just got a baby ball python, did i do something wrong......

[Gungirl]

Ok I read through this fairly fast and Its late so Im sorry if I am repeating or I missed something. I read that you said the mouse bit the snake?! Why dont you offer frozen thawed and see if he is less scared and more willing to eat when Its time to feed him again. I dont think I could leave a live mouse in with mine. I have seen far to many pictures of a mouse eating the scales off a non hungry/non defensive snake.

[FrankieCarbone]

i know alot of you are opposed to feeding him in another enclosure besides where he is in now, but this is one of those things i really would like to do. It just feels alot easy to feed him in a cheap box that i can throw away later, rather than have a mouse running around the tank i so nicely set up, and hiding in his hide cave, and running around pissing all over place, and not to mention the poop that comes out when the mouse is squeezed to death. Can those of you who take your python out and place him in another enclosure comment on this? I mean, i know from what i have read that the BEST thing to do is to feed him in his own enclosure, but this is one rule i want to break, how can i accomplish this without stressing the snake out and get him to feed? hes already feeling very confortable in his cage ever since i got the infrared bulb, and 2 different caves, one with the UTH and one without (cold side) so hes getting comfortable. I just really would like to be able to bring him to a another container, have him strike and eat, finish digesting and bring him back home. comments anybody? (those who feed outside the cage, and those who feed in there home cage) Like i said, i'm noticing my python is getting comfortable in his cage, and i plan on another attempt on feeding on tuesday.....

[FrankieCarbone]

i havent thought of that, because after the mouse was dead (when i stuck him with a pole on his neck and he bled out) that the snake paid no attention at all to the snake, or try to eat him after he was dead and full of blood, so i doubt hed pay attention to a thawed out mouse... He striked at the mouse only when the mouse was alive.... once it was limp and dead he paid no attention to it...

[FrankieCarbone]

okay, so last time i tried to feed him was on tuesday, since then i have left him alone. Last night he was out and about, and the humidity for some reason has dropped in the cage, its usually at 51 and maybe drops to 47 at the least but for some reason was at 40, well i got my spray bottle and started misting, he of course did not like that very much, but most of the times when i spray in there he just gets a little suprised but thats it, this time he really did not like it, after i sprayed the cage down, i decided to crouch down and just take a look at him since i havent in a long time looked at him up close. So as iam looking at him, he strikes! i mean he hit the glass, but that came out of nowhere, i was shocked, i then put my fingers up against the glass and he struck again. and like 3 more times before i got up and walked away, then he went into his hiding cave. I went to sleep, i wake up today hoping it was just a nightmare or sometime, but when i went to his tank, he was out and about again, noticed the humidity was low once again (38 percent, the lowest ever) and i crouched down to take a look at him again before i got the spray bottle, and as soon as my face got close to the tank he struck again!

i dont get it, the first week i got him i was handling him for 10-15 minutes at a time and he was not agressive at all, i went from that, to a snake thats not eating, to a snake thats not eating and striked at me when i just look at him! man, what am i doing wrong now.....

[Homegrownscales]

He sounds hungry or stressed or he's just being a defensive baby. I would avoid crouching down like that so he doesn't keep whacking himself. Baby's are usually defensive, I have a male pin that tries to chew on me everytime I open the tub. Aluminum foil tape on the screen helps keep humidity it. Try feeding again. I believe he's accepted a meal from you already if it's been a few days he might be hungry again. But if he strikes at it even once defensively take it out. Striking but not actually biting and coiling. Don't stick the mouse in it's face or even be tempted to do so. That will only stress him out more. Make sure you try live.

[FrankieCarbone]

i dont know what happened, there were like 8 pages on this subject but i dont know what happened with the web site now its down to 5, so i will recap

no he has not taken a meal from me yet, its been a month now since i got him, and the first feeding attempt he would only strike and not eat, the second attempt was on tuesday, and same thing he would only strike and not eat or coil, should i try again today? its only been 3 days since the last attempt.

what i dont understand, is how i was handling him fine the first week i got him ( you can even see in the pictures i have up) and it went from that to now he strikes at me when he sees my face? it just feels like im making things worse in this situacion, all i have done is exactly what you guys and everybody else has told me to do.

Oh and both the times i tried to feed him, they were live mice.

[rperry03]

I place my boa in a separate container because his current cage does not accommodate him eating in there. I’m not worried about the cleaning. Either way you do it there are pros and cons. When he has finishs eating I really never know when he is ready to go back in for sure. I usually wait until he moves, don’t want him to still be in feeding mode then reach in, I will usually hook him first to lift then reach in.

Have you tried knocking out the mouse, leaving it in there and giving your snake privacy? If its glass, block off the bottom so he can't see out if he's on the bottom.

There will always be the live vs f/t debate. But I would never leave live in there unattended.

[MissDizzyBee]

When I fed live, I moved my snake to a cardboard box for feeding. It was never a problem, never regurgitated and never went for my hand. Keep in mind, though, that mine has a very mellow personality.

I now feed him f/t in his tank. He will sometimes strike at the prey on tongs, but for the most part won't eat it unless I set it next to his cave and drop a towel over his tank. Some of them just have quirks like that. Once you find them, things are easy.

Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

[Cendalla]

When I fed live, I moved my snake to a cardboard box for feeding. It was never a problem, never regurgitated and never went for my hand. Keep in mind, though, that mine has a very mellow personality.

I feed mine F/T in a cardboard box. Never had a prob. He knows when he's in his box that foods coming and gets really excited. The main thing is patience.

[FrankieCarbone]

on the first feeding attempt, it was outside his tank, i placed him him a brown box, and i dropped the mouse in, he stricked at it a couple of times but did not coil, i then hit the mouse with the end of a curtain rod and by mistake actually pierced the skin of the mouse on his neck and actually killing it, blood was everywhere and the mouse was like having a stroke and twitching for about a minute, and after that my BP just did one last defensive strike, but with blood and all smeared everywhere he still did not eat. The second feeding attempt (tuesday) was inside his tank this time, and same thing, snake did not pay much attention to the mouse until the mouse got close, then he just did a defensive strike, after that i made the mistake (?) of grabbing the mouse by the tail and dangling infront of him, he just did defensive strikes and thats it. The mouse was in the tank with the snake for about 20 minutes, and my BP paid no attention to it, the mouse even took a nap on the hot side! after that i just took the mouse out, this was on tuesday.

Since last night, and this mornings "strikes" at me, i noticed off behavior, first he is out of his cold side hide and it just hanging out in the middle of the tank (he rarely does that he usually explores then goes back into hiding) and also for the FIRST time he has gone into his hot side hide (which is alot bigger than the cold side hide), this is the one with the UTH underneath. My digital thermometer says 88 degrees so thats good, but the humidity has drastically gone down, its at a all time low 37% since i bought my acu-rite. I think that maybe its malfunctioning because since i set it up a week ago it has never gone lower than 47% at the least, but since yesterday its being going down alot, even after i spray the cage. When i spray the cage it will go up to maybe 40-44, but before when i spray the tank down it will go up 53-55. Or maybe its just really not humid in there, i know the temp is working fine because i use my PE2 tempgun and the temperatures more or less match what the acu-rite says...