Question about feeding.

[templarknight]

Ok, little back story. I got my snake last Sunday. Breeder told me he hasn't eaten in a week due to the show. He doesn't feed a week before the show. My mom wants to take me out shopping and there's an exotic pet shop in the area she wants to take me shopping. She suggested we go in a buy my snake's first rat.

Here's the question: What's the difference in waiting one(1) day and if there is no difference how do I get him to eat if he is hiding in his hide?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Sorry if they sound newbie as I still am a complete newb when it comes to owning snake(s).

[llovelace]

Get the appropriate sized rat, I would get a smaller one for it's first meal, then drop it in the tank, they ambush from their hides . Monitor feeding though, have tongs or chop stick in hand in case of a bad strike, to prevent rodent from biting snake.

[templarknight]

The breeder told me he has this partiicular snake on weaned(sp?) rats. I don't know how big those are. I've never dealt with feeding a snake a rat before.

[TheWinWizard]

How large is the snake? Can you weigh it?

[llovelace]

Weaned rats weigh around 20g

[templarknight]

When I brought it home, last sunday, I thought I h

[templarknight]

When I brought him home, last sunday, I thought I had my scale set to grams. So I weighed him and it said 466. Come to find out it was set to Kilograms. So I have not taken him out of his cage since that day to give him space.

I have, however, been opening his cage to check temp/humidity and to pet him a little to get him used to me.

I will take him out and weigh him if that will help get better answers.

[templarknight]

Ill take him out to weigh him before he eats today. Ill post his weight pre feed.

If he looks like he is still hungry I know to give him a little bit bigger rat next week.

[PghBall]

If the snake is above 300-350 grams, he/she could handle a small rat. Just be sure to monitor the feeding. Don't just drop the rat in and leave it unattended with your snake. If you don't have a pair of feeding tongs, get a pencil or something long that you can use just in case your snakes first strike is not a good one (use the tongs/Pencil to keep the rat from biting the snake). Most likely if it won't do any real damage to the snake's skin, but you wan't to be safe than sorry. Only leave the rat in with him/her for 20-30 minutes. If it is not eaten in that time, take it out. Enjoy your new addition and welcome!

[Vypyrz]

One thing that you can do to increase your chances of a successful feeding is to pre-scent. Most pet shops have some type of little transport boxes for rodents. When you get the rat home, set the box on top of, or next to the enclosure. This will allow your BP to smell the rat first, and become alert and get into feed mode. Sometimes the snake will just poke it's head out of the hide and look around, and sometimes they will come all the way out and search for the prey. Once you see that your snake is interested, put the rat in the enclosure.
Since you will be feeding live rats from a pet shop, it's a good idea to ask if they have a return policy should your snake decide not to eat. If they don't, then I would suggest keeping a Critter Keeper with a water bottle on hand, that way, if your snake doesn't feed, you have a way to house, feed and water the rat for a few days until the next feeding attempt.