Hi all - 8 days ago I brought home a 3 month old albino female, weighing 106 grams. She looks healthy and had been fed live at the breeder's facility. She is in 3x2 ft boaphiles cage that's a foot high. Temp gradient is about 80 to 92 with hides on both sides. She's on cypress with 50-60% humidity.
The first two days, there was some light handling, but mostly left her alone. She was exploring the cage fairly actively at night. On day 3, I tried to give her a frozen thawed hopper in a separate feeding tank... no go. I always feed my corn in a feeding tank, but it seemed to make my ball edgy. So on day 5 I tried again but just "zombie danced" the mouse with forceps outside her hide, in her regular enclosure. Left the mouse for two hours, no dice. Since then she has been less active, hiding constantly, and not exploring at all. When I lift the hide she seems to breathe faster, like she's scared.
I don't know if she's going into a shed cycle - no visible fading yet - or if she's freaked out by the previous feeding efforts. Breeder doesn't know date of past shed.
I've searched and googled but thought I'd ask for some advice. Should I wait a week and then offer a supervised live small mouse? I'd prefer frozen, I'm too squeamish for live, but am willing to do that while she settles in. What about her lack of exploration the past five days, seems pre-shed behavior but she looks normal? Or maybe it's harder to tell with an albino.
Thanks all. Just wondering if I should worry or try something new...
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