Could she still be hungry???

[sweetcastle]

Hello,

We are new to snakes and our daughter's BP, Lemondrop, has been acting like she's hunting every night. She just shed about 2 weeks and we fed her after she finished. She ate again this past Sunday night. Since her shed, she stays at her hide frozen like she's waiting to ambush the next thing that moves (I have a picture if I can figure out how to attach it). She never did this before she shed.
Is this normal? Is she still hungry?

Any guidance is helpful!

[Homebody]

This post will show you how to post pics: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-Post-Pictures. How old is Lemondrop? What does she weigh? How long have you had her? What are you feeding her? How often? The more we know, the better out advice will be.

[sweetcastle]

Sorry for the delayed reply - been a long day at work.
This is what she does *every* evening - she's doing it right now, actually. If we walk past her enclosure, her head raises but she doesn't move.

We got her last month at Repticon. Not sure her exact age, but I know she was born 2023. Unfortunately, I don't know her weight and not really keen to stick my hand in to pick her up right now. We feed her F/T rats - pups (?) 19.1-29 grams (was the 3rd size up). We were told she was eating 1 per week; we fed her twice before she shed over a 3 week period - she didn't want to eat right away after we brought her home. She had a good shed, only took about 2 days. After she shed, she ate next day then she started doing the wait-and-ambush thing. We fed her again 3 days later on this past Sunday, and has been like this all week. She hasn't been handled much over the last week because we were leaving her alone to digest.

Now I am at a loss. Do we need to get bigger rats? Are we doing something wrong? Should we get more plants in her enclosure? The space in front of her hide is free of plants so we can do the zombie-rat-walk thing when feeding.

[Homebody]

Are we doing something wrong?

Not as far as I can see. I think you are feeding her appropriately, so I wouldn't change anything. She's still new to you, so you're still getting to know her. Don't worry. She will change season to season, and as she ages. Be grateful that she's a good eater. A lot of BPs aren't.

Nice pic, by the way, of a beautiful girl. I hope you have many happy years together. I look forward to following her progress.

[Malum Argenteum]

She might have been...uh...'maintenance fed', and is still catching up on calories. I'd take it slow, and see how she is over the next months.

[sweetcastle]

She might have been...uh...'maintenance fed', and is still catching up on calories. I'd take it slow, and see how she is over the next months.

Don’t mean to sound dense but what is maintenance fed? We finally were able to weigh her and she is 147.5 grams, roughly 18” long, and her widest bit is about 1”.

[Bogertophis]

Don’t mean to sound dense but what is maintenance fed? We finally were able to weigh her and she is 147.5 grams, roughly 18” long, and her widest bit is about 1”.

What some euphemistically call "maintenance feeding" means that the animal was fed minimal amounts of food to minimize growth; it's what some breeders do so the offspring don't outgrow their caging or their "cuteness", since many buyers prefer to buy "baby" snakes, while their bites are just tiny nips, etc.