Just ate but isnt seen

Hey guys, me again. Sorry but I'll prolly have many more questions to come since I'm a beginner. Anyways my question is, He has a cave as a hideout that he curls up in, he seems to really like it and I just fed him yesterday morning. Once I put him back in his cage after his breakfast buffet he went into his cave and he still hasn't come back out yet. Is it normal for them to go into "leave me alone state" after they eat?

there gunna b in there for a while as they are night reptiles and they live places that there hole body can touch all sides cuz they feel safe

Very common. Chances are, he's under his warm side hide, digesting. Nine times out of ten, you're not going to see a BP cruising around in the daytime at all. At night maybe, but not much during the day, no.

healthy ball pythons spend 90 percent of the day in there hides, so get used to it. he'll be in there a good 2 days digesting, then he might wander out a bit. but most of the time your ball is always going to be in one of his hides.

Lazy things, lol. We go to work all day to afford their food and homes and they don't even come out to see us. Oh well, I still like him.

if your looking for an intereactive pet then snakes wasnt the right choice lol.. i second the snakes stay hidden fact. i actually posted a "whats wrong with him thread" asking why my snake is out and about lol

It comes and goes. My male has been out alot lately,but my female hasn't been out much at all. I'm actually surprised you got him to eat in the morning. Mine are painfully picky. Neither one is interested in food in the morning. The male won't eat a totally white rat. The female won't eat if I handled her earlier in the same day. You just have to watch them and take note of their behavior. They have reasons for their behavior. I still haven't figured out the dislike for white rats though. Maybe he doesn't like vanilla.

With smaller meals the snake might remain active after eating. With a moderate meal, you should expect very reduced activity for a day or two. A really big meal can put them down for 3 days.

my bp will take his rat then go digest for a couple days, dont bother him while he's digesting, i also couldn't believe how easy he went from mice to rats, i came home friday with a rat and he wrapped it and ate it right away no questions asked!! finally no more multiple mice!!!

I was thinking about trying to switch from multiple mice to a small rat today and I'm glad I didn't because the first mouse chewed on my BP's head right by his eye. There was no injury but I'm thinking a rat might have done more damage.

Hi,


Actually that may not be accurate.

A rat the size of most adult mice still has it's eyes shut almost and certainly doesnt have adult dentition or co-ordination.

Even a rat the weight of 2 adult mice should only be a weaner I think.

Hopefully someone can step in here with exact stages of rat development to equate to 2 adult mice in the food stakes.:confused:

An adult rat however is definately capabable of doing a lot of damage.

I assume this is the other reason Adam feeds rats about 40g to his snakes - the main one being he has found that they grow and eat consistently well on this diet.


dr del

but I'm referring to a rat that is equivalent to two smallish adult mice. That has to have more biting power.

I've been pondering getting a scale. Saying "I'll have two small adult mice" gets you a pretty widely varying meal size.

Hi,

You are definately right on that point they do vary a lot from shop to shop etc.

I just weighed what I get if I ask for adult mice (as opposed to huuuge adult mice) and it came in at 26g.

I then measured a large rat fuzzy at 17g.

I only had one other non-adult sized rat and it had hair but still wasn't ready to open it's eyes but was pretty small and only weighed in at 20g.


hopefully one of the rat breeders will b able to give a better idea of weights by size - all of mine were frozen at the time of weighing if that makes a difference.


dr del

BP's do quite well on one 40-50 gram rat a week. They don't need to be fed to see a lump, most keepers over-feed their snakes. A 40-50 gram rat's teeth are too soft to do damage - I've been "bitten" enough times by them to know - doesn't even break the skin.


You should be feeding slightly smaller than their girth - they don't need large meals each week. Smaller meals really do result in great growth rates. I have a het clown male that was 1000 grams at 10 months old on 2 small/medium mice a week and nothing more. He's now on 1 small/small rat (a 4 week old rat) a week.

Murdoc is a glutton.
Eats regular now without any problems.
After the feast though he/she tends to chill underneath the drift wood instead of either one of the hides.
So I dunno about that.
Has yet to show and signs of a shed too.