Please Help, Me and My Baby Ball are Desperate

[Bogertophis]

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A question I would like to ask, as it was touched on above. Do you all lay cardboard or something over the substrate to minimize them eating the substrate? I'm so worried she might get some stuck in her mouth and I really don't want to take her out to eat anymore. I'd much rather her feel safe enough in her tank to eat....

Yes, for sure. It can be a box lid, a plastic plate, whatever...just not cloth or paper towels (their teeth can catch & pull it in along with food swallowed).

I now keep snakes other than BPs, & on safer substrate*, plus most of my snakes eat right from tongs...but when I kept BPs & for any that this concern applies to,
yes I do the same thing. (*what I use for my colubrids isn't recommended for BPs)

Zincubus touched on this (in above post)- BPs are ambush hunters, they feel safer lying in wait (peeking out from a hide) so that's what you want to look for
before you offer food. Feed in evening...and don't offer too often (more than once a week usually stresses them more, & into not eating)

Feeding live fuzzies (aka crawlers): one good way to do this for shy snakes is to leave it overnight (lights out) in a heavy tip-proof flat bottomed bowl,
and the snake will follow it's scent & hopefully pounce on it when it finally feels safe & unwatched. Bowls that work well are about 3" deep, so the prey
cannot escape, & the snake can easily reach in. Those heavy ceramic pet bowls work well for this.