I dropped my baby's tub and I feel terrible now.. shes only taken one meal since

[Billy305]

I got 2 het pieds a few weeks ago. They were both started with like 4 meals in them. I brought them home and got them set up in a 6 quart tub each and I had them with about 2-3 inches of aspen each. I was taking them to my rack and one slipped of my hand and fell from about waist level. There were no hides or bowls in the tubs, just the snakes with some aspen bedding as padding. I felt absolutely awful and still do. We waited about 3 days and fed them. The one who didnt fall slammed the mouse within a few seconds but the other one took a while (she did eat it). Now her sister continues to slam these mice while she strikes at them as shes pissed off for the last 3 attempts. I dont know what I should do for her. Its been a few weeks and she still looks visually fine and I would have been 5x more worried if she hadnt eaten at all for me, but she did. Should I just leave her alone and maybe put her in a seperate room with a towel over the tub or something to make it darker all of the time?

Looking for some advice :/

[angllady2]

Poor little thing, she had a bad scare and I'd be pretty darn crabby too!

Most likely, she's just scared and defensive. These guys have a pretty good memory for trauma it seems to me. Chances are given enough time with no further accidents, she'll relax. Keep disturbance around her to a minimum. Move slowly around her, don't give her any more excuses to be uptight and I'll bet she comes around before long.

You say she's striking at the mice, but not constricting after ? I had a female go through the same thing, only mine was around 800 grams. I went back and forth with her for months. Then finally, quite by accident, I offered her prey about half the usual size, and she took it. She still prefers her meals on the small side, but she eats regularly.

Take your time with her, don't push her too hard. If you are offering food every 5 or 7 days, try backing off to 10 days.

Keep us updated, and we'll try and get you and her back on track.

Gale

[Billy305]

Thanks. She's in the living room rack which Is a home made one. However there is a lot of foot traffic from family/ dogs/ cats ect. Do you think it may be better to put her in my room on a table in her tub with a Uth? Maybe with a towel. This is the room where my bigger snakes are but it's quieter by fat

[Daybreaker]

I wouldn't put new additions in the same room as your established guys right away: quarantine is very important (there's a sticky that explains proper QT). I would put a towel over her tub and see how that goes. As for dropping the tub my boyfriend did that with his lesser we got last year, and he felt bad about it too but he (the snake) was fine: they're hardy little boogers!

[Billy305]

I wouldn't put new additions in the same room as your established guys right away: quarantine is very important (there's a sticky that explains proper QT). I would put a towel over her tub and see how that goes. As for dropping the tub my boyfriend did that with his lesser we got last year, and he felt bad about it too but he (the snake) was fine: they're hardy little boogers!

Did he have any problems eating since?

[Daybreaker]

Did he have any problems eating since?

Nope, he's always been a good eater. Though some are more sensitive than others: some of my snakes will eat no problem but others will refuse if I simply change their substrate earlier in the day prior to feeding.

[devildog_dk]

As big of ding bats they can be at times I guarantee they fall off worse things in the wild and most often have no ill effects.

I doubt the fall is the cause of the eating problem, BP's are pretty notorious for just deciding they don't want to eat for assorted lengths of time.

[Billy305]

Update: I blacked out her tub with some black Krylon plastic paint (says its non toxic to humans and animals when dry) and let her be in there for a day. I dropped in a mouse today and she took it within 2 minutes. I think the blacked out cage helped her calm down.

[Billy305]

She ate again today. I think the dark tub is helping