peculiar feeding situation

New ball owner here. My sons 8 (or so) month old ball has been an awesome immediate feeder. He has shed with us twice and looks great. We went from frozen fuzzies to small frozen mice. Has fed on the mice 3 times. This last feeding (last thursday) he is not interested in the food. He goes toward it then shows no further interest and just moves away. We have tried every day for the past 4 days to feed him. He has eaten regardless of his shedding until now. The past two tries (two days ago and yesterday) he opened his mouth as if to yawn but never showed interest in the food. His eyes are a bit bluish but not shedding yet.
We are stumped. Could someone shed some light on what is happening and why he opens his mouth wide with no intention of striking(only whille in the feed box)

Thanks,
Ron

Try it again once he sheds. And going without for a couple weeks isn't going to hurt him. :)

my 8 month old ball is on jumbo mice how often are you feeding him?

feeding him weekly

any ideas on the "yawning"? only seen him do this in the feeding box the last two tries.

Ron, the yawning may be related to his shed cycle or it may indicate the beginnings of an RI. Keep a close eye on that and do check your temps in his enclosure and listen to his breathing closely just to be sure. If you've any worries it's health related don't hesitate to check that with your herp vet.

Since you mentioned a "feeding box" I'm assuming you are feeding him in a seperate container. If you are trying to feed every day for 4 days that means that you are removing this snake from his home, his safe zone, every day. This isn't going to encourage him to hunt, it's just going to tick him off and make him defensive and antsy. There's no really solid reason to feed these shy snakes outside their homes but there's also no harm in it if the snake feeds well. However, pulling him out daily to offer food just isn't going to work. Even offering food daily in their own home just tends to put them off.

Keep an eye on the snake regarding that yawning, double check your temps and humidity and just leave him be is my best advice. Whent the shed is over, offer him his normal prey item either in his home or in his feeding box (personally I feed all ours in their own enclosures) and see how it goes. If a health snake skips the occasional week it's no big deal. It's not like in the wild someone is running by every Thursday at 8 p.m. to hand out the rats. These snakes are very well fed in captivity and can easily manage an off week here or there. :)

Franky,

Temps are in the high 80's humidity 40 percent.
We are in Phoenix some days it may get to about 90 in the hot end of the cage still mid 80s in the cooler end.

try to keep the humidity 50 to 60 percent and 60 to 70 percent during shed cycle the yawing is normal too a certain extent as long as no mucus bubbles or popping noises are heard.the first thing my bp does when he gets out of his hide is yawn and hes fine

I have had a hard time keeping up the humidity. Very dry here.

Any suggestions. I am using aspen bedding in a glass enclosure with a screen top and a heat lamp.

I live in pheonix too and it could be that maybe it just doesnt want to eat

i got some insulating foam tape and i put a strip along the top so it seals and cover 3/4s the top with the foam and i just mist the substrate on occasion.also move the water bowl on top of the under tank heater will help too.cypress mulch or coconut bark substrate helps to

Hi,

Have you tried covering most of the screen top with foil taped down with a space where the light is? **tape on the outside of the lid only**.

you can also try adding a second water bowl to increase the surface area of water in the tank - if you put it at the hot end it will evaporate faster but you will need to make sure to clean it to prevent bacterial build up.


Do you use a thermostat for your heating? It would stop the fluctuations in the temps you describe.


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tazron

I have had a hard time keeping up the humidity. Very dry here.

Any suggestions. I am using aspen bedding in a glass enclosure with a screen top and a heat lamp.

---

A wet towel over the screen top works great. Cover it all except by the light. Just keep wetting the towel everyday or when dry.

how do you keep humidity up?

Hi,

We obviously didn't explain very well - the three posts before your last one were discussing methods of keeping the humidity up. :)


dr del

try keeping something on top of your screen top like a book, leaving just enough room for some air to circulate in and out. this might keep some more humidity in. also, a larger water dish along with the covering should definitely bump it up a bit.

if that doesn't work, try getting a tupperware large enough for him to curl up in comfortably and put enough water in it to where it would submerse up to your snake's middle. cut a hole in the lid just large enough for him to fit through. this will create high humidity just within the tupperware that he can enter and soak in while he's feeling dry.

as for the yawning, my snakes do that every now and then. my girl renji will sometimes do it a couple times a day, which started to worry me; i took her to the vet who said she had no signs of an RI and she's always been healthy otherwise. i guess she's just sleepy! ;)

i've heard scenting your prey with something like chicken broth can also entice a snake to eat. I would wait a few days before trying to feed him again though. If you wait, you might not even need to try scenting. He'll probably be hungry by then. but, in case he's not, that's some food for thought for ya. :)

Best of luck!

Oh, and if anyone sees something wrong with anything i just said, please correct me. Don't wanna give out wrong info! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tazron

I have had a hard time keeping up the humidity. Very dry here.

Any suggestions. I am using aspen bedding in a glass enclosure with a screen top and a heat lamp.

---

Is your tank's screen left open? Also, heat lamps drain the humidity out of the tank's air.

I have five tanks w/screens and the humidity is 55-60%, but I do this by covering the lid with "press and seal" or aluminum foil on all but about .50 cent piece-sized holes on opposite corners. I've got the covering taped down, and a cut-out around the heat lamp, so the lamp doesn't melt or cause other fire hazard problems. One of my tanks is covered w/plexiglass w/a few holes drilled in.

Using the bed-a-beast coconut husk bedding, either alone, or mixed w/the aspen (I used mixed for a while) can help boost your humidity too.

You could also put some sphagnum moss in each of the hides, thereby making "humid hides" for the snake to be inside of. Make sure you do this for both hides though!