BP afraid of anything coming close to her head, feeding problems

[Mephys]

I got a 1 yo female pastel BP about 3 months ago. She was never handled and is very afraid of anything and always coils up in a ball. No problem with that. She was fed live so I attempted to switch her to F/T.

Well she is way too scared to eat F/T, and the only time she showed interest she missed and smashed her head on the side of the rubbermaid I feed them in, so now she is too scared for F/T.

I have been successfully feeding her live medium rats, but now today there is a new problem. She was about to strike and the rat came too close to her to smell her and that scared her away and she rolled into a ball. So now she is even scared of her food....

She is not going to be a pet so I try handling her to a minimum just for feeding and cleaning her bin, but if she's scared of her own shadow and her own meals, is there any way to help her being less scared of everything?

Should I handle her more? I just don't understand what the big deal is with her head.All the other snakes I've had that were scared never had a problem with the food itself, just human handling.

Thanks

[Elise.m]

Their head is the most sensitive part of their body. When they curl into a ball, the head will be in the middle of that ball to insure it's safe. I have snakes that will shy away from a rat if it comes up to their nose and sniffs it. If they don't strike 5 mins after that, I take the rat out. You could try to feed small rats that way she won't feel as intimidated. But if she has a good feeding response, her being scared won't last long. Mine never shy away for longer than a week.

[Oxylepy]

Personally I'd leave her alone for a couple weeks, not even feed her, just clean. After a while she'll get hungry and less shy. Then see if she'll take f/t, then offer a small rat.

[Mephys]

Yeah I know why they do it, I guess I didn't explain it right.

I did pull the rat out. It's just right now I have access to live food only every other week at my local reptile expo, so when she doesn't want to eat that means I have to wait another 2 weeks to try to feed her. I didn't want to powerfeed her necessarly, but now waiting 1 month between each feedings I think it's a little too much. I gave up on handling her and trying to feed her F/T because of her fear, but I wish she wouldn't be scared of her food.

I did pull the rat out after 15 min, she wouldn't do anything of it after he smelled her. The rat wasn't that big either for her body size, I think that smaller than that she would have a hard time getting a hold of it.

[Oxylepy]

Oh, and if you have hemostats you can grab the rat by the scruff of the neck when feeding. That way you control were it goes, stopping it from sniffing her or getting too close.

[Mephys]

Oh, and if you have hemostats you can grab the rat by the scruff of the neck when feeding. That way you control were it goes, stopping it from sniffing her or getting too close.

Didn't think of trying that with a live one. I will do that next time

I tried feeding her a live that was knocked out once but she didn't want to do anything with that either...

[Elise.m]

You could also try feeding her in her own tub, she'll feel more secure that way.

[angllady2]

Poor little lamb.

I have a ball just like that. He was a rescue, and I don't even WANT to know what the owners did to that poor snake, but he's scared of his own shadow. literally!

What I did to help him, as strange as it sounds, was to handle him MORE often, instead of less.

I got him out daily for 20-30 minutes at a time. At first, he'd just sit in a ball and not move a muscle. After a few days of that, he'd gradually poke his nose out to look at me, as long as I stayed perfectly still. A few more days, he was sticking his whole head out and looking around, and I was getting really good at playing statue.

Within 2 weeks, he was climbing and cruising around like any normal, happy ball. Right around then was when he started eating for me.

He's still VERY head shy, he doesn't want me to touch him closer than about 4" down from his head. But I still get him out 4 times a week for about 30 minutes at a time. As long as I move slowly and carefully around him he does okay. He just needed re-assurance I wasn't going to hurt him. And after the whole "leave him alone" thing didn't work, I decided to try something else.

Gale

[Mephys]

I just wanted to update about my female pastel.

I have been pretty busy the last few weeks so I haven't had the chance to take her out much. Well since there is only 1 reptile show in Julu in our area and she didn't eat when I got her a rat 2 weeks ago, that would have meant that she would have gone 6 weeks without a meal and I didn't really like that.

Last night I was taking out my normal female and I saw the pastel crawling around and peeking though her tub. She looked like she was interested in the movement so I figured she was getting hungry. I thawed a small/med rat tonight and tried something different. I removed the hide and the water bowl and tried to feed her in her tub. She tried once and missed, then goofed around for 10 min but without coiling in a ball, and then she finally got the rat. So I pick her up gently with the rat and put her in the feeding tub (there is aspen bedding in her tub) and she was done with it in 5 min!

We are on the right track here.

[stevepoppers]

Stop moving them to feed them! Just heat up the F/T and leave it in there overnight. Eventually, they'll get the message. Handle her more and she'll be less afraid.

Really, do NOT be afraid of them eating aspen! It's harmless!