New baby ball

I got my first baby ball last night (my boy was a year when I got him). She is a normal female and is super cute! I was just wondering if there is any special care for the young ones? She was hatched May 11 and has had three meals so far. The breeder I got her from said he fed her every 5-7 days so I'm going to get her on a more consistent every 5 days feeding. He also said she takes mouse fuzzies 'aggressively' and can be coaxed into a rat pup. Which would be best for her? She's 80 grams at the moment. Also I know you normally want to wait a few days to feed after they get home but tomorrow will be 7 days since her last meal. Should I go ahead and offer to her?

In exchange for your advice here is a picture of my new baby as payment! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps663c327b.jpg

Congrats on the new pick up, be sure to check out the husbandry section of the forum.
Yes go ahead and offer food, im a big believer in offering the same day I get a new snake in.

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Sounds good to me. What size feeder should I get her?

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Originally Posted by RobertsKitty

Sounds good to me. What size feeder should I get her?

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as in a separate container to feed her in?

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No what sized feeder as in what sized rat or mouse should I get to for her.

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Originally Posted by RobertsKitty

No what sized feeder as in what sized rat or mouse should I get to for her.

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Oh ok good, I was going to say that's unnecessary. If the breeder said she will take a rat pup then great. You want a prey item that's roughly the size or slightly bigger of the thickest part of the body. It should leave a slight lump. It doesn't have to be an exact science, just nothing drastically too small/large.


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Really nice yellow contrast on that girl. Grats on adding a new member to your family!

-Ph.

Thanks!

How long till she can safely go in a divided T8? I am waiting in animal plastics to get the divider sent out but I'd like to put her in it asap. She's in Loki's old 10 gallon tank and the cats are constantly staring at her. They can't bother get so much in the bigger tank. Plus I can get a much nicer temp gradient in the larger tank but I know a lot of times people say it's "to much space for a baby". Opinions?

A divided t8 should be fine for her. While you wait for the divider your best option is to put her in a small rubbermaid tub. Obviously put holes for ventilation and throw your uth on there couple hides on each end and a water bowl. Cheap, easy and she will love it.

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Sounds good. She's been in full hunter mode so I'm hoping she will eat today. I plan on switching her to f/t eventually but for now I want to get her eating consistently before I switch her over.

I set her in her hide this morning just in case she hadn't found the door yet. I got a snakey stink eye as she crawled back out and continued her hunt. :rolleyes:

If you are using a larger enclosure for a baby, it can work. Making her feel secure is the key. Use plenty of hiding places, especially ones that fit her snuggly, and also add something like artificial foliage or even just crumpled newspaper so that she can still feel partially hidden even when not in a hide. But do watch her for signs of stress and be prepared to move her into something smaller if necessary.

"Full hunter mode" might just be a stressed baby trying to find a place where she feels safe. Those hides you put in there for her may be scary at first. She doesn't know if something that might eat her lives in them. And being picked up by a big monster and put in it probably wasn't as helpful as you meant it to be. :) I know my first refused to use her hides for several days, then of course switched and was never seen out of them, and then gradually became braver. And at the very beginning she was exploring all over her tank like crazy. I thought maybe she was hungry, but she refused to eat, or just curious, but from what I've learned about BP behavior since then, I'm pretty sure she was just scared. Since you already have a BP, you may be able to tell the difference between hunting/exploring, and scared.

If it does seem to you that she really is in hunting mode, absolutely go ahead and attempt to feed her.

She's a pretty girl!

I just checked with the breeder and he said rat pinkie not pup which made me feel better. He said he had a hard time getting her to eat it because it didn't move much so I'm thinking either getting a small mouse hopper or a tiny rat fuzzy. Which would be best for an 80 gram female.

I'd go with rats, as they are fattier and in the long run it will probably be easy to feed; when she's an adult you can feed a large rat as opposed to like 3 or 4 jumbo mice or whatever the equivalent is :P

As long as you do proper quarantine from other reptiles if you have, and she's not "sharing" the divided vive beside anyone else, shouldn't be an issue. You can definitely clutter the crap out of it, have like 6 or 8 hides, and make a great, secure home for your little one.

All the best! :) And congrats!

Got her a very small fuzzy rat. She showed some initial interest, her head came out to explore but then she tucked back into her coils. She's curled up under the top layer of paper towel and the fuzzy crawled under with her and at least for now is curled up next to her and she's like ehh whatever. Leaving her and it alone for now but monitoring. It's eyes aren't open yet so I'm not worried about it hurting her but still monitoring from a distance.

If its eyes aren't open yet, you are right, it can't hurt her. I'm not sure about it curling up wiht her... that might stress her. I have one right now that is quite shy about eating, so even though she could take something a little bigger I'm still giving her eye-closed rats, cuz the bigger ones scare her but I didn't have luck with f/t or pre-killed either. She sometimes takes a while, but so far she has eaten the eyes-closed ones 100% of the times I've offered.

So far no luck. Atm I have a heat lamp on the tank so I turned it off and made the tank pitch black for awhile but no luck. Tried making it dance with mild interest but no luck. Here in a few gonna turn out all the house lights. Is it ok to leave it overnight? How long until the fuzzy dies or is no good? If she doesn't eat this one I'll wait till Saturday and try again.

I'd guess a fuzzy will last at least 24 hrs, basing that off a littler of newborn pinks that lasted nearly 48 and as far as I could tell the mom didn't nurse them at all. At some point it starts to be kinda cruel though...

If I were you, I'd leave it overnight. Your girl might decide she's much braver when the lights are out and things have been quiet for a while. If it is still there in the morning, throw it in the freezer. That is actually considered a humane way of killing pinks & fuzzies (not older than that, though!). That way you can make use of it later if you are able to get her to eat f/t. And you've not left the poor little rat to starve to death...

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Originally Posted by RobertsKitty

Thanks!

How long till she can safely go in a divided T8? I am waiting in animal plastics to get the divider sent out but I'd like to put her in it asap. She's in Loki's old 10 gallon tank and the cats are constantly staring at her. They can't bother get so much in the bigger tank. Plus I can get a much nicer temp gradient in the larger tank but I know a lot of times people say it's "to much space for a baby". Opinions?

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if the cats are buggin the glass I would go get black poster board and tape up three walls the open viewing side I would have at the edge of what ever table so the snake has privacy and low stress a nice small hide is great like a plastic non see thru planter bottom ($1) with a port cut in it. Dont let those cats pester that baby. Monitor handling u dont want a cat curiously lawing and cutting en eye lenz. Good luck and go a head and feed it a good rat pup . Whe. They are in the tummy they slender out the body making the rat look thin. Go a head dont under feed that cute lil baby.

I am leaving the rat in overnight but I don't anticipate her eating it. After a few initial tongue flicks in it's direction she pretty well ignored it and didn't seem to recognize it as food. Since she's never taken a rat fuzzy before should I go back to what she took readily at the breeders which was mice until she's feeding good then transition to rats or should I wait till Saturday or so and try again with another small fuzzy rat?

Wait 5-7 days until you offer her food again (whether or not she eats tonight), because offering food too often will just stress her more. If she doesn't eat tonight, she'll be a bit hungrier and more likely to eat by then. And if she doesn't eat the rat fuzzy tonight, I would probably offer her an appropriately sized mouse (in 5-7 days), because she's so small, and then try rats once she's a bit bigger and eating regularly for you.

Sadly she did not eat overnight. I tossed the fuzzy in with my adult male who quite enjoyed his tiny snack. He's been going through a growth spurt or something because lately he eats his small rat and within 5 minutes of getting it down is at the front of the tank begging.

I am going to try a fuzzy mouse on Saturday since the breeder said she ate those well and try to get her eating every 5 days consistently before trying the rat again.