Time for handling?

[Cee Jay]

Hi carpet fans,

Wanted to solicit some advice. I've had an adult variegata I acquired a couple months ago now, and what was supposed to be his third meal before finally handling him ended up being a no-go. He doesn't appear to be going into shed and seemed somewhat interested in food yesterday, but didn't take it. He's only fed twice and both times I've laid the large f/t rat out on a small piece of cork bark and a couple hours later he just decides to eat it. He doesn't strike food when dangled in his face, but rather seems bothered by the fact that something is annoying him. i don't hit him with it or anything, but want to give him the chance to do something natural, but he clearly chooses the passive route and just eats on his own when he feels like it.

That said, several people on this forum when I first got on here recommended feeding three times before handling him, which as hard as it has been, has been 100% the case. He is just an inhabitant at this point without interaction and I am wondering if I should just take him out and where the "magic 3 times" comes from. Am I supposed to wait until after the next time he does eat (3rd) to handle him? He clearly knows his enclosure well and I just don't know what one more feeding is going to change. It's getting cooler in SoCal, so maybe he is realizing that and not eating so much? Who knows, just looking for some advice. My job requires me to sometimes leave for extended periods of time and my wife has not yet been introduced to handling snakes, which I need to get her comfortable with if and when I do leave. A 6-foot carpet should be a good first test . Last night he had his second bowel movement, which was far jucier and more "spicy meatball" (anyone?) than the first. He seems rather docile, though he did hiss when I first got him and attempted to move him a couple times in the very first day or so. I hear that is common for carpets....?

Thanks!!

[EL-Ziggy]

Heck yeah it's time to handle him. He's been with you for a few months and he's eaten a couple of times so he should be just fine. How often do you feed him? A couple of my carpets will take winter food breaks but I usually start dialing back their food in November anyway. They'll only get fed every 4-6 weeks from Nov.- March. My carpets don't hiss when I move them but they do breathe heavily after extended handling times.

[Reinz]

I think the arbitrary 3 weeks comes from besides a fair time for him to settle, and folks don’t know your level of snake handling skills and your ability to read their body language. As your snake keeping skills progress you can pretty much read the situation as well as the timing.

Keep in mind that very few things are engraved in stone. You are there, we are not, so take advice as guidelines and not hard fast rules.

As far as the loose BM, I only have 5 Carpets, all full grown; I would not say that loose BMs are normal. They are not uncommon either.

There are many reasons for loose stools. Here are just a few:

The prey may have a micro organism(s) that the snake can’t fight off, so the digestive system runs it through the express lane.

The particular meal may have more fat in it than the snake is used to.

Change in diet.

Parasites

Stress

Many times when Urates are dried up and formed into hard white stools, it takes a lot of effort to pass them. In so doing, the strong pushing not only forces out urate stools, loose feces may follow that haven’t been allowed to remain the colon for full water reabsorption. In other words loose feces came out with the hard urates due to straining.

These are just a few that cone to mind, I hope it helps in understanding.

[Cee Jay]

I have fed him only twice, with those being about every two weeks. Is that too often? The third try was about 10 days or so after and the night I tried to feel him he passed his second "meal" so maybe that was his way of saying he wasn't interested. Do you have any experience with Reptilinks? I would love to transition him to a varied diet of those instead of rats if at all possibe. I just sort of discovered the idea of those through Chandler's WL and Reachout.

[Cee Jay]

I hope I have been pretty lucky with parasites, but without a vet visit yet I guess I can't really know. I acquired a blue-tongue skink about a month ago, which I was told typically have many parasites, but I have yet to see any issues or mites yet. I kept the skink out of my snake's room the entire time and have noticed zero mites visually or in the water and my snake doesn't ever go inside his water bowl. When I said loose stool, what I meant was that this one was far jucier than his first. The first one was rather dry, but this one was actually moist, with some moistening of the coco chips that I had to remove. The poop itself was nuggety (probably not a word) and intact. The craziest thing is I am worried about picking him up and stressing him out, but that seems foolish. The only time I tried that he puffed up and almost looked like a rattler in the pose he got into. I've seen some good ideas online from Kevin at NERD about body language and using a hook to let him know I'm not food, which I am going to try and incorporate. I am not going to lie because it would do me no good. All the snakes I had years ago before I left for my current job were juvenile, so this guy is somewhat intimidating, though I held him fine at the store and am generally not afraid of him at all - I think it's in my head. I know these guys can read body language and sense my blood pressure in my hands I'm sure, so I am just going to get him out for a while, try and have a positive interaction, and let him be on his way. How often do you all recommend taking him out in the beginning?

[Cee Jay]

Well, success. Had him out for about 15 minutes. No aggression, though it was a bit of a task getting him out as he has quite the decorated cage. Kept calm and focused, didn't let him get in control and was getting nothing but inquisitiveness and long tongue flicks. Also kept him away from my face by spinning him away ever so slightly to hopefully show him that is not tolerated. I'm mostly happy he got to get out and get some exercise. And the wife got a couple hands under him and at least saw that he is not crazy or scary. Positive experience.