new BP mom here, he’s a juvie male who’s been taking f/t mice since his third meal, and his breeder never had a problem with feeding him. he arrived last week and i waited a couple of days before trying to feed him because i knew if he was stressed he probably wouldn’t eat. so on thursday i thawed a mouse, tried to give it to him, and he looked at it but didn’t seem interested, so i threw it out.
today i tried again, i realized i probably didn’t get the mouse warm enough (it was thawed and at room temp but probably not warm enough to seem interesting) so i got it to what felt like a good temp and tried again. i also kinda crouched down so i wasn’t looming over the cage, and he constricted, (VERY enthusiastically, the mouse kinda leaked) and seemed to be interested but then left it. it could’ve been because i walked by while he was on it but i don’t think so because i left the room immediately after he grabbed it and didn’t come back for 15ish minutes, and when i did come back he did seem startled but he also seemed like he was losing interest before i’d even come in.
what do i do? i’m planning to wait two days and then try feeding him around dusk instead of the middle of the day, but what else should i do? i know he’s not gonna starve if he skips a week or two but i don’t want him to turn into a picky eater, especially because i live in a rural town and it’d be really hard to get live mice.
he’s in a large tub right now because the glass terrarium i kept trying to order kept arriving shattered so this is my solution for while he’s small, and the sides are see-through so maybe i need to paint the sides or something? i don’t know though, please send advice.