New BP, she was last fed 12/16

[Binkerbee]

I got her from a local pet store about 3 days ago, her enclosure had 12/16 on it and they told me that was her last feeding date. So I ended up getting her about 3 days ago, and I've been letting her settle in, when should i attempt to feed her? I know most sites say to let your ball settle in for a week before feeding

[Bogertophis]

How old is she? Letting a snake "settle in" for at least a week AND with no handling until after the snake has fed at least 3 times at normal intervals- is good general advice, but there are times that I'd make exceptions & feed sooner (especially for a young, thin snake that was acting hungry) IF I was sure the enclosure was set up correctly too:

First off, how is she acting? Restless & active? Or staying hidden? And is this your first snake?

Are you positive that your snake's home is set-up correctly? (temps-hides-etc) If it's not & your snake eats, she may end up regurgitating the meal if she's unable to digest due to low temperatures or stress from insufficient hiding places, etc. The worst thing you can do is feed a new snake & then have to re-arrange their home.

Does this snake appear healthy & well-fed? or is she thin, if you can tell?

Did you ask exactly what she's been fed? You want to feed the same thing she's been accepting previously, for best results. So BEFORE you offer anything, find out if you don't already know.
Was it a rat or mouse? What size? live? fresh-killed? or f/t? (-frozen-thawed) Fed how? from tongs? drop fed (left in cage near hide)

Do you know what the typical signs are of a BP that's looking for food & is ready to accept it? Do you have feeding tongs? Do you know what time of day they're most likely to eat?

It's actually MORE important that you get this meal offered correctly & successfully, than it is to feed her as soon as possible.

[Binkerbee]

They told me she was around a year old, and she's pretty thick and big compared to my 2nd snake which he's about 8 months.

She's been very hidden in a hide on the warm side, she was pretty restless the first night I got her, but after 2-3 hours she went in the hide and has been relaxed in there pretty much nonstop. She is my 2nd snake. I do have a heat mat hooked up through a thermostat, and I check the Temps multiple times throughout the day as well as I also have a little suction cup humidity and temp digital meter on the inside of her enclosure. The humidity is sitting around 75% which spiked when I put her in there as it was sitting around like 64% before. So I'm working on that, she's also appears to be going into shed possibly, but I've been so scared to disturb her or bother her and trying to leave her alone to actually be able to confirm that
My first snake, the guy told me how he couldn't stress it enough to not take the snake out or handle it or anything for a week minimum, and he told me like 20 times 🤣 so it terrified me lol

It's hard to tell about her shedding because she's 100% white.

The pet store was feeding her live mice, they seemed to breed them and sell right at that store, which I'm prepared to do that if I have to, I just have never fed live before and they told me it would be easy to transition her to f/t. My current snake that I've had for quite some time now, he's always ate f/t and has never been picky with food. So I may have made a wrong choice there, thinking it might just be that easy to just feed her frozen.

But I believe I know for the most part the signs of them being hungry from my first guy, I do use tongs, and usually feed him at night.

The store she came from, had 0 hides in it, it was just a single heat lamp, aspen bedding, water bowl and a kinda tree branch decoration. I'm not sure where she was staying would affect that at all.

Sorry if my response is all over the place, I went back and edited different parts as I typed.

[Binkerbee]

Hopefully I did this right lol, I put a pic up for her size reference



That side of her tub is covered the most, trying to make sure she didn't feel insecure about that. Of course I can change the hides if it looks bad, im open to suggestions

[Neko_snake]

Hopefully I did this right lol, I put a pic up for her size reference



That side of her tub is covered the most, trying to make sure she didn't feel insecure about that. Of course I can change the hides if it looks bad, im open to suggestions

Not right now because she's new and changing things would spook her but once she's settled in a bit I'd change the hide. It looks kinda tall and I know my BP's like to be as cramped as possible. Yours could be different but I'd at least offer a lower one. Also does it have 2 openings? It looks like it does but I wanna confirm. The 2 openings also makes them feel less secure.

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[Bogertophis]

Not right now because she's new and changing things would spook her but once she's settled in a bit I'd change the hide. It looks kinda tall and I know my BP's like to be as cramped as possible. Yours could be different but I'd at least offer a lower one. Also does it have 2 openings? It looks like it does but I wanna confirm. The 2 openings also makes them feel less secure.

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Exactly! Your snake wants hides like this: https://www.reptilebasics.com/medium-hide-box
Otherwise they don't feel safe & hidden from predators, & will usually keep refusing food. They want LOW ceilings, only one smallish doorway, snug fit overall.

She looks fairly well-fed from that photo, but she's over-due to be fed. What I'd do though, is fix her home FIRST- A.S.A.P. with proper hides- then wait a few days to a week to see if she appears hungry (peeking out of hide in evening hours- remember BPs are "ambush predators"), & don't offer prey until the timing is right for her.