First feeding attempt, total disaster.

We (my boyfriend and I) tried feeding Sansa (our first reptile, she arrived on Wednesday morning) last night. This was probably a bad idea as we had JUST relocated her to his new living situation. She has been fed live with her breeder, so we got a live mouse for her. It looked about the right size, about the same as she is wide at her widest point.

She struck at it twice and missed, and then lost interest. We tried dangling it by its tail near her, but it just tried to attack her, which was sort of scary! (She is fine, don't worry) But we should have known better. My boyfriend stunned it, we tried dangling it again but at this point I think she was too stressed and totally disinterested. He felt bad after stunning it so he just killed it, which was very stressful for him.

After that, she struck it at once more and MISSED A THIRD TIME. We tried a little more but eventually wrapped the poor guy up and put him in the fridge to try again tonight. :( Total list of what NOT to do when feeding. All this took about 30 minutes.

Any advice for getting her to eat tonight? I'm a little concerned that she missed that many times. I hope she is healthy? Also, she yawned several times while being offered the mouse, does that mean she's interested in eating?

Today she seems to be doing well. Hanging out in her hide on the cool side of the tank, and very curious when I took her out for a few minutes earlier. She did hiss at me when I first picked her up, and it was so quiet! If there had been the slightest noise in the room I wouldn't have heard the hiss. She got quite comfortable after sitting on my lap for a minute though, and was scooting around like crazy! I put her back when I got tired of picking her up and bringing her back over to me.

Anyway, this whole thing has been a real confidence rattler. I thought we did enough research to know what we were doing, but we are TOTAL newbs. Help?

She is not missing. Those are "LEAVE ME ALONE" strikes. I would later her chill for a week or so and try again.

^^^ +1

You should let a new snake settle in for at least two weeks before handling. I know it's hard, but they sell rubber snakes at the toy store to play with for the time! :P

Those sound like defense strikes like she is stressed from the move. You should put her in her enclosure and leave her alone for a week, checking on her to make sure she is ok and see if you'll have to clean up any mess made. Put the mouse in a plastic baggie and then in the freezer until next week and try again. Use the search engine and get some ideas of how to thaw the mouse when it's time time try to feed again.

@RetiredJedi

The snake was feeding on live, so they should wait to get her feeding with them before switching over. Just throw out the mouse.

"let" her chill. Stupid spell correct.

Don't try feeding again until next week, let the animal relax I'm sure it's stressed out from the whole ordeal.

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Originally Posted by apple2

@RetiredJedi

The snake was feeding on live, so they should wait to get her feeding with them before switching over. Just throw out the mouse.

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Not necessarily, I have had some take their first meal with me as F/T and were live feeders before. Had one switch to F/T AND rats on the first feeding.

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Originally Posted by paperaith

Any advice for getting her to eat tonight?

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I'd wait a few days to a week.

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Originally Posted by paperaith

I'm a little concerned that she missed that many times. I hope she is healthy?

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I don't know anything about your snake, so can't comment on health...as far as missing her food goes, some young ball pythons can be a bit uncoordinated and not have fully worked out the aim of their strike. It's also a possibility that it's in shed. There's also the possibility that it was striking defensively.

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Originally Posted by paperaith

Also, she yawned several times while being offered the mouse, does that mean she's interested in eating?

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But I would lean towards the strikes not being defensive strikes, and that she just missed the mouse, and the 'yawns' were her realigning her jaw...they are not a sign of hunger.

Nice! I usually wait to switch until the snake is eating SOMETHING, because in my mind that's the most important thing.

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Originally Posted by apple2

@RetiredJedi

The snake was feeding on live, so they should wait to get her feeding with them before switching over. Just throw out the mouse.

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???? All of the rats in my freezer were live at one time and stay in the freezer for a couple months since I buy in bulk. They should be able to keep it in the freezer and us one more time to switch the BP to f/t when it's time.

If you're going to try feeding f/t i've found the best way is to let it defrost on top of the screen of the cage for a few hours and then heating it with a blow dryer for a few minutes to get it warm, again on the screen on top of the cage. I found that hades gets a lot more active and ready to feed from the smell. it got him out of his feeding slump. just make sure the mouse isn't frozen anymore

Thanks for the replies. We will wait a week before trying to feed her again. We were just concerned because I don't think she ate at all this week, and they were feeding her once a week. But waiting a bit shouldn't hurt!

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Originally Posted by paperaith

...But waiting a bit shouldn't hurt!

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When I got my pastel and my pinstripe, they breeder fed them the week prior to the time I got them and I still waited a week before feeding them with no problems.

Please let this snake chill out for a week with as little distraction as possible. No handling except for basic husbandry. It sounds like it's extremely stressed out.

There is no danger in your snake going several weeks without eating.

Aye let her calm down for a week then keep handleing after that to a minimum until she has eaten for you at least twice. As for going a couple weeks without food my sons juvie 6-8MO BP went for almost 3 months on hunger strike and he only lost 25 grams. Your snake will be fine for a week or two :)

Thanks for the advice! You guys are great. We will keep the handling to a minimum, which will be really hard for my boyfriend, but we'll have her for the next 20 years or so, so 2+/- weeks should be bearable.

Might be in shed mode. look at its eyes if it has this bluish hue or a glazed over look to them, best thing to do is just leave it alone for a week or so. Kind of like everyone else is saying give it a week.