Sometimes I wonder about my spider..

[pretends2bnormal]

I haven't posted here before, so I'll do a bit of intro. Slight disclaimer, not really any questions here I need answered, just wanted to vent a little frustration to a (probably) sympathetic audience and introduce my snakes a little.

So, I'm fairly new to snakes, my first snake was a Abbott's Okeetee corn snake (lovingly named Mr. Danger Noodle, or Noodle). All went great for a while with him and decided I was up to getting a ball python (which had been a toss up to get one as my first instead, wound up trying the easier corn snake for several months first). I'd seen a lot of posts about problem feeder or picky babies and in an attempt to avoid it, I went with an adult with the main criteria being eating fine and friendly. I only ended up with one of my goals... Dx

Away to the local expo I went, and got to talking to one of the breeders. He said he had just the snake for someone looking for a friendly pet and pulled out my boy Obi. He had been a breeder for him before, he even showed me one of his babies on the table, a bee combo of some sort, and is probably 2-3+ years old now, though I really don't know. He was in blue at the show and despite that didn't do any hiding or major startling being held while blind. Pretty much immediately started moving around my arm and exploring. When I asked about eating, the guy said he eats mostly live, but only because he breeds rats and it's easier that way. He assured me that he had taken frozen/thaw rats before and would have no problem taking them. So, I took him (after a bit more browsing and trying to decide).

I'll admit to making a few newbie mistakes in this, most especially being that I have no contact info/name for the breeder. (I had mistakenly assumed his name/email or even a company name was on the sales receipt, and by the time I realized it wasn't I could not remember the name from the sign.)

Obi is an adult spider male. Weighed about 1,350g when I brought him home and in good body shape from the guidelines I saw here. I had set up a diy rack with tubs/heat tape and had all the husbandry in the right ranges using all the equipment suggested to newbies on here (digital thermometers, herpstat, etc.) I left him be for a week (and for him to finish shedding, which ended up in 2 big pieces when he ripped it I'm half on an edge of a hide), and tried to feed him. My next mistake was probably here in starting with F/T, but he did show interest in it and seemed to recognize it as food, but didn't take it. Tried to re-warm it several times (dip in hot water then pat dry), but never quite got a strike. Left it near the hide overnight to no avail.
This was around end of October.

I tried the F/T the following week and failed. In part because I didn't have any idea where to get live near me and partly thinking he was just adjusting and would take it next. His first successful feed was the next week when I brought home live, but in a wonderful stroke of irony the store only had live mice in stock that day. I went ahead and got 2, figuring worst case I trade them back for the rat; was a bit worried since the breeder didn't feed due to his shed and it was now over a month since he ate (bit of a newbie concern, but I also really wanted to get him eating for me). Shocker, he ate them! Though it took him nearly 2 hours to find them 1 at a time in a 28qt tub and strike... He kept getting close and just failing to see it there or delaying his strike until the mouse had fled... following the mice his next successful feeds were live small rats (~60-70g)

This pattern has pretty much continued with typical adult male BP flair where he proceeded to refuse rats, mice, and frozen for 2 months... had a pet rat there for a while. And the last few times I tried rats, he has refused to even strike and acts scared, when I know nothing has ever happened except one booping him nose to nose instead of fleeing and startled him [this was the first rat he ate out of 3...] so now I'm back to trying mice, which at least don't seem to "scare" him into giving up after 10 minutes. (He has never once taken less than half an hour to get a successful strike/wrap, so I leave the feeder in and watch until at least that long rather than the 10 minutes I've seen suggested. If I pulled it that soon he would still be narrowing down where it was to even try a strike. Sometimes I leave it longer if he has struck and missed and is still looking for it for another go)

He hardly ever shakes while moving unless he's close to striking and holding off the ground, so I had thought he had maybe a moderate wobble. I suspect his just manifests with very strong directional disorientation instead.. He frequently climbs walls/glass straight up and goes along the ceiling upside down until he's over half off the ground, or keeps his head entirely upside down when climbing on your arm and exploring.





In the middle of his fasting at the start of January, I got my AP T8 and moved him in, hoping the RHP kept more consistent ambient temps (our heat is always cooler at night and I wanted to eliminate that as an issue in his feeding) and I liked the aesthetic. It honestly seems too big for him to try and hunt in and I've been splitting the size in half by inserting the door to feed him on only 1 side. Helps a little (shaving 20 mins off of a 2 hour hunting endeavor), but not much. I tried to add a video and tapatalk complained on the file size, so it's just pics for now.

At this point, I'm a bit resigned to having a semi-struggling feeder that will only take live and possibly only mice... my current plan is to get several consecutive weeks of eating the mice (& fully end his winter fast) before trying to force the issue back to rats. His feeding response is so low compared to others posted here in terms of speed of getting off a strike for a live rat/mouse that I'm doubtful that I will get him to take frozen any time soon, or possibly ever. From his lack of real interest in frozen, I kind of doubt he has ever eaten frozen on his own. I think I'd be happy if I could even get him to just take 2 frozen jumbo mice... comically, he was super interested last week when I was feeding large pinkies to my corn, so I held one out for him figuring he'd ignore it, and actually got a halfhearted strike! But didn't go again and wouldn't look twice at a frozen adult mouse I had thawed for Vega.

(One notable occasion I tried frozen after acquiring a hair dryer, I zombied it in front of the hide and he proceedeed to come to the entrance, look right at it and sniff, then turned and came further out around it and kept looking. Like "yes, a thing in front of my face, but I smell a rat somewhere in here and it's definitely not that thing on the tongs" -> slithers out of hide to start searching)

Since I know y'all like pictures, I've included several of Obi and his antics as well as my other 2 snakes. (My 3rd is ironicly a baby banana BP [Lord Vega] who has only refused 1 meal in 2 months when I didn't realize he was in blue and has taken F/T mice with 0 problem from day 1)

Note - Noodle the corn snake is a very enthusiastic feeder and has never missed a meal or a strike... He attempts to emulate a scared BP by turning into a ball for 10 minutes before he actually eats, though.



Also, sorry for the super loong post!! Hoping the pics make up for it!!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk