Please eat, baby!

[Coluber42]

Here's to hoping our new little guy will take his mouse. I warmed it up and waggled it around at the entrance of his hide, and he was definitely interested... poked his head out and thought about it, looked like he was about to strike, looked at me, thought some more, poked around, and pulled his head back in. I warmed it again, did the waggle dance again, he poked his neck out some more and thought about it some more, then decided maybe he wasn't so sure after all. So I left it at the entrance to his hide, turned out the lights, and left the room. I hope it disappears!
He seems like a fairly timid little guy, even for a BP; and this is the first time he's lived in anything other than a plastic shoe box with paper towels on the bottom, so it might just take him awhile. He's only been here a week, but he missed his last feeding because I brought him home on dinner day. If he doesn't take this one I'll try him with a live hopper in another five days or so.

I wish I could remember better the first few weeks and first few feedings with the BP I got when I was 14... but that was 20 years ago. I do remember that he was eating live hoppers when I first got him, and when he moved up to adult mice I would stun them first. When he moved to rats, he got those freshly stunned for awhile, until I realized I could save some trouble and a box by stunning them at the pet store and shoving them in my pocket (in a plastic bag!). But either way, they were still fresh and still warm. My mom used to say it would be really funny if I got mugged on the way home, and the mugger discovered that I was carrying a dead rat in my pocket where other people keep their wallet.

So... here's hoping little Hoosac eats his dinner!

[SmoothScales]

Good luck!

[LittleTreeGuy]

I'd say if he's hungry, he'll take it. If not, I'd try with the F/T again before offering him live. Just my $0.02

[piedlover79]

If you're getting good response, but no real strike try getting longer tongs and keeping your body as far to the side as possible to keep from him being able to see you. If he's in a tub opening it as little as possible. Don't turn the lights on to start with, offer the meal in as dark an environment as you can to help from being seen. Once a snake is coiled around prey he becomes vulnerable to attack, sometimes they want to eat and are hungry they are just too afraid of the risks to take the reward. Good luck!

[distaff]

Fingers crossed.

I've found that my kings won't eat if the mouse is wiggled.
I hold the tongs as still as possible, and barely breathe...

[Galaxygirl]

Good luck! Every BP is different! I've found they all have unique quirks especially when it comes to how they like their food

[SmoothScales]

I've found they all have unique quirks especially when it comes to how they like their food

True story! I've got one right now (Smiley) who won't eat anything big enough to do more than crawl. It's been pretty vexing because he's big enough to be moving up to weaned but won't take anything bigger than a small pup. Only a 10 gram difference, I realize that, but I keep waiting for him to wake up and realize that he's bigger than them!

[piedlover79]

I've got an adult male that very suddenly won't touch any sized rat...now he wants five mice instead. Probably because he figured out how much more expensive that it. Sigh.

[Coluber42]

My old BP would happily take anything I offered, as long as it was dangling by its tail. I mostly didn't even have to wiggle it around - mostly I never got the chance, LOL. But lying on the ground or running around was a no go. He was generally pretty confident and fearless actually, but the one thing that freaked him out was live mice running around. Makes me appreciate how easy going he was! He was younger when I first got him than the new guy is, but I'm not sure by how much. I never used tongs; I'm not sure if it was because it didn't occur to me or because I figured it didn't matter with a snake that couldn't do any real damage.

Not to mention my dear old departed corn, who didn't bother with any of that pretending-it's-alive business - he'd just waltz up to his f/t dinner and open wide. Ok, maybe not waltz per se.

New little guy just needs his time I think... but next time I think I'll try blocking the front of the tank so he can't see me sitting there looking at him. I didn't turn on any more lights than I needed to see by this time... maybe I can keep it a little darker next time, and block the view from the front of the tank (three sides are blocked already).

[pressiniron]

My girl used to take F/T after some wiggling but now only takes it if I leave it on the bottom of the tank. No amount of wiggling can entice her to strike. I'm perfectly fine with dropping it in and checking back in a few minutes. It's usually gone. She's up to just over 700g now.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk