is not used to its surroundings. This is an initial stressor, and even if the snake does eat you run a greater chance of getting bit when you try to move the snake back into its regular enclosure. It will be in feed mode after it eats, and you have to then handle it to move it back into his regular home. This is way too much stress for a snake in my opinion.

Be nice and just deliver his food to him. :)

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Mine weighed about 75g when she was about 3-4 months old. All snakes are different, but just tossing that out as a reference.

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Oh okay...I just wanted to make sure she wasn't like drastically underweight or anything :) I don't know too much about average weights for each sex and what not.

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This is an initial stressor, and even if the snake does eat you run a greater chance of getting bit when you try to move the snake back into its regular enclosure.

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Yeah someone else mentioned that so I tried not taking her out this time...she at least seemed a little more interested in it than when I would take her out but still didn't even kind of strike =/

Do you know what was being fed before you got your little guy? Also you could try scenting the room with a blowdryer over the mouse to get your snake ready to eat. What time of day are you attempting to feed? Are you sure your temps/husbandry is good. My 2 MO BP weighs 65 grams empty but she is eating like a pig 8mo weighs 175g empty and he is being picky wont eat rats but loves mice. So you could try a small rat next time. Just a couple thoughts I know just how frustrating it is when they wont eat :confused:

I was told she was being fed a small adult mouse every week. I wait until the sun goes down and it's dark outside before trying to feed her. She has fresh water, her humidity is never below 55%, her cool side is 78-84 degrees and her warm side is 88-94. Is this too cold/hot?

During the day she is in her hidey peeking out and what not and at night she is out and about exploring her tank, I don't see her in the warm side too often though. Is it too cold in her cool side? Would it be enough for her to cool down or something? ahhhh lol