Quote Originally Posted by Emily Hubbard View Post
Yeah, she startled me more than I startled her I think! She is not a big striker, so I was NOT expecting it when I just went to say hello after our brief absence. She was not in the mood for introductions, apparently.

She ate right away and is now sleeping it off.

I feel really bad that I was away for 5 days and so I have no idea how long she was in that crazy predator hunting mode. This is only my second feeding with her, so I haven't seen a pattern yet. I planned on offering her food weekly. The first time, she took it, and then like I said, on Monday I offered and she was completely disinterested, she just looked at it and crawled the other direction. So normally, her next feeding would be tomorrow, but today when I got home, she was just being a crazy predator. Do any of you have growing snakes that do better eating say, every 10-11 days as opposed to 7? I guess it is about learning when the individual snake wants food.....7 days is apparently too short for mine, but 13 is too long. I am so not leaving her again for longer than a weekend until I figure it out more....
It's actually better to leave her for a few extra days than to feed and leave. She could have complications like regurgitation while you are gone and die (worst case and rare, of course, but why take the chance?). As long as she's healthy, skipping an occasional meal won't do any harm. I feed mine every 5-7 days, depending on the snake, but there are some that I don't expect to eat that often just because they are inconsistent.