How long to feed?

[abuja]

After dropping a live mouse in your snake's habitat, how long does he take to eat it? My 6 month old, 21 inch ball python has a horrible feeding response; it takes him forever to realize it's a mouse and what to do with it! He is super picky, any advice for enticing him a little more?

[SugarFox03]

How often do you feed? Perhaps waiting an extra couple of days between feedings will make them eat quicker? For juvies, feeding every 5-7 days is what I normally do, and have no issues with feed response. But try going 10 days without feeding, and see if that helps?

[Bleepr]

Are you pre-scenting? Its a good idea to have the mouse in the room to get its scent out and let your bp know its feeding time, that should get it a stronger response, and eat quicker.

[abuja]

I try to feed every 5 days. I'll try leaving the mouse in its jar on top of his cage, would that work for prescenting?

[eMonk]

How big is your enclosure abuja? If it's too big then that could be the reason why.

[TraviZ]

If I may chime in, my bp was bought from petco and they feed their snakes every thursday, should I maintain the same schedule with my 2-3month old bp I got from them?

[the_Ryno]

Try pre-scenting like others recommended. If you are buying from a feeder store and they put the mouse in a box (typically a chinese box from my experience) in the snake cage. The smell of the mouse urine and poop is enough to get the snake moving around after a few minutes. Once you see it becoming really active drop in the mouse.

Or if you breed your own feeders. Take some of the old mouse bedding and putting it in the snake cage.

Hopefully this will work for you.

[abuja]

He lives in a 10 gallon terrarium with two hides, a water bowl, a vine, and a log. His feeding response is actually much better since the last time I fed when I let him get a good whiff of the mouse for several minutes. Thanks everyone for your help!

[Neal]

You can remove the vine, that's just taking up space. I don't recall ever seeing a BP climb a vine. Also offer a F/T, since live isn't working that great, also for the other guy that said something about theirs from petco, they use F/T. Make sure you have it warmer then everything else btw.

[abuja]

What is the ideal way to thaw an f/t mouse? I've heard of people using hair dryers, warm water, leaving it out for pre-scenting, etc...Actually, I've seen him sitting on the vine, which is attached by a suction cup. One day he'll climb up there and plop right down! It's only a 3 inch fall, though.