Quote Originally Posted by littleindiangirl View Post
That's good to hear! Just to touch on a few points, there is nothing harmful about coconut bark except in the chance that it is never changed, it can harbor bacteria. (Even though it is bacteria resistant to a degree).

Vets I'm sure recommened F/t over live because they have to. There should not be any problems feeding live when supervised correctly. Snakes have been doing it for years, I think they have it pretty well down pat.

As for the oil, I don't know how oil is supposed to treat a mite problem. If there was a problem, that may have been why she recommended paper towels, to better see any mites. A good treatment for killing mites is sticking them with some Provent a mite!

Your set up looks great, if you wanted to make is a little bit more closed in for the Bp, get some jungly background for three sides of your tank. I think it would look just top notch!
That's what she said about the coconut substrate. She was worried that it would harbor moisture and bacteria. But after the initial soak, it's very dry. I plan on changing it as often as needed so I might stick with it.

I supervise very closely when I feed live and, to me, it seems like the mice have no idea what's coming. So... I'm going to stick with it for a while longer as my main way to feed. I plan to offer F/T again at some point because I do have some on standby and I'd like to see if my snake would take either/or.

The vet actually said not to use Prevent-a-Mite... she mentioned some chemicals that BP's in particular may be sensitive to? I don't know. I'm pretty sure my snake doesn't have mites so I'll use the oil, and maybe stick in a few paper towels, but I think I'm good.

And I totally plan to buy a great jungle background once I find one that's aesthetically pleasing + cut to size! I'm picky...

Quote Originally Posted by Spaniard View Post
Sounds great and like you have everything taken care of. My only issue was that your vet made it seem like feeding in another enclosure was better than feeling in the home enclosure. This isn't true and snakes gain no benefit by being fed in a separate enclosure; when it comes to this is it is purely a preference we choose as a keeper. So whatever feels comfortable to you and whatever keeps your snaking feeding is a good rule to follow. You may find that you will have to switch to feeding inside the home enclosure if he ever becomes finicky and thats perfectly ok too. I always feed in my home enclosure without a problem and wouldn't want to risk having one of my snakes regurging during the move back, but that is just my preference. Keep up the good work and enjoy your little guy.
She used the "cage aggression" logic and said it's good that the BP associates its feeding bin specifically with one thing: food. I personally agree with you that both can work just as well.

Thanks for the comments, guys!