feeding....

Wow I am now stating to understand why people can get frustrated when there snakes will not eat. I will have my girl for a week now and after reading and hearing many debates of whether to feed in thier cage or seperate feeding cage I decided to feed her F/T in her cage. I de thawed 2 fuzzy? mice and from advice I read from the board, waited till evening when all the lights were out and set the mouse in her tank in front of her hide. This morning mouse was still there and Sally (my BP) had moved across the mouse to her other hide, apperantly not wanting anything to do with eating. So what should be the next step? Attemp to feed in 2-3 days or wait an entire week and try again? I dont think she was on any type of feeding schedule from the pet store.

I would wait a full week before trying again. And during that week, I would make sure the husbandry was correct and I would leave her completely alone. She won't eat if she doesn't feel safe and secure...and sometimes that can take a little while.

wait a week, double check all your temps. get the temps straight first. a warm ball is a hungry ball:chew: make sure the rodent is warm enough when offered. sometimes you may have to use tongs and do the "rat dance":banana: to entice a strike. you may also have to feed live to get them started and switch later. there are tons of posts on this topic.:pc: :reading:



vaughn

I would try a live feeding ,then keep her eating live til she get's some size and become's an aggresive eater.Then if you want to switch to f/t there's plenty of info on here to help with the switch.Live feeding is the way I go Good luck.

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Originally Posted by zrock

Wow I am now stating to understand why people can get frustrated when there snakes will not eat. I will have my girl for a week now

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After one week? ... Relax, it's a ball python. ;)

-adam

Thanks for the replys everyone. So no handling at all for a week or so correct? temps are good now but I will keep an eye on them to make sure they stay nice and stable.

Put it this way if you haven't learned patience up to this point in life, your BP is about to teach you some LOL! Don't fret a week is nothing especially since your snake is still settling in. I wouldn't even worry about handling sessions until you have a few weeks of solid feeding happening. You'll have that snake upwards of 20 years so a few weeks wait now is nothing in the scheme of things and the priority is to get her eating consistently.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Put it this way if you haven't learned patience up to this point in life, your BP is about to teach you some LOL! Don't fret a week is nothing especially since your snake is still settling in. I wouldn't even worry about handling sessions until you have a few weeks of solid feeding happening. You'll have that snake upwards of 20 years so a few weeks wait now is nothing in the scheme of things and the priority is to get her eating consistently.

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Yep definatly in for a lesson, thats a good thing though. I'll just leave her be for a while and let her do her thing.

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Originally Posted by zrock

Yep definatly in for a lesson, thats a good thing though. I'll just leave her be for a while and let her do her thing.

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I had one that waited for 2 months before she ate her first meal. Dont handle until its eaten a couple of times atleast make sure temps and husbandry are straight. Temps husbandry straight its just a matter of time before they finanly eat

I also had one that was a bit difficult to get started eating. I didn't handle her for almost 3 months. Took two months to get her started and then I waited several more weeks to make sure she was established. It stinks big time, but is well worth it in the end. :gj: Best of luck in your lesson of patience. :D

I just talked about this in another thread recently, but speaking of learning some patience, I have an adult suppossed LTC Female, that i think is a WC, that went 55 Weeks without eating. I never messed with her except on cleaning day, and offered one prey item a week. Sometimes a rat, and sometimes a mouse. Finally, 55 weeks to the day after getting her, she ate a mouse. She ate two mice that day, and has been fed two mice a week since, only three weeks ago, so 6 mice total so far.