my bp is retarded at eating,

so he hasnt eaten in bout two weeks but then he shed so I understand that. a day after the shed he ate a mouse again so i was happy but now 4 days later i try to feed and he strikes twice and misses both times and now he is frustrated and gave up. any tips?

Why are you feeding every 4 days?
They could be defensive strikes if he isn't hungry.

If the BP strikes and misses, it's one of 2 things:

1) as stated before, defensive strikes, he could be scared and not hungry as 4 days is awfully frequent to be feeding.. 5 is the most frequent I recommend for young bps.

2) The snake is hungry and trying to feed, but the snake can't get a "heat-lock" on the rodent. If you don't warm your prey item up above room temperature(via warm water or a hairdryer usually), the snake cannot sense with its heat pits where to strike. BPs rely heavily on heat pits for detecting prey, I have accidentally let a warm prey item cool off for just a little too long, attempted to feed it, and have the snake strike and miss many times. They get frustrated trying to eat something they can smell and know is around, but failing. A quick dunk in warm water fixed it right up, BAM successful strike and coil.

im feeding him slightly smaller then average prey because he has trouble eating the bigger stuff, he cant figure out which end is up to start the swallowing and he has given up that way before too, so I am doing slightly smaller but more frequent mice, it was no big deal until now. I dont think they are defensive as he is totally aware and excited about the mouse danging in front of him, do snakes like a wet mouse? does it matter? I usually put the f/t in a baggy and dunk it in hot/boiling water for only a minute to defrost and warm it well. this time I only thawed it at room temperature, that is probably it. how long should I wait till I try to re-feed him again using my normal techniques?

Feeding a wet rodent is not bad for the snake. If the snake is very picky about eating, sometimes water washes off just enough scent to make the snake not feed I've heard, but have never seen it with anything that takes F/T regularly.

With a young snake, offer food every 5-7 days. If the snake refuses, wait until the next feeding day to offer again.

Today I was feeding my snake and he was just staring at it for about 1 minute, I accidentally dropped it and I swear he caught it midair...so try moving it around a bit if you aren't doing that.

at night could I lay the thawed mouse in his enclosure and leave it all night?

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Originally Posted by TraviZ

at night could I lay the thawed mouse in his enclosure and leave it all night?

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If you are going to try at night, just make sure you set the mouse on something so the substrate doesn't stick to the mouse. I usually feed my noctournal snakes about 5 pm, and I turn the lights off so it's a bit darker in the room. Also like I seen mentioned in another post on here, try to wiggle the mouse a bit so your bp sees movement.

Oh my mice wiggle thats for sure. holding them by the tail with tongs makes a great wiggle dance!

Wait, are they live when you do that?

In an earlier post you stated that you put the mouse in hot/boiling water for only a minute... are you sure they're thawed out before feeding him??

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Originally Posted by Buttons

In an earlier post you stated that you put the mouse in hot/boiling water for only a minute... are you sure they're thawed out before feeding him??

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Yeah, what he said. You should let the mouse thaw in a bag in water for a few hours minimum. A snake eating partially frozen food would surely have some problems...

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Originally Posted by unrezt

Yeah, what he said. You should let the mouse thaw in a bag in water for a few hours minimum. A snake eating partially frozen food would surely have some problems...

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I was about to comment on that too... I thaw mine for a good 2-3 hours, and then give it a last dunk in newly hot water (since the original gets cool).

And I wouldn't use boiling hot water, either. That can end up cooking the prey, which is bad for digestion.

My mistake with our first mouseicle was thawing it in the "Rodent Pro" bag it came in. It ended up wet inside the bag.

Thereafter, I followed someone's recommendation here to just put the mouseicle on a paper towel and leave it out for a few hours for gradual thawing to room temperature. :)

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Originally Posted by Patricia

My mistake with our first mouseicle was thawing it in the "Rodent Pro" bag it came in. It ended up wet inside the bag.

Thereafter, I followed someone's recommendation here to just put the mouseicle on a paper towel and leave it out for a few hours for gradual thawing to room temperature. :)

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A wet mouse won't hurt the snake. When I feed f/t I let the mouse sit out for a few hours and thaw out, then I run hot water from the sink which gets pretty hot, put it in a pot, put the mouse inside a ziplock bag in the pot, then put a cup on top of the bag to hold it under water. I do that till the water cools off, then I get another thing of warm water, and by the time I take it out, it's ready to go.

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Originally Posted by Lolo76

I was about to comment on that too... I thaw mine for a good 2-3 hours, and then give it a last dunk in newly hot water (since the original gets cool).

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Just to add to this, there are many ways to thaw.

I thaw directly in ~90-100°F water, 10-20 minutes gets a completely full thaw

im pretty sure mine are completely thawed with my boiling water method, i time it at about 2 minutes max and thats in a baggy in the water, and when i pull the mouse it, it definitely is squishy and limp feeling, definitely not frozen. I have been feeding snake like this since I bought him a couple months ago without problem, now after his shed hes being stupid about it. but in good news, I went ahead and tried again just now and I did my usual method and he went for it and got it! he popped its guts out after constricting it, but then he couldnt figure out again which side to start from so he ended up dropping it and slithering away..

damnit why he is so dumb, this is only an 8gram mouse and he is aprox 65gram snake.

Even if using boiling water to thaw rodents works, it tends to cause the exploding guts problem.

Same thing happened to me when I used freshly boiled water to defrost a rat one time. It caused the guts to swell up and as soon as my ball constricted the rat exploded. Smell was real bad and mess was real bad. First and last time I used that method.

Now I fill a sink with hot water from the tap, pop the rats in and leave 'em for an hour or so, I take 'em out, pat 'em dry with a cloth and they are ready to go...:gj: