First time Carpet owner, just have a few questions!

[DingoJungleJag]

Well, considering the breeder told two other customers that he had bred his "special" green iguanas to not get bigger than a beardie i dont know that taking any advice from him is a good idea. but he was feeding them pinky mice. and had them setup in shoeboxs with no perch and a single hide.
i dont really want to set him up like that.



He did shed for the first time last night. (first time since ive had him)

I have not attempted to feed him since i put him in the 10 gallon. its been 3 days now. the first 2 days he did not move from the middle all coiled up. yesterday he started moving toward the hot side. and then i guess overnight he went to the cold side and shed. havent looked in there yet to see where he is.

[DennisM]

Likely it wasn't feeding due to shed. Mice pinks are too small. I start carpets on rat pinks. I would try that a few more times before offering mice. However, it's not uncommon for young carpets to refuse rats. So, if rats are refused a couple more times, try mice hoppers.

sounds like the snake has a good case of the wobbles which will make feeding possibly more challenging. I have several jags, but only one with more than minimum wobble. When he was young it would often take numerous attempts before the snake would successfully feed. He would have trouble hitting the prey and even when he did, he was frequently unable to find it after uncoiling. He's gotten better at it with age even though the wobble has worsened (not saying that will be the case with your snake)

I would also advise not doing business with folks who breed special dwarf iguanas and talk of euthanizing snakes they can't sell.

[DingoJungleJag]

So i have had Dingo, my jungle carpet Python, for 11 days now and it was his feeding day the day that i got him, i tried to feed him yesterday when i went to feed my ball python and he will still not eat. I did try to feed him a fuzzy mouse this time as well, and left it overnight to see if he would take it, he has not come out of his cold side hide.

He is in a 10gallon enclosure now and I have been keeping his temps at 88-90 degrees on the hot side and 77-80 on the cold side (the lower temps are at night here as it get pretty cold)

Not sure what to do, at this point would it be wiser just to do an assisted feeding or should i just take him to my local vet? (i am hesitant to take him to the vet as i dont want to stress him out more)

[EL-Ziggy]

I definitely wouldn't assist feed nor do I think a vet visit is necessary just yet. Sometimes they just take a while to settle in. I'd give him another 5-7 days and try him again. If he refuses that meal I'd try a live mouse hopper.

[DingoJungleJag]

really a hopper? the fuzzy mouse seemed excessively large, he is still a neonate. hes only about 10 weeks old if that.
The Fuzzy was about 1.5-1.75x as thick as him.

[Sauzo]

Do you got a picture of him with something to use a reference? Is he about as thick as a pencil or pen at the fattest part? Don't look at their face or neck as that will be deceptive. You want to look at their midsection. If he's as thick as a pencil or pen, he should be able to handle a small hopper mouse. Just ask the place where you buy food at if they can grab you a small hopper or if you go back with them as I usually do, just pick out the sizes you want. And i'm assuming its F/T? F/T look bigger as they usually are flattened or kind of misshaped lol. Once they thaw out, they get more round and look a little smaller. For example, my dumerils boa was eating hopper mice when she was 2 months old and about 18" with no problem.

Oh one other thing, some places name their stuff different for sizing and actually have different sizes of the same thing. A hopper is a mouse that is just weaned and starting to eat on their own FYI. I've ran into small rats that looked like medium rats and small rats that looked like weaned rats. Both were labeled "small" but they had a huge size difference.

[Sauzo]

really a hopper? the fuzzy mouse seemed excessively large, he is still a neonate. hes only about 10 weeks old if that.
The Fuzzy was about 1.5-1.75x as thick as him.

Sounds to me like the stores hopper mice are actually small adults. A hopper mouse should about 1/2" or slightly thicker and about 2" long. They look like a mini version of a mouse lol.

[EL-Ziggy]

You'd be surprised by the size of prey carpets can take down. I know I was and I'm pretty cautious about these things. My JCP was 31g at 8 weeks and he would eat a 9g rat fuzzy. I bought a bunch of mice fuzzys at first but those were like tic-tacs to him. After 2-3 feedings of multiple mice fuzzys I offered him a rat fuzzy and he smashed it with no issues. My coastal was barely 100g when I got him as a yearling in Sept. 2015. I started out feeding him rat fuzzys for his first two feedings. The breeder told he he could undoubtedly handle a jumbo mouse. I thought NO WAY but I tried it and he took it down with ease. I would never suggest overfeeding any animal. I'm just saying don't underestimate these guys.

[DingoJungleJag]

Okay, well i will try again next tuesday with a live hopper, i really hope he takes it. Im starting to get worried about the little guy

[EL-Ziggy]

The mice fuzzys aren't really that big. According to the Big Cheese website they're 7-12g. Here's a good reference for prey sizes.