Hello! I'm a relatively new owner to a lovely female pastel. Had her for close to 3 months. She has a great appetite, always eating live or prekilled without any problems. She's currently about 9 months old, weighing around 500g.
I have been keeping her in a 2' x 1' tank with aspen bedding for the past 3 months and her temperament has always been very gentle and sweet.
However, last night I prepared a 3' x 1.5' exo terra tank (with the same temp and humidity) but instead of aspen, I used coco husk substrate. I took her out of her old tank and put her in a critter keeper container while I made the final touch ups of her new enclosure. Subsequently, I went out for dinner (shes still in the critter keeper). When I came home to try to move her to her new enclosure, I could see all the signs of her being defensive - head tucked away quickly, or head with some neck raised, or that obvious S shape of a neck ready to strike, together with a very very tense body (normally shes extremely soft). I finally got her into the enclosure but I know she isn't too happy with the change. She kept roaming the enclosure to find weak spots to exploit (but you know, there's nowhere she could escape from) and finally hid herself in the hide. Do note that the enclosure has alot of hiding places too.
TLDR: my question is, I want to feed her (cos the schedule is due), but how long should I wait before giving her the mouse? Should I look out for signs or body language that she has finally adapted to the new enclosure like how she did in her old tank? Is this a common issue for bp to suddenly become defensive like that?
Thanks for reading my long post! I'll try to upload pictures tonight as I don't have access to my pc right now
Sent from my C6833 using Tapatalk
Reply With Quote
