Successful First Feeding!

[wonderwhitters]

I just wanted to share my joy & also express my gratitude to y'all! Poe successfully had his first feeding tonight! We tried a fuzzy mouse instead of a fuzzy rat. It was only 5g in size, and he's 107g, so I think it was a little bit small for him, but it's a start. It was such a rush watching it all take place as well. I fully expected this would be hard for me, as I am a huge animal lover, big and small, and have had rodents as pets. I surprisingly handled it incredibly well, and actually felt a great sense of accomplishment getting him to trust me enough to eat. Thank you so much to all of you who helped provide tips and tricks to get him to eat.

Instead of removing the top off his hide, I simply dangled the mouse in front of the opening and he came out to check out what was going on. Didn't take him long at all to decide he wanted it! I also did the blow dryer trick and got the mouse up to about 100 degrees and he was all about it!

You are all so kind and helpful here! I am SO appreciative! I am so relieved right now & on a total snake high! LOL!

Now I just need to decide if I should wait a full week before feeding him another or do a shorter time frame since it was such a small meal?

[Bogertophis]

Congratulations! We know how good this feels!

BTW, I had various pet rodents for some years before getting into snakes "accidentally", so I (& some others) do understand how that feels too...

Personally, I'd go ahead & let him wait at least 5-7 days before giving him another prey item. He may or may not take a second one right now...it's surprising how
some snakes just won't eat 2 at a time, no matter what size. And he won't starve in a week either...snakes are designed to NOT eat all the time. You did good!

[wonderwhitters]

Congratulations! We know how good this feels!

BTW, I had various pet rodents for some years before getting into snakes "accidentally", so I (& some others) do understand how that feels too...

Personally, I'd go ahead & let him wait at least 5-7 days before giving him another prey item. He may or may not take a second one right now...it's surprising how
some snakes just won't eat 2 at a time, no matter what size. And he won't starve in a week either...snakes are designed to NOT eat all the time. You did good!

Yes, I fully expected to feel a pang of guilt or sadness, and I definitely felt for the little mouse, but my sense of accomplishment/happiness to see him eat really overpowered that! Rodents can also make great pets! I will go ahead and wait and not feed him for 5-7 days again if y'all think that's best! I'm just sooo relieved! I was so afraid we were gonna battle this for weeks like I've heard some people end up doing!

[Bogertophis]

Snakes that refuse to eat can be SO frustrating & demoralizing...been there & dealt with it. Nothing against rodents, but snakes cannot eat salads...lol.

And it can be a real sense of accomplishment to keep a pet snake, one that both feeds well and accepts our company while thriving. Welcome to the club.

[ballpythonsrock2]

I just wanted to share my joy & also express my gratitude to y'all! Poe successfully had his first feeding tonight! We tried a fuzzy mouse instead of a fuzzy rat. It was only 5g in size, and he's 107g, so I think it was a little bit small for him, but it's a start. It was such a rush watching it all take place as well. I fully expected this would be hard for me, as I am a huge animal lover, big and small, and have had rodents as pets. I surprisingly handled it incredibly well, and actually felt a great sense of accomplishment getting him to trust me enough to eat. Thank you so much to all of you who helped provide tips and tricks to get him to eat.

Instead of removing the top off his hide, I simply dangled the mouse in front of the opening and he came out to check out what was going on. Didn't take him long at all to decide he wanted it! I also did the blow dryer trick and got the mouse up to about 100 degrees and he was all about it!

You are all so kind and helpful here! I am SO appreciative! I am so relieved right now & on a total snake high! LOL!

Now I just need to decide if I should wait a full week before feeding him another or do a shorter time frame since it was such a small meal?

If you want and have another 5g fuzzy mouse you could try to get him to eat again tonight if he acts hungry, but there's a chance it will turn it down. But if you don't have another 5 gram or he doesn't act hungry and it is curled up inside then I would wait till a week from now and try next week to feed something a little bigger around 10 grams. You want to try and get about 10-15 max% his body weight at least for now.

You did the right thing by not messing with it's hide. To mess with the hide really puts them out of the eating mood. But glad for you now that you know you can do it and what worked you can do it again... and again. And I remember the feeling of relief you get when a young ones eats, that hasn't been eating. When I first started I took my snake out of the enclosure put it in with a box with a live mouse. The mouse was bouncing on top of the snakes head. I've learned a lot since then. Thanks in large part to this web site and experience too.

[wonderwhitters]

It's truly a gratifying feeling to be able to successfully get them to feed! I've taken everyone's helpful advice into consideration and it made all the difference. I was gonna wait 5 full days prior to trying again and got impatient after two and just had to try again. I'm glad I did! Now I won't worry for the next few days!