Hard time switching to frozen, strange day time behavior

[Craiga 01453]

I'm happy to see you're open to learning and receptive to advice. Since you're concerned with your parents being unhappy about a mouse in the house I'm guessing you're young? So good on you for taking the constructive criticism maturely. We've seen MANY adults get all hurt and act like children if they were given any advice that wasn't sugar coated.

As for your original questions, the activity in the enclosure is due to stress. The animal is STRESSED to the max. Granted people and snakes are entirely different, try to put yourself into a similar human related situation. You'd be stressed, anxious, nervous, etc...
Also, snake brains are very simple and at this point all that snake is thinking is "don't get eaten". And since it hasn't had a chance to feel safe and secure yet, it is SCARED.
So, the behavior is directly due to stress and fear, things YOU can fix easily.

Don't get overwhelmed, we were ALL new once. Learn from mistakes and grow. We've ALL made mistakes with our animals and in life. It's how we learn and grow that matters...

Onto the mouse concern... first off hoppers are too small. BPs eat hoppers for the first 3-5 meals out of the egg and quickly are ready for bigger prey.

That being said, if the snake doesn't eat you have a few options:
1) keep the mouse in a tote, tank, etc... that it can't chew out of. Feed it, make sure it has water and offer again in a week.
2) throw it outside for a neighborhood cat, snake, etc...
3) ask the store if they'll take it back
4) humanely euthanize the mouse and freeze it for later


As for the part about you being frustrated that not all your questions were answered, sorry bout that.
Sometimes it's hard to remember everything from the thread, sometimes we forget.
There are lots of threads, lots of members, lots of questions.
We are all here willingly sharing our experience and knowledge, giving our time and doing it simply because we want to help people enjoy the hobby we love.

Anyway, I hope I helped you out. Feel free to ask any questions you may have. Keep learning from the right people and applying what you learn. You'll be a great snake keeper in no time!!