getting the hang of this

[psiam]

I am so grateful for this community. Thanks to numerous posts, I was able to figure out how to adjust the humidity to proper levels in Haku's enclosure (larger holes in the top), have finally found his ideal temp for the heated part of the enclosure, have gotten this shy boy used to being handled fairly regularly . . . but best of all, he's eaten TWICE.

After failing utterly with small rats on two occasions, we decided to tempt him with a juvie mouse. We left them alone (yeah, yeah, I know - you're supposed to watch to make sure the snake doesn't get bitten) for about 15 minutes. When we came back to check, the mouse was gone and the snake had a little bulge in his belly.

Four days after he ate the mouse, he started coming out of his hide earlier in the evening. He was coiled up on top of one of his hides and was probing around a lot. After he'd done this for two days, yesterday we got him a small rat. We put the box containing the rat on top of the enclosure so Haku could smell his prey and left it there for a couple of hours.

When Haku was completely out of his hide and was coiled up, we used tongs (again, thank you forum!) and dropped in the rat. We watched this time in case the rat got aggressive. It ran about, drank some water, sniffed Haku's face . . . and then Haku struck. Then struck again. Then at the speed of light, he was coiled around the rat.

We noticed that the snake will not eat if we're watching. I'm assuming that that's some sort of self-preservation instinct since he must be vulnerable while ingesting. Thoughts? At any rate, we turned off the light and left the room after making sure that the rat was dead. When we checked again 20 minutes later, the rat was gone and Haku was curled up in his heated hide.

We've had him just about 1 month now. I think that two successful feedings, one lovely shed, and getting the enclosure's heat and humidity levels right means that we may be getting the hang of this.

THANK YOU for all the help!