2 weeks in and still an utter newb

[psiam]

Hi there, and thanks to anyone who answered my previous plea for help.

I've now had Haku for 2 weeks. He gave us a gorgeous shed and a gunky urate and still refuses to feed. Maybe tonight? I'm tired of keeping this rat happy while waiting for the snake to get hungry. Our guy likes to sleep until 11pm or so, which makes me wonder when would be a good time to just handle him.

At any rate, I'm a 56 year old woman who lives with her husband and our remaining cat (my beloved furboy passed away last year) in Louisville, KY. We also have a neighborhood wanderer known as Not Our Cat (NOC for short) who comes in through the cat door to say hello, eat, and leaves. Both my husband and I have adult sons; hubby's son is married and we have a toddler grandson, my son is engaged, has Aspies, and is the reason I wound up with a BP.

Hobbies are cooking, knitting, reading, watching anime, being a Rebekah, esoteric spiritual practices, riding my motorcycle (once I recover from my 3rd spinal surgery), travel travel travel, and laughing at myself.

And to round this off: What's with the sig lines with the numbers preceding the types of critters? 0.1, 1.0, 2.0, etc. Is this binary code for the number of critters, their relative age, some secret herp communication?

[Atrox]

Why not try F/T?

The signature lines are code for the quantity of whatever morph/reptile and their gender. For example:

1.0 Banana BP

Would be one male Banana Ball Python.

1.1 Dogs

Would be one male and one female dog.

The first digit is the quantity of males, the second digit is the quantity of females and in some circumstances 1.1.1 would be one male, one female and one un-sexed/unknown gender.

[psiam]

We've thought about F/T, especially since it's now been a month since he's eaten. I'm not even sure where to find a frozen rat! After our last attempt at feeding, I killed the rat and left it in the enclosure overnight. No success. Haku strikes at the rats, but doesn't coil . . . and then he seems to just be frightened. The last rat bit at him, at which point we removed it from the enclosure.

Thank you for explaining the sig lines. It makes sense now.

1.0 pastel BP
0.1 tuxedo cat

[Miranda2]

Hi and welcome Im pretty new here too. Might try a mouse or a smaller rat and see how that goes.

[JoshSloane]

Psiam check out my response to your previous thread.

[Reinz]

Welcome to Ball Pythons, Psiam. They can be frustrating for sure.

Like you, I inherited my BP when my daughter left for college and ended up marrying, so Stryker is mine.

At first it was like I was just taking care of someone else's pet. But I was so ignorant, had no instructions. I made a lot of mistakes. This was all before I found this forum. So may I suggest, read the care sheets and listen to the good advice presented here.

I never would have believed it, but through all of my trials with the snake I actually bonded and have grown quite attached. I am enamored with the grace and beauty of this creature. And subsequently have rescued a Boa and have plans for a Carpet Pyhon in the future.

As far as your feeding issue-
One month w/o eating is no big deal, especially for an adult. Just wait a week and offer again. Or if you don't want to take a chance keeping a rat again, wait two weeks. That way your snake my be good and hungry.

Best