First time Carpet owner, just have a few questions!

[DingoJungleJag]

So on Saturday i went to Repticon and i left with a beautiful Jungle Jaguar Carpet Python.
I have a Bearded, and a Jungle Runner, and recently got great Spider Ball Python.
The guy i got him from said that he is only 8 weeks old (should be 9 weeks today).
He has not eaten in 14 days tomorrow and i cant seem to get him to eat anything, the seller said that he hadn't missed a meal since birth and he does seem full bodied (not to thin) but i have tried a live pinky mouse and a f/t pinky rat and he doesn't seem to want to eat.

My other question is, i have a 2.5 gallon Critter Keeper, and a 5 Gallon Critter Keeper. should i keep him in one of those with like some sort of perch until he is a bit bigger?

I also built him a 75 gallon tank (I'm assuming he will be able to use through adult hood) that is bio-active, the spring-tails and isopods are finally cultivated! Is he still too small for this tank? i had to clean his smaller critter keeper and put him in the huge tank, he seems to love it. he has been thermoregulating pretty well in there and climbing on top of everything, but I'm afraid he will get stressed from the huge size, especially since i still haven't been able to get him to feed.

Any helpful tips would be great. i don't want to have to force feed him but i cant let the little beauty get sick on me. He does seem to strike at the f/t and the live pinky mouse but he wont latch, the one time he got caught on the f/t he freaked out.

He does have a bit of neuro which i know is pretty common in the morph, he has the shake pretty bad and goes upside down all the time, i knew that purchasing him, but after seeing the way other people were talking about him and the breeders talking about euthanizing him if they couldn't find a buyer i couldn't help but rescue him.

[Sauzo]

Good for you man. First off, quarantine him for 3 months.

As for caging, a large cage is fine assuming you can make him feel secure with perches, hides, lots of silk vines and plants and most of all, if you can keep the temps and humidity good.

As for feeding, how big is he? If the prey is too small, he might not register it. I know my JCP I got, I was told she only eats at night on live mice. I got her switched to F/T mice during the day in 1 try. The trick I did was I would hold the mouse with tongs by the tail. Then I would show it to her so she saw it. Then if she didn't grab it, I would just rub it on her body. That usually made her go crazy and she would grab it. Another thing that worked was same thing but instead of rubbing it on her, I would drag it along a perch in front of her and she would follow it and grab it.

Your little guy might need more time to adjust. Make sure all the temps and husbandry are good. Like I said, the gal with my JCP said she was a pain to get to eat but once I got her set up, she ate like a horse. She eats 2 adult mice every 5-7 days like clockwork.

What I have noticed with mine is she doesn't use hides and LOVES her perches. I can give you a few shots of her in her temporary cage until I get her Animal Plastics in spring.

[Sauzo]

The cage is 40 gallon breeder. Don't mind the knocked over thermometer/humidity gauge lol. She always knocks that thing over at night when she plays around. I stand it up in the day and she knocks it back down at night.

[DingoJungleJag]

Here is some pictures, he is wittle. I think i measured him at 18 inches, he is a little thicker than a pencil.





He is inside that rock hide atm.

I really like how your enclosure is set up. i might run by the HW store tomorrow and make him a jungle gym. although i still think he is really tiny haha.

- - - Updated - - -

lol i didnt even notice, she is beautiful though.

[Sauzo]

Thanks. Yeah those pvc gyms are so easy to make and the snakes freakin love them. Plus they are really easy to clean if the snake wipes a deuce on it. I don't pvc cement them together as I like to be able to take it apart to change it up or makes it easy to throw all the pieces in a bucket with F10 and water to clean it. I use 1" thick pvc. Since your guy is so small, maybe use a thinner pvc.

You're little guy is tiny lol. Allison was about 2.5' when I got her. I would probably try like a hopper mouse for your little guy. What did the breeder say he was eating?

And oh I got a better picture of Allison lol. Was mostly just showing the set up. Here's Allie.

[Sauzo]

Also i'm assuming you have a warm and cool hide if your snake actually uses them? You want to make sure he can get warm if needed without sacrificing security. Same with getting cool.

[DingoJungleJag]

i made the hot hide with the branches and the cork flat, i have an extra hide i can rearrange it. im assuming he was feeding him pinky mice since that was what he was feeding them when he gave it to me.

[Sauzo]

Well if he isn't eating, it means something is not right. Looking at the picture of the cage, first thing I see is you got heat lamps where a snake can get to them and burn himself. Next is what are your temps on the cool side, hot side and you really should offer the same kind of hides for warm and cold. Problem is some snakes like a certain hide and will use it at the cost of overheating or being too cold. Your cage has a nice natural look to it but until you get that little of a snake eating regularly, i'm going to have to say, you need to put him in a smaller more controlled cage. The gal I got Allie from had problems getting her to eat reliably and I didn't say anything but I figured it was from the lack of a "good" setup. Once I got her home and put her in the set up I showed you, she started eating like a horse and growing and is starting to mellow out. Most snakes are fine in large enclosures and I don't buy the "its too large of a cage" thing except if you cant control the set up enough. Like I said, I would check the temps first and foremost because wrong temps and/or insecurity are imo the 2 biggest problems to getting a snake to eat.

Also you said Saturday you got him. So it's been 3 days? Or has it been 14 days for you? If 3 days then that's nothing. If it's 14 days on that small of a baby, I would worry a little. If you got the breeders name and number, I would email him and ask how he was feeding him. If not, you can try a F/T hopper mouse. I don't think I would want to try a live hopper mouse in that set up as it can get away and hurt your snake later. A pinky mouse seems small. I would imagine the snake wouldn't even register the pinky as food as they don't move much. Like I said, I would wait until night, then quietly try and dangle a F/T mouse in front of whatever hide he is in. Then maybe drag it on the ground in front of the hide to perk his interest. If he grabs it, just lightly tug on it to mimic it trying to get away but don't pull on it so hard as to scare the snake. If that fails, just leave it on the floor in front of the snake overnight and pray he eats it when its dark. Some snakes are just shy.

Heck the gal I got Allie from got a couple coastal carpet babies and she cant get them to eat either lol. She's been asking me how I got Allie to eat so well and I told her the same thing, you need to get the cage set up right with temps and security. A cold snake or scared snake is not going to be thinking about food. Sometimes the simplest set ups are the best. I like the naturalistic cages and stuff like Gio does and yours but for me, I found keeping it simple and easy to clean has worked best for me. All my snakes eat like horses and are puppy dog tame except Allie but she is on her way

[DingoJungleJag]

I did mention, i put him in there while i was cleaning his critter keeper, but i think i might transfer him to my empty 10 gallon, i cant regulate heat well in a 8 inch containter. The temps in there as of now, are Daytime: 82-85 hot side, 72-75 cold side. Night time 72-75 hot side 68-70 cold side.

I left him in there after i cleaned because he was exploring around.

So i have had him since 10am on Saturday, and the breeder said that was his feeding day, i admit i was so focused on him that i missed a few questions. i was assuming 5-7 days feeding time. so i guess it would be a bit closer to 10 days that he hasnt eaten.

Today was the first day that he was set up in a an enclosure with a heat gradient that he can actually use. which was when i put him in the large enclosure. my Ball feeds on Thursday so i might just pick up a fuzzy for him and see how it goes then, since he would have been in a properly temp enclosure for 3 days at that point.

Yeah my buddy and i built the enclosures and he built them while i was at the show. I didnt know he was going to mount the heat lamps in the inside. i think im going to use some aluminum screen and staple it to the top and make the holes bigger to put the lamps on top.

Also like i said, i can get him to strike the food but he immediately recoils from the food when he gets it.
Im starting to think that he just might have been stressed.
I over worry about my little guys haha.

[Sauzo]

Need to bump those temps a good deal. I keep my JCP with a 90F hot spot and 79-80F cool side 24/7. My guess is that is a big part to why your little guy isn't eating, hes just too cold. I would definitely put him in the 10 gallon and get the temps up for him. If he likes to sit in hides, just use a UTH with a T-stat. Mine only goes to the floor to poop or pee and sometimes to explore but she LOVES her perches and lives on them lol so I just use a CHE on a Herpstat to give her a hot spot on part of her perch.

10 days isn't dangerous but I generally try to keep babies fed every 5-7 days. Allie eats 2 adult F/T mice every 7 days.

And yeah I would cut the holes in the top of the cage to fit the heat lamps and then metal screen mesh stapled down on the outside and then put the lights on top of that outside the cage.

He's probably striking and releasing as a defensive bite, not a food bite. He's probably scared of the mice since the temps are too cold so he's not thinking of eating. Get him some nice small hides. What I found worked well for my BP when she was a baby was plastic flower pot saucers flipped over with a little half moon cut in the side. Also I used little plastic bowls from Walmart like for toddlers. Flip them over and cut a half moon in the side and then just sandpaper it smooth. They are small enough to keep a baby feeling secure and cheap enough that you can just replace them as the snake grows. Even little cardboard boxes flipped over will work but they are done if the snake pisses next to it lol. You just need something low profile and tight fitting so the snake feels safe.

Oh and after you get all that set up with the temps and hides, leave him alone for a week so he can settle down. Then off him the mouse. You don't want to offer him food too much as that can stress him out a lot and put him off food altogether.