I acquired a yearling red blood python about a month ago. She has thus far refused to take any food. I know that it can take a while for these guys to settle in, but I'm starting to get a little anxious. When I bought her, I was told that she was taking both frozen thawed adult mice and small rats. I usually offer her food at night using tongs and then leave the food in over night. I have her in a 20 gallon tank with belly heat. I have the walls of the tank covered with newspaper to reduce stress and I am using cypress as a substrate. The cage also has a large waterbowl and both warm and cool hides. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get her to feed, they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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feeding trouble
pinkerton
Nov 06, 2003 04:29 PM
Replies (1)
bloodpythons
Nov 06, 2003 05:20 PM
Does the snake appear to be losing weight or in poor health at all? If not, don't worry yourself to death...just try some different approaches on the feeding angle - i.e. perhaps offer live to see if you can get her to turn back on.
Another idea would be to move her into a short rubbermaid container - i.e. the 2221 sweaterbox size - that offers a more secure "feel" than the height of a 20-gallon tank. Even with the hide boxes and newspaper, your blood may be overwhelmed by the "open" feeling of this style of enclosure. You can transfer the basic cage setup that you have now over to a Rubbermaid w/o any problems.
Also, what are you using to heat the enclosure, what is the basking temperature, and how much of a thermal gradient are you providing, both temperature-wise and in terms of the enclosure size? Does the hot spot take up half the enclosure? A third? More info on this may be beneficial to figuring out why she's not feeding. While juvenile bloods are prone to "turning off" due to temps being too warm, it can happen with yearlings too. Additionally, what is the ambient (background) temp in the enclosure?
Hopefully this will be easily fixed & she'll be back to feeding in no time...but also keep in mind that a month without food isn't a critical thing for a healthy, well-established yearling blood with good body weight.
K
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