Blue eye stage of shedding... To feed or not to feed?

I've read that it isn't wise to feed a Bp during the blue eye stage of shedding but I do hear of bps eating during this stage. Today is her day to eat. Should I try to feed her? She eats live so if she doesn't take the rat what do I do? Can I return it to the pet store? If not how do I care for it until her next feeding time? And would it affect her shedding if she does eat? I know these are a lot of questions and I may have more depending on the answers I get lol but its her first time shedding for me so I just want to make sure her shed comes off in one piece.

I would just wait until she finishes shedding, most BPs (and other snakes, for that matter) don't like to eat during shed.

Some BPs will eat, some won't while in shed. Personally I don't even offer if any of my balls are in blue on their feeding day: they usually don't take it for me (I feed f/t).

If you do offer and she doesn't eat, I'm sure the pet store would take it back (I would call though beforehand) or you could keep it until next feeding (if you have a mouse/rat setup) or simply prekill it and freeze it if you think your snake will eat f/t her next feeding. Or feed it to another snake if you have any others.

If she eats it won't affect her shedding: it never does when my other snakes eat while in blue. Just keep your humidity up.

The only way to know if your BP will eat while in shed is to try, I would say 80% of mine do eat while in shed, a few don't and therefore when they go on shed I no longer offer food, but you won't know until you try.

Bottom line it's up to you ans waiting until after the shed won't hurt either.

Most of mine eat in shed.

Most of mine eat in blue. Won't hurt to try, won't hurt to wait either.

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As no one mentioned it there is a slight health concern of feeding in shed. On rare occasions the undigested food has caused the shed to get stuck at the belly. This can cause a great deal of stress to the snake and has on even more rare occasions injury.

No harm in skipping and slight risk of feeding. Your choice.


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I've never read about that stuck shed around the belly kitedemon thanks for the info. She will have to skip this feeding and wait until the next.

Also unrelated to this thread, when I took her out yesterday and noticed she was blue eyed I touched under her Hot side hide to check if I can feel the heat but it felt not cold but almost a little above room temperature to my guess. It reads on the acurite (with probe) 91 but it sure doesn't feel like it. Her subStrate, aspen, is a inch thick because she burrowed it down. Should I raise the temp on the uth??? Or is It because snakes are cold blooded and feel heat more than us humans do?

According to this book...

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/01/11/9a7use7a.jpg

Aspen bedding should be about 2-4 inches deep. All I have is "book knowledge" to offer though, and as we know experience is usually the best.

It is 2"..... Everywhere else. She pushes the substrate out to get closer to the uth.

Using your hand to tell the temp won't really work since your extremities vary in temperature a lot. Trust your thermometer, or get a temp gun. You could turn it up a degree or two and it won't hurt the snake.

The burrowing thing is pretty common. My babies on loose substrate will make a little hole for themselves, and the adults on paper will hide under the paper.

I just thought that you will be able to feel a lot of heat coming from a spot that's 91 degrees. I definitely want to catch her shedding tho. Hopefully I'm not at work or sleeping when she does!

Most of mine eat regardless of shed/breeding/etc, if there is food present they take it.. As for keeping the rodent alive till the snake chooses to eat, before I went from 1 snake to double digits I kept a 10 gal tank with a water bottle and food dish on hand for that very reason, just tossed in some dog food, bread, etc. to keep it alive (not the best selection for a rat but they normally didn't last very long before the snake(s) were hungry again)

No pet store that is half way decently ran will take back feeder mice/rats. It's way to risky in spreading disease. Would you want to buy a feeder that possibly played in someone else's snakes poo?

you will not feel a lot of heat from something that is 91, your body temp is 98.6 and if you take your heat gun to your hand it will probably regester mid to hight 80s. You should feel it as a little warm if not a little cool to the touch