How long should you wait before feeding a new animal?

[Dianne]

For the babies, I usually give them a few days to settle in, then offer weekly. Of the 3 youngsters I’ve purchased this year: a pied and a lemonblast purchased 7/21 (hatched in July as well w/ 1 meal before sale, per sellers), and a blue-eyed leucistic purchased 8/25 (hatched May/June eating steady on live adult mice per seller). The pied has eaten the last 2 weeks (2 live pinkies last week, 1 f/t fuzzy tonight), the lemonblast is still refusing each week (not losing weight, she is drinking and moving around, so not too worried yet), and the BEL ate a f/t mouse tonight.

I picked up my 3 year old dragonfly yesterday morning, she left a deposit last night, and I offered a small rat tonight when I fed everyone else. She didn’t eat tonight, which would have been a pleasant surprise this soon, so she’ll get offered again in 2 weeks with the rest of the adults. Any left over mice/rats are offered as a bonus to other snakes, anything not eaten gets offered to the crows tomorrow morning...local wildlife appreciates refused rodents.

I’m so excited! Belle, my lemonblast, finally ate! I had ordered a couple of large live fuzzies, but what came in were hoppers. I figured it was worth a try even though she’s so tiny and bought just one. I just checked and she finally decided tonight was the night. I had to lift the hide she was under to make sure she had eaten it and it wasn’t loose - served the mouse in a bowl to contain it. She was curled up with quite the lump in her belly.

[Godzilla78]

I recently adopted a rescue normal ball python. It is a large, mature female that was severely underweight, with loose skin. She has an enormous head, and looks to be at least 8 years old, and She should easily be 2200-2600 grams at her length. Her skin is very loose, and she was slightly dehydrated. Her former owner even admitted he was getting rid of his ball pythons, because he hasn't been able to afford feeding them!

The very first night, I offered her two small rats, and she took them both instantly back to back!!! She loves to bask in the heat more than my other snakes, and I am guessing it hasn't something to do with her low body fat.
You can't tell from this picture, but her skin is very loose and she has a prominent spine.

[Godzilla78]

forgot to mention: "she should easily be 2200-2600 grams at her size and maturity, but I weighed her in at only 1900 grams!"