Worried about Slytherin

Ok, my baby boy got out and was gone for four months, then my mom found him! He's been recovering quite well, he's back up to a healthy weight, ate some, ect, but now he hasn't eaten in a month, and has been acting scared of his food. I'm getting kind of worried. I have four cats and five birds (parakeets) also. The parakeets are across from his terrarium and the cats like to hang out near/on it. He doesn't seem to mind, he'll still come out and hang out and climb on his branch and stuff, but I was wondering if that might be effecting his eating? I try to feed him once every two weeks, and I try one week after the times he doesn't eat. I'm getting kind of worried about him, I may be over reacting though, so yeah.... A little help/support please? Thank you so so so much in advance!!!! pianoflute2

you only offer food every 2 weeks for a juvi? they should be offered food every 7 days, some people including myself feed juvi's every 4-5 days.

are your temperatures/humidity correct and are you providing 2 hides that are the right size?

With young BPs, husbandry is often the cause of a refusal to eat. Make sure the conditions in your set up are spot on, and continue to try and feed him every 5-7 days.

Are you feeding live or F/T?

Temp is on, humidity has been running a bit low, but I'm working on that. He only has one hide atm. I feed live. I was feeding every week for the first little bit, but he was only eating every other, so I started offering every other.

Since he's in such a high traffic area, I think he would do better with a couple of hides...warm side and cool side.

Ur snake is probably stressed due to not having the choice to go to the warm side or cool side. He is sacrificing warmth for shelter.. even if he wants to cool down, he cant or won't because he will be exposed. Remember a hidden and safe BP is a happy BP. I bet once u get him a 2nd hide, he starts eating once a week like normal BP that age. Good luck :gj:

Ok, thank you all so much!!! I'm getting him another hide this weekend. :-)

Ok, Slytherin ate today!!! I fed him a large mouse (way smaller than his normal meal) in hopes he would eat, and he did! Next week I'm going up to a small rat, then the week after back to his normal medium rat. Does that sound right? Oh, and I got him a new hidey hole! Once I find my mom's camera I'll try to post pics of my setup. Thank you all for your help!!

IMPO You can never offer to many hides :) My guy has a hot hide kept a nice 94 a cool hide at around 72 and a Humid hide (Drift Wood and Moss) in the 80's. Usually in the mornings he can be found in the Humid hide or Burrowed under the substraight on the cool side !!

That freaked me out the first time haha

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Originally Posted by pianoflute2

Next week I'm going up to a small rat, then the week after back to his normal medium rat.

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Congrats on the sucessful feeding!

Do you have any way to weigh your rats? I'd be interested in what you are calling a Med rat (there are no set standards).

The reason I ask is because by my supplier's standards, a Med rat would be far to large for a young BP.

That's great that you got another hide and that he finally ate for you! :gj: Just make sure your hides are the right size too, big enough for him to fit in but not huge. And they really seem to prefer more cave-like hides with one hole as opposed to the half log type.

If the bp you're talking about in this post is the one climbing on your head in your avatar pic, then he's not a "baby" and could definitely handle a small rat. I agree with Slim that a medium might be a little big, but it does vary depending on where you buy them. He also might be the type of bp that prefers mice, even if he was eating rats before he escaped, so you might have to start scenting your rats with a mouse or mouse bedding before you offer. Hopefully he just needs to work his way back up to rats though, and since it was such a small meal for him, I would offer again in a week instead of waiting. Good luck! :)

I would probably stick with small rats for now if he takes it. Still a good size meal, but not intimidatingly so.

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Originally Posted by Slim

Do you have any way to weigh your rats? I'd be interested in what you are calling a Med rat (there are no set standards).

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This has been bugging me lately, as I moved from pups to "small" rats about 6 weeks ago. In that time, the sizes have varied significantly. I just bought a scale and weighed the half dozen I bought yesterday and they all come in at 54-64g. I'm feeding tonight, so I'll weigh my guy (10 months) before hand to verify if I'm following the 15% rule of thumb (If I remember correctly).

You said he disappeared for four months? Mine escaped Friday afternoon & we can't find him ANYwhere...please tell me how you found Slitherin?
I'm at a total loss here & worried sick about my first little guy!

My mom has a scale somewhere that she uses for weighing our birds, I'll ask her if I can use that. And yes, Slytherin is the snake on my head in that picture, and that's from before he got out for 4 months. He's bigger now. According to what they told me at the pet store when I bought him he should be one year old this month.