Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got my blood python last monday. I keep it in a sterilite container with holes on the top and sides. Im using a heat lamp with red bulbs to keep temps up. i have a thermometer with prop inside plus an additional thermometer to measure the heat where the lamp is. the one thermo. has a humidity gage (digital) and i have another non digital pet hum. gage in there to varify. my hums are between60-70% my temps are between 85-93 on the hot and 78-84 on the cool. night temps drop a couple of degress. I have 2 hides, one on hot and cold sides filled with cypress mulch. i use paper towel for substrate and i have a water dish big enough for him to saok. He ate the day after i got him and didnt regure. he is CB and about 6 months old at about 18-22". He at a little rat pup (all i could get at the petstore they were all cleaned out). he has been hiding in his hide most of the time and ive been leaving him alone. the past few days though ive been getting him out for a few minutes to get him used to me. He is docile. no striking or anything, just slight heavy breathing and he will just lay there. i tried offering him a mouse yesterday. they guy said he was eating f/t and live with no trouble at all. i couldnt get him to eat. would this be mostly because he is still getting settled in? i read that they are very shy at first. im not new to snakes, just bloods (and pythons in general) Let me know what you think. Ill try to post a pic soon as i can get some.

I've found that with bloods it really helps to heat their food before offering it. If I drop a thawed rat in the cage or offer it on tongs, usually they will check it out but not eat it. Once I heat it up they'll strike. An easy way to add heat is to dip the head in a hot cup of water. The fact that the rat is still a little wet after being toweled off doesn't seem to bother them.

stick with the rat pups...many bloods will take rats far more easily than mice, my female wont touch mice

You're in the same boat right now that I was in last Thanksgiving: baby blood that's just getting adjusted.

I'd continue to be very careful about giving the snake plenty of time to adjust to its new digs. My snake took several weeks to start feeding normally on F/T rats, and she's still pretty finicky but putting on weight just fine and shedding monthly. If yours has already eaten once--even something small--then you're already doing pretty well. It'll come around just as soon as it feels secure and the stress level goes down.

Stick with rats for food if you can. That way, once your snake likes them, you'll have a food source that will work for most, if not all, of your snake's life. Definitely warm it up if you go F/T. Mine is eating weanling rats, one about every 7 to 10 days, depending on how close she is to a shed. Try feeding at night when the house is quiet and the lights are low or off. That will also make your snake feel secure about eating.

Sounds like you've given a lot of thought to your set-up, which sounds really good. I tend to keep the humidity a little higher than is probably necessary, but you'll read a variety of opinions about that in these posts. I figure these snakes are from SE Asia where humidity is high, year-round.

Good luck with your blood. I've got a ball that's been off feed since the end of January, and right now, bloods are looking better and better to me all the time!

Yes I have put a lot of thought into it and research. but i always stress out alot til the animal adjusts. I like to try and make everything as good as possible. Its hard to not handle him because he is such a nice and docile snake. I think the guy said he is about 6 months old. He also said he was feeding them f/t and live and they at like monsters and that he fed them during the day with no problem. I went yesterday and got a repti temp 500 thermostat to help holm in on the right temps and after doing to adjusted the positioning of the lamp to get it even better. I have also taped paper around his cage to give him a little extra privacy. He is an awsome animal and i feel in love with the blood the day i went to my first reptile show and saw one. i want to do my best with this little guy. i did a lot of research when i got him and ive continued to do more and read every forum i could find. so far i hit reptile rooms, bloodpython.com and this one. if anyone else knows any other rooms let me know. I want to learn as much as possible. I hope he acclimates soon before i stress out to much. I hope to post some pics soon. I have some but have been to lazy to put them on my computer. any help or advice would be great. thanks

On another note, some of my bloods just arent that interested in feeding that often, I have a young male Samutran that is parisite free and kept in the proper humidity and temps, that dosent really want to eat all that often. Now my females on the other hand, they're rats dont have a chance. The only good thing about a snake that isnt an aggresive feeder is it will usally be a batter handling snake as an adult
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Ricky

If you really want a list of what I keep just ask.

true. but as said before, the breeder said my snake and the rest were eating like champs, but they did skip a meal occasionally. i mean im not too worried, i think he is just still settling in. now next week if he doesnt eat then ill start to worry a little. could it be possible he is in shed mode? I mean he looks shiney to me and also i havent seen milky eye caps or anything, but ive heard people say thier snakes slow down the eating when its about shed time.

The appetite of my snake shuts down completely around shed time. She's going through it right now, and she's about 4 days late for the usual feeding. On my snake, the milky color is easiest to first see at her tail, which is black. The eyes are the last part to go foggy. As soon as the shed is over, she bounces back and eats, usually the same day as the skin comes off.

Good luck with your snake!