Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a sumatran red blood python about a month ago. I can not get him to eat. I was told he was eating live adult mice but he has no interest in the ones I've given him. I've also tried frozen adults, live and frozen fuzzies and live and frozen pinkies. He shows no interest in anything I give him. His temperature stays around 85 dropping to about 74 at night and his humidity is around 50%. Anyone have any tips on how to get him started? This is the first snake I've ever had this trouble with so I'm not really sure what to try next. Thanks for any advice you can offer me.

well maybe the humidity should be raised just a bit to 60-70% and you might want to leave the DEAD fuzzies or live since it is just a small mouse in with the blood for a while and see what happens. one thing might be if you watch the snake some only eat without it just depends on the snake and a good thing to consider before buying a snake is it actually have a preview of the snake eating. or another thing you could do is ask the people you bought the snake from and ask how they personally did it that could have an affect as well. best of luck to you and hopefully the snake will be ok

Do NOT drop the temperatures that low at night. For hatchlings keep the temperatures in the low to mid 80s all the time. Given proper temps and a secure place to hide, it should start feeding with no problems.
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-chris-

You might try feeding live at night, if you haven't already. I have a picky ball python that will sometimes strike right away if I drop in a live rat just before turning the lights on in the early morning. Maybe your blood could be a nocturnal feeder?

Good luck!

I second this. Whem my sumatran short tail was a baby, he would only eat with all the lights out, and if there was nobody watching him. Best of luck!
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0.1 Normal Cornsnake
1.0 Sumatran Short Tail Python
2.3 Ball Pythons (2 normals, 2 pastel and 1 ?)

What size is your enclosure?
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Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

Land of the Outcasts!

The question above is exactly what I was going to ask. My blood when I first got it would not eat. I had her in a 20 gallon. I then started to read the care sheet that NERD sent with the snake. It became clear. I moved the snake into a rubbermaid container, I still kept that in the cage (just in the rubbermaid) and the temps (I beleive) was 84 degrees the whole time. I can double check if needed. She started eating in a day. I also had a little water bowl in there but the need to feel secure. Oh ya, I warmed the food up in a plastic bag in a warm bucket of water and then just left it in there. No need for live.
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0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
1.0 Amel Retic
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda
1.0 Emerald Tree Boa