First Feed is a Success

[DR2M]

Attempted to feed my banana spider for the first time since I got her today. While I was at school my mother had ran to a feed store and bought a mice which honestly made me kinda iffy on if it was the correct size, as the snake was being feed hoppers and weaned, and the one we tried today was around a small mouse size. However I made the attempt. The first strike was a miss, which actually caused her to bite herself. But the second was a long awaited success. And she gobbled it down in only a few minutes. I feed her in a separate container just because I didn’t want her to miss and get a mouth full of Coco fiber, I’ll fix that issue soon. After she swallowed completely and started moving around I held the container as close to her tank as possible and she actually went right in, with alittle help from me but she was not fazed. Now she’s relaxing on her heat pad. (The log in the photo is a temporary hide. I’ll be trading it out with a plastic container like I use on the “cold” side. )

All in all I’m very pleased. And I know love her was a risky thing but I’m the end the snake was comfortable and I did it as smoothly as possible, so please go easy on me there.

(Pic of her relaxing)
https://imgur.com/a/U0RPFFD

[Dianne]

Glad her first feeding was successful....congratulations! I would recommend feeding her in her enclosure going forward. Feeding in separate containers can cause issues with regurgitation, meal refusal, and increased likelihood of getting bitten. And I’m not just spouting the standard line, I fed in separate containers for many years...old school practice better left in the past. It absolutely increases the risk of a bite (been there, done that) and increases the likelihood of refusals (done that, too). Fortunately I haven’t had the regurge issue, but handling post feeding can cause that.

[DR2M]

I agree. I was just using it for the first time, to make sure everything would go smoothly. But thank you for your input. As of now she’ll be fed in her enclosure.

[Neal]

Congrats on the feeding, and like Dianne said, make sure to feed her in the enclosure. Ball pythons can be super picky so you don't want to do anything that may potentially make it not want to eat.