BP not Eating

[Zincubus]

So far my B.P has eaten 3 times live now, i want to try again with the F/T feed soon, but i have so many concerns when i think about it..I feel like the Grim Reaper picking out a mouse from the pet store that im sending to its death bed in a few hours later..The last time i did it, The mouse bite me, no big deal, but i worry about my B.P getting bitten by a mouse or a rat later on if i keep this up. I do like i should, drop the mouse in the enclosure, turn out the lights and walk away..Some times i check in about 10 minutes later and the snake still has not eaten the mouse yet, its almost like she likes the thrill of the hunt? She will be 1 year old in July and adult mice will not be enough pretty soon, the switch from adult mice to small rats is approaching..One big problem i have to address now is, my bonding with the snake, when she went 5 weeks without eating, i did not holder then for obvious reasons, then after the 1st live feeding, came a lengthily shed period(she did eat during that) so i did not want to handle her during that, dah...She hides all the time, very rarely does she come out.. When i first got her, she would come out at nights and "play", she liked to wind herself around the temperature gauge mounted on the wall of her enclosure.. What im getting at is, she will have to switch from live to frozen, maybe from mice to rats and and from a nice dark enclosure alone to my ugly "mug"a foot or so away from her, waving a limp dead rodent in front of her waiting for a strike, maybe 5, 10, 15 minutes or longer? is there even a enough room for her to strike at the rodent when she's all balled up in her hide? now im reading all the tricks other people use, wet or dry rodent, use blow dryer, stick a needle in rodents head for extra sent, just so many, sometimes i feel overwhelmed by all of this...which all goes back to the main reason for all these problems, ME!!! thx for reading thru all of this

I'd try the hairdryer method , it works a treat if you follow the suggested method . I'll send it to by PM

There's no way you want to be dropping a live Rat in with your precious snake and leaving them together .


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[Hugsplox]

I'd try the hairdryer method , it works a treat if you follow the suggested method . I'll send it to by PM

There's no way you want to be dropping a live Rat in with your precious snake and leaving them together .


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Yea you shouldn't under any circumstances be leaving a live feeder alone with your snake. Dropping a feeder in and walking away is what'll get your snake bit in my opinion. While you're feeding live keep a pair of feeding thongs on hand and redirect any bites that come. I still have one snake eating live, and I've found that if I leave the feeder on top of his enclosure for about 30 minutes prior to trying to feed, he'll be out looking for it and the process is very quick.

You can feed live safely, or at least safer than the method you're using, so don't get discouraged if she gives you a hard time transitioning. I'm a firm believer that MOST snakes will transition to F/T but that doesn't mean all snakes will. So in the event that yours won't, don't get bummed out.

[Thomas S]

has anyone that is live feeding ever have a B.P; strike at the mouse, coil it, kill it, uncoil and then not eat it right away?

[Zincubus]

......

[Thomas S]

yeah cant get too bummed out if it don't work. i was looking at B.P's for sale online, a website, I wont mention its name, but it tells you what the snake is currently eating, i was quite surprised to see some older snakes(9 months and up) are still eating live mice and rats, whether the breeders are actually trying or not trying to teach their B.P's to eat F/T, i wouldn't know, but probably half of the snakes, even young ones, under a year, have made the change to F/T, the odds are in my favor only IF i do everything right!

[Zincubus]

yeah cant get too bummed out if it don't work. i was looking at B.P's for sale online, a website, I wont mention its name, but it tells you what the snake is currently eating, i was quite surprised to see some older snakes(9 months and up) are still eating live mice and rats, whether the breeders are actually trying or not trying to teach their B.P's to eat F/T, i wouldn't know, but probably half of the snakes, even young ones, under a year, have made the change to F/T, the odds are in my favor only IF i do everything right!

It’s all so different over here in the uk .. we aren’t allowed to feed LIVE so you just find ways to get them to eat thawed frozen.. as you all know I swear by the hairdryer method.

Oddly enough breeders / reptile stores simply aren’t even allowed to sell snakes that aren’t feeding on thawed so it’s a completely different landscape


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[Bogertophis]

has anyone that is live feeding ever have a B.P; strike at the mouse, coil it, kill it, uncoil and then not eat it right away?

Yup, you bet. That usually happens because the human is "hovering" near the snake, making them too nervous to eat. More likely to happen if feeding in daytime also, because BPs usually hunt & eat at night, when they feel less "exposed" to other predators that may have THEM for lunch. This is why we suggest feeding BPs at night, & in dim room lights- as dark as you can manage if you have a fussy eater.

When feeding a shy, nervous snake, learn to move very slowly so as not to be noticed by the snake. Once they grab it, slowly move back to watch from a distance, and/or DO NOT MOVE- not a bit!

Just don't leave the room with the cage still open, or you may forget & by the time you remember, the snake will be out & exploring. But do NOT close the cage right when the snake grabs food & is trying to eat, as many will drop it right then in favor of hiding, feeling threatened by your commotion. OK?

[Zincubus]

Yup, you bet. That usually happens because the human is "hovering" near the snake, making them too nervous to eat. More likely to happen if feeding in daytime also, because BPs usually hunt & eat at night, when they feel less "exposed" to other predators that may have THEM for lunch. This is why we suggest feeding BPs at night, & in dim room lights- as dark as you can manage if you have a fussy eater.

When feeding a shy, nervous snake, learn to move very slowly so as not to be noticed by the snake. Once they grab it, slowly move back to watch from a distance, and/or DO NOT MOVE- not a bit!

Just don't leave the room with the cage still open, or you may forget & by the time you remember, the snake will be out & exploring. But do NOT close the cage right when the snake grabs food & is trying to eat, as many will drop it right then in favor of hiding, feeling threatened by your commotion. OK?

Excellent !


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[Bogertophis]

There's also "another kind" of snake that might coil, then drop their prey, now that I think of it. One of my now-mature corn snakes is a very good feeder on f/t- but if she sees ANY motion from me near her tank after she grabs her prey from my tongs, she then drops it in favor of chasing ME! (or rather, my motion- as perceived thru the glass) Such an "optimist"-but she's great to handle, she's never bitten me- she's just a die-hard "motion-chaser". There's also no problem getting her to eat what she drops, so it's not a big deal- it's mostly funny & a time-waster. Basically she has taught me to stand still while she eats. But I've dealt with plenty of snakes like the OP's snake, one that is too shy to eat "in public"- that's how I know to stand totally still.

[Thomas S]

my last live feed drop was to see the mouse movements and when the snake might strike, i watched this in a dark room so she would not see me, everything went good, she did strike the mouse from completely inside her hide, i was worried about that because she hardly ever comes out from her hide when the Big Bad Wolf comes home, Lol.. then she dropped the live mouse that she just killed. I thought to myself, can she smell me in the room watching her feed? Thank god after about 2 minutes she ate the mouse..this F/T first time feeding is not going to be as easy as the You Tube video's are, i hope im wrong, Dah