As a first time BP owner, I am encountering a number of opinions from people who all think they know best since their friend has a BP... I am looking for some clarification on these statements, from seasoned keepers... I have done a fair amount of research on my own as well, and I am pretty sure I know the answers, but I would love to hear opinions from seasoned keepers :o)

* "don't keep the snakes food items near it at all"
* "don't feed the snake until after it defecates from the last meal"
* "only feed it one mouse every 3 or 4 weeks"
* "don't give the snake a bigger enclosure because it will grow too fast"

I have only had this snake for almost 3 weeks now. The first day (a Saturday) I had "her," she ate an adult mouse with no hesitation. The following Saturday, she readily ate another adult mouse with no hesitation again. Last Saturday, I bought a 3 week old rat for her when I was on my way home in the morning. When I took her out of the "cage" I noticed her eyes had gone cloudy, but I offered the rat anyway. She wasn't interested in eating, so I put the rat in a hamster cage, and put her back in her cage. The rat has been biding it's time in the hamster cage (with some feed and water) that I kept on top of the snake cage.

When I took the snake out of her cage tonight, I noticed that her eyes were starting to clear up and she was very interested in the cage containing the rat. I removed all the decor from her cage, put the rat in her cage and then put her back in... She immediately struck and ate the rat, and I then replaced everything in her cage without disturbing her too much.

Since she is in an Exo-terra terrarium, I have an absorbant pad on the floor of the terrarium with an 8" crock for water, a moist hide, another hide over the UTH and a branch mounted on a piece of slate tile. The humidity sits around 65% and heat on the cool side is about 80C, hot side is approximately 90C, give or take... She seems to be content, spending equal time in both hides, but a little more time in the moist hide right now, I am assuming because of the impending shed.

Thanks in advance!
Michelle