Quote Originally Posted by tttaylorrr View Post
*banging fists on table* NUMBER THREE! NUMBER THREE! NUMBER THREE!
following up on this post: IT'S SUCCESSFUL FEEDING NUMBER THREE!!! he seemed hungry and was half-way out of his hide when i presented the small mouse. after a beat he struck at it but missed and immediately recoiled into his hide; i think the miss spooked him. so i proceeded to reheat and re-offer the mouse like, close to 10 times, and every time he'd poke his snoot out and appear interested, but never pulled the trigger.

so i decided screw it and picked him up out of his enclosure. he was very flighty at first, but as i kept putting the mouse up to his snoot he started getting interested in it: first calming down and focusing, followed by tongue flicks and tracking the prey item as i moved it, then he started to press his snoot RIGHT against the mouse's nose, then BAM! a strike! i gently placed him down and, after ~20 minutes, he got the mouse down!

idk why he seems so disinterested in the mouse inside the enclosure...it's almost like he can't smell it, or doesn't realize what it is. once he's out of his enclosure he figures it out fairly quickly (2/3 successful feedings using this method). i've tried no lighting, heating up the mouse warmer than usual, and it hasn't seemed to work to get him to strike from his hide (except that one time, and he didn't even hesitate). then again he is still fairly young, so maybe he's still figuring it all out. has anyone else had a hatchling like this??

i also realized i've never weighed him! so after 2 days he's getting a weigh and a quick handling sesh. the reason i thought of this was because, as i was watching him eat, it seemed like it was a pretty big meal for him; it took him a while (well, longer than Coffee Bean) to get it all down. once i have a weight i'll know for sure.

going back to the day i brought him home (10/07) up until now (11/06), he's eaten 3 times out of 8 total offerings. when i was thinking about all the times he refused i was getting worried, but looking at the time period he's pretty much on the mark in terms of eating.

yaaaaaay, Pumpkin Pie!