How long to feed?

After dropping a live mouse in your snake's habitat, how long does he take to eat it? My 6 month old, 21 inch ball python has a horrible feeding response; it takes him forever to realize it's a mouse and what to do with it! He is super picky, any advice for enticing him a little more? :please:

How often do you feed? Perhaps waiting an extra couple of days between feedings will make them eat quicker? For juvies, feeding every 5-7 days is what I normally do, and have no issues with feed response. But try going 10 days without feeding, and see if that helps?

Are you pre-scenting? Its a good idea to have the mouse in the room to get its scent out and let your bp know its feeding time, that should get it a stronger response, and eat quicker.

I try to feed every 5 days. I'll try leaving the mouse in its jar on top of his cage, would that work for prescenting?:oops:

How big is your enclosure abuja? If it's too big then that could be the reason why.

If I may chime in, my bp was bought from petco and they feed their snakes every thursday, should I maintain the same schedule with my 2-3month old bp I got from them?

Try pre-scenting like others recommended. If you are buying from a feeder store and they put the mouse in a box (typically a chinese box from my experience) in the snake cage. The smell of the mouse urine and poop is enough to get the snake moving around after a few minutes. Once you see it becoming really active drop in the mouse.

Or if you breed your own feeders. Take some of the old mouse bedding and putting it in the snake cage.

Hopefully this will work for you.

He lives in a 10 gallon terrarium with two hides, a water bowl, a vine, and a log. His feeding response is actually much better since the last time I fed when I let him get a good whiff of the mouse for several minutes. Thanks everyone for your help!

You can remove the vine, that's just taking up space. I don't recall ever seeing a BP climb a vine. Also offer a F/T, since live isn't working that great, also for the other guy that said something about theirs from petco, they use F/T. Make sure you have it warmer then everything else btw.

What is the ideal way to thaw an f/t mouse? I've heard of people using hair dryers, warm water, leaving it out for pre-scenting, etc...Actually, I've seen him sitting on the vine, which is attached by a suction cup. One day he'll climb up there and plop right down! It's only a 3 inch fall, though. :P

Yea, well i've seen them do that, but not actually stay on the vine for awhile like other types of snakes. I didn't realize you meant the ones with suction cups either also, I thought you meant like the silk vines that you put in a tank for decor and couldn't hold the snake up lol.

As far as thaw a frozen mouse, they'res different ways that each person does it. I personally let the mouse thaw out in room temperature on the kitchen counter, I usually let it sit out for 5 hours, then I put really really hot water in a pot with the mouse in a ziplock bag and a cup ontop of the bag(not the mouse) to hold it under water, and i'll usually change the water once or twice to make sure it stays hot. sometimes i'll just put it on the stove and monitor it heating up. Since your's hasn't got the best feeding response, let the mouse thaw out in the same room as your snake to pre-scent.

Others let the mouse sit out 5-6 hours, some use a hair dryer to heat up the head, I never liked the hair dryer method so I never used it. Also the only reason I didn't let the mouse sit a bit longer is because I had to sleep for the shift I work.

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Originally Posted by Neal

Yea, well i've seen them do that, but not actually stay on the vine for awhile like other types of snakes. I didn't realize you meant the ones with suction cups either also, I thought you meant like the silk vines that you put in a tank for decor and couldn't hold the snake up lol.

As far as thaw a frozen mouse, they'res different ways that each person does it. I personally let the mouse thaw out in room temperature on the kitchen counter, I usually let it sit out for 5 hours, then I put really really hot water in a pot with the mouse in a ziplock bag and a cup ontop of the bag(not the mouse) to hold it under water, and i'll usually change the water once or twice to make sure it stays hot. sometimes i'll just put it on the stove and monitor it heating up. Since your's hasn't got the best feeding response, let the mouse thaw out in the same room as your snake to pre-scent.

Others let the mouse sit out 5-6 hours, some use a hair dryer to heat up the head, I never liked the hair dryer method so I never used it. Also the only reason I didn't let the mouse sit a bit longer is because I had to sleep for the shift I work.

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Lol, yeah.

How about thawing the mouse on top of his cage? That should get the scent to him, right? lol. No problem, boiled water? Or super hot water from the sink? The hair dryer wouldn't work, my mom is the only one with it, and she hates the feeding part of my bp.

I would say super hot water from the sink, but everybodys sink water won't be the same temperature. Don't boil the water, but you can get it pretty hot on the stove, leaving it on there for 2 minutes while it's on medium heat. When I say hot I mean to where you stick your hand in there for a few seconds and have to take your hand out, not something that can actually burn you, but give you that really hot feeling. Just make sure you secure the baggy to avoid water getting in it which really isn't a big deal, though it saves from drying the mouse off.

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Originally Posted by Neal

You can remove the vine, that's just taking up space. I don't recall ever seeing a BP climb a vine. .

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Does it really matter if the op has the vine in there or not, I mean come on! Just because you've never seen one use a vine or just because BPs are for the most part a terrestrial snake doesn't mean his Bp will never use it. If nothing else maybe the op just wants it there for asthetic purposes. Also, I might add, I have several vines and an arching log in my 20gal. and my BP has climbed all of them. Sometimes he just climbs accross, sometimes he just sits on them and hangs out. Either way, there is no need to tell somebody they can't or shouldn't do something just because you have never seen it. Unless the potential for injury to the BP exist which is unlikely with the op's setup (3 inches of the ground). The vines I am actually using are the silk chain link style supported with suction cups and so far are doing a great job of actually holding and supporting my BP. This just came accross rude to me and like you were a know it all. I'm not saying you are either of these,just the way that it came accross. I'm also not trying to come accross in an aggressive or rude manner. Just my .02