I really need some help

[CanadianNinja]

Hi everyone. Ive had my ball for about three weeks and im beginning to have issues. Im supposed to feed him every five days, and on the first feeding, he ate a live rat pup without hesitation. Since then, he began to get dull and his eyes cloudy, and I figured he was about to shed. He also started fasting. I tried pinky mice, a rat pup (both frozen), and then I tried a mouse, but he wouldnt take anything. Yesterday he finally shed , and I tried frozen pinky mice and a dead rat, and he still wont touch anything. Why wont he eat? I know theyre famous for hunger strikes, but he hasnt eaten in about 10 days.

To make things worse, I figured id handle him (I stopped for the last week because I thought he was nervous and figured it would help him eat), and while he was moving about, I found a tiny white thing the size of a period (.) . I figure its a mite? I rubbed it off, and inspected him, and couldnt find any others. How'd he get it, do I need to treat him , and should I remove his substrate and put down fresh stuff? (I have aspen, and I just got some coconut fibres in brick form, so Im switching soon anyways).

Please help me out, Id like him to be as comfortable and well-fed as I can make him!

[kurgan]

Hi - congrats on your new snake and welcome.

First of all I'd calm down a bit - 10 days is no big deal for a BP and doesn't count as a fast/hunger strike in my book. 5 days is a slightly aggressive feeding regime anyway depending on age.

A BP in shed may or may not feed - mine did when younger but he doesn't now he is an adult - not feeding your snake at all when in blue is a reasonable thing to do.

The white spot sounds like a mite to me - you need to dump the substrate entirely and put him on newspaper/paper towels and treat him as per the caresheets suggest. Newspaper is a great substrate anyway in my opinion.

I'm assuming your BP is a juvenile? What did he eat for you/ his previous owners. My advice would be to leave him alone for a fortnight (no handling except to clean and change water as can't be avoided) and feed him once a week with whatever you gave him before - a rat pup would probably be ideal. If he doesn't eat then take the prey item away and don't feed him again until the next week.

We need more info to really help:
-How old/large is your BP
-What is he housed in
-How are his temps
-What was he fed on before
-Where did you get him.

[CanadianNinja]

We need more info to really help:
-How old/large is your BP
-What is he housed in
-How are his temps
-What was he fed on before
-Where did you get him.

Hes a little over a foot, and hatched on June 1st this year. Hes in a terrarium thats 40g (I know its too big, but he doesnt seem to mind).

His temps are okay, but a little on the cool side. It sparks another question though. The glass where the UTH is is very hot, too hot for me to touch. Should I prevent him from coming in contact with it? Will it burn him?

He ate a single rat pup for me. A little larger in girth then him, and live. I gave him an identical one, but dead, and he wouldnt touch it.

I got him off a breeder two towns over. Thats not a joke actually XD

[JLC]

Everything sounds ok to me. He may just not be hungry again yet. A rat pup that's a little bigger around than he is is a big meal.


Also...snake mite are dark...not white. It's probably nothing, but keep an eye out for more if it makes you feel better.

I would highly recommend two things to you:

1. Don't handle him until he is eating on a regular basis for you.

2. Feed every seven days (besides being good for the snake, it's SO much easier to keep track if you know you are going to feed your snake every Monday, for instance)....a prey item that's just a little bit smaller in diameter than your snake is around.

If you feed larger meals, it's much harder to tell when the snake may decide he's hungry again. If you feed smaller, then the snake will likely have an appetite again by the time the next feeding day rolls around.

[kurgan]

Hes a little over a foot, and hatched on June 1st this year. Hes in a terrarium thats 40g (I know its too big, but he doesnt seem to mind).

His temps are okay, but a little on the cool side. It sparks another question though. The glass where the UTH is is very hot, too hot for me to touch. Should I prevent him from coming in contact with it? Will it burn him?

He ate a single rat pup for me. A little larger in girth then him, and live. I gave him an identical one, but dead, and he wouldnt touch it.

I got him off a breeder two towns over. Thats not a joke actually XD

Eeep - yes if the UTH is not connected to a thermostat (and it is not safe for it not to be) then it is a risk to burn your snake - if the the glass is too warm for you to touch then it is way too warm for the snake to touch. You need to take care of that ASAP - depending on the ambient temp in your room it may be safer to just unplug the whole thing tonight and get a thermostat tomorrow.

I have no experence with aquarium set ups but there is a good sticky in the husbandry section for this.

You said your temps were ok but a bit too cool - I'm sorry to go on about this but what do you mean there? Your temp should be 92-94F warm side, 82-84F cool side. The analogue/dial thermometers are not accurate enough - you need a digital thermometer on each side.

Feeding wise a rat pup sounds like a suitable meal - if he took a live for you and you are worried about feeding then why not carry on feeding them live for now - offer one a week and don't handle him as far as possible. You can try switiching him to frozen/dead rats when he is feeding regularily for you.

[JLC]

His temps are okay, but a little on the cool side. It sparks another question though. The glass where the UTH is is very hot, too hot for me to touch. Should I prevent him from coming in contact with it? Will it burn him?

Holy moly...missed this part. Yes, that can easily burn him. HOW can the temps be on the "cool side" of "okay" and yet the glass is so hot that even YOU can't touch it?? You DEFinitely need to get that fixed immediately. Unplug the UTH and use an overhead lamp for warmth until you can get some sort of control on that UTH. Preferably a thermostat...but at the very least, a dimmer switch from the hardware store so you can dial down the temps to a safe level.

[CanadianNinja]

Okay, but it was defintely something. It was moving. It was small and white and the size I described earlier. I guess Ill try and feed him weekly from now on. One thing though, is that Im checking three local stores every other day, and rat pups are in short supply. I havent been able to get live ones, but dead ones arent too hard. Will switching him over be an issue? Whats the best way to do it, based on what ive told you so far?

[kurgan]

Please unplug that heater - it could seriously injure your snake!

I've never switched a BP to 'dead' (either prekilled - you kill them then feed immediately or frozen/thawed) as he was started on F/t for me. I think your best bet is to use the same type and size of prey you were feeding live. The prey needs to be thoroughly defrosted and then warmed to body temperature - some folks use a hair dryer but my simple method is to bung the frozen rat in a zip lock bag, put in a container full of hot water and leave for a few hours to defrost. Once thawed replace the cold water with hot again for 5 mins and you are all warmed up. Some snakes will just take a f/t rat that is dropped in but it is probably best to use a pair of tongs to dance/dangle the rat around the cage. From my experience BPs get turned on to hunting mode by the smell but the actual strike is triggered by movement and aimed at heat.

[Kagez28]

also i think i read you have him in a 40 gal tank, and you say he doesn't seem to mind? what does that mean? does you're snake talk to you... cause that would be pretty sweet.

but anyway the size of the tank might add to the problem feeding. i am sure you're read the caresheet, and know that balls like small tight spaces. so the large open area of a 40gal tank might stress him out a tad. i would knock it down to nice 15 qt sterilite tub, or if you MUST have a tank...a 10-20 gal tank might be alot better for him.

[icygirl]

Instead of doing a whole new setup, what you could do is put a divider in the cage about halfway through until the BP gets bigger. If I were doing that I might rig something up by cutting a piece of cardboard and securing it in there somehow. It's not entirely attractive, but it will make your snake feel more comfortable.

I used to work in a pet store and had countless scenarios where a customer's snake was feeding well on f/t mice, then its owner decides that he wants to see it eat live... (because they think it looks cool or something? I don't know, how cool is it when a mouse scratches and/or scars your beautiful snake? ) Then after that one feeding, the snake refuses to eat f/t again. It's possible that you may be stuck with live. Have you considered trying pinky or fuzzy mice? At least in my area, these are easier to come by than rat pups.

But if you still want to try and go back to f/t, you could try dipping the feeder in warmed chicken broth, or rubbing a live feeder on a dead one to try and get the scent on it.

As far as the bug goes, I know this is farfetched but... are you using some type of wood substrate, like bark chips, etc.? In which case... maybe it's a termite?