Feeding a Hatchling Tips?

[JAYGEE]

Ok so I bought a hatchling 2 weeks ago, and was just curious what kinds of tips yall have for feeding.

I offered the 1st fuzzy/hopper today. She struck at it multiple times but that's about it. Does it take a few tries to figure it out?

So I was just wondering what kind of tips yall have for a first time BP hatchling owner.

Sorry if this has been discussed multiple times, I search skills are not the best.

Thanks
JG

[lk_holla]

She may be a little wary of it still. Was she previous only f/t? When I first got my younger one, she struck defensively a few times; I gave her a little bit of a break and waited for her to go back into her hide, and she struck from the hide to eat.

Patience is key; it may take her a little bit for her to figure out whats going on.

it also depends on how your enclosure is, if she's not feeling secure, she may not want to eat.

[Homegrownscales]

First thing you need to Give him 1-2 weeks no attn, no food, just maintenance. After and only after 1 full week do you offer a meal. You baby snake is terrified right now. That behavior you saw is called defensive striking. That's a stress response. Secondly. Make sure your temps are right 92.f floor temp of hotside. 80.f floor temp of cool side. And humidity at 50%. 2 days is really quick to offer food. In no way is she even thinking about food. There's 2 ways to go about this. Truly let her destress, offer no earlier than a week, and keep optimal husbandry. Or completely the opposite and meddle like us humans do and wonder then what happens.
Hope this helps!

[lk_holla]

2 days is really quick to offer food. .

I think he said he did wait 2 weeks, unless he didn't do a proper wait time.

[Homegrownscales]

Agh I read that wrong. Well 2 weeks isn't a bad wait time. But the environment is usually the cause. That's sounds like a security issue.

[JAYGEE]

Agh I read that wrong. Well 2 weeks isn't a bad wait time. But the environment is usually the cause. That's sounds like a security issue.

Your right, It did look like defensive striking. I feed in separate container.. But after reading a few threads it will probably be better and less stressful on her to feed in her same tub.

[FrankieCarbone]

I gave her a little bit of a break and waited for her to go back into her hide, and she struck from the hide to eat.

exactly,

i just went thru this with my hatchiling last month, did not want to eat first 3 weeks, i got him to eat the first 2 times with ASF's fuzzie, but later figuered out that what i was doing wrong was offering him to big of a meal, because the first 2 offerings where small white mice from petland, which were still too big for him, because afterwards i offered white fuzzies and he takes them all day. but will not go for ones that are already, u know developed. You got to get them while they are in the stage that they have some fuzz and there eyes arent developed.... atleast thats what worked for me. And yeh the first 2 times he fed was a strike from his hide.

[kb1290]

Smaller prey items that don't move as much such as a mouse fuzzy or a rat pup are sometimes better to try with. Also, like Homegrownscales said make sure your setup is correct and she has proper time to adjust. Also, if you still want to feed it a separate container place her in it and allow her to adjust to the new surroundings (half an hour at least) before dropping in the mouse, but it would definitely be less stressful to feed her in cage.

[Homegrownscales]

For a young snake, separate enclosure feeding is just way stressful for 0 reason. Leave her in the enclosure and try feeding a small hopper mouse.