Hunting?

[missi182]

This is my bp at the same time every night....He eats a fuzzy every 5 days and still does this. He weighs 78 grams, I checked him last night. Does it look like he is waiting for more food? I fed him two fuzzies in a row last time and he still went up his tree like this. I'm planning on bumping up his prey size but jeez he's always hungry!
(not that I want him to go on a fast or anything, which would suck so much more)

[ChrisBowsman]

Sure looks like he's still in hunting mode.

[missi182]

this is four days after his last meal....

[GirDance]

If it's only four days, and you feed every five it can be expected. It's one day off feed day.

It's not written in stone anywhere that you have to wait 5 days. If he's obviously hunting, and you can tell, try offering him a fuzzy at 4 days. Just don't let him gorge himself!

You can also make sure to keep track of both his weight, and the weight of his prey. After a few weeks you'll be able to gauge out how much works for him a week. But feeding him another fuzzy at four days isn't going to kill him.

[kc261]

If you mean fuzzy mice, that might not be enough food for him. It seems that most people that are using mice, start their BPs out on hoppers. Each fuzzy is 7 grams at most (according to rodentpro), or 14 between the 2 of them. Hoppers can go up to 12 grams. So 2 fuzzies is only slightly larger than the meal your BP might have gotten as a newborn hatchling.

How does the size of the prey compare to his girth?

[frankykeno]

Fuzzy mice really aren't that much of a meal if that's what you are feeding. (Note to members.....please be specific about whether it's mice or rats...we can't assume and there is a pretty big difference in prey size between these two types of prey items).

You could likely bump the snake up in prey size at this point if fuzzy mice are on the menu.

As far as going into hunting mode though the day before feeding, personally I like to see that going on in our collection. We feed all the snakes appropriately and usually the day before feeding day they are all starting to feel the need to feed. This for me indicates a snake engaged in it's own life, doing what it should be doing and having clued into it's captive feeding routines. I usually see a lot of lurking behaviours and then on feeding day and lot of snakes coiled and ready. Being a feeder of live prey I believe this helps to have a safer feeding experiences as the snakes are fully aware, fully in hunt mode when that live prey is introduced.

[missi182]

I bumped up his prey size to a hopper last night, and it was slightly bigger than his thickest girth. He got it down alright and instead of going back up his tree as pictured above, he went under his hide to digest I bought a digital scale so I can weigh the hoppers and my bp

[frankykeno]

Sounds like a perfect feeding experience. The snake handled the upgrade in prey size just fine and went off to find some privacy to digest it. Good job!

Remember now to leave your snake for 48 hours with no handling or fussing about. This is a time that the snake needs to be busy digesting without anyone bothering it unduly.

[missi182]

Oh yea for sure. He hasn't been handled for the last week or so because I just finished his injections for a mild case of mouth rot last week. I figured I would let him settle for a while because taking him out for the shots really stressed him. Im hoping he will forget that I was the one 'torturing' him (which is how it felt I hated those needles, but hes all cleared up now)

[Jenn]

Sounds like you're on track now. I made the same mistake with too small prey size and my snakes were hunting all the time just like yours was. Now I let my snakes tell me when they are ready to eat. About a month ago no one seemed interested on feeding night so I just skipped it. A few days later they were right back on schedule. I don't know why sometimes they want to eat before their regular feeding day and sometimes they want to wait a day or two longer but that's how I do it.