Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, my baby ate well for a few weeks, and now he is refusing again (I think he may have to go to the bathroom, as he hasn't done so yet, so I'll probably try soaking him soon. He soaks himself frequently though, but maybe he needs some help anyway). Well, only for the past couple of tries, but still, it's frustrating . . . The only thing that has been different between the times he ate and the times he didn't is that the past couple times, the mice had blood on them. This caused the snake to strike at it but not constrict. He seems only scared of the mouse during this time, not of me; he allows me to handle him and doesn't seem disturbed by my presence in the least. Is it possible that he is afraid of the blood on the mice, since he is unused to it? It seems odd, but I'm having a hard time decoding his behavior; why he ate before and not now.

I thought snakes LIKED bloody mice . . . Just wondering if anyone else had observed this phenomenon.
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A. Fox

Since I can't see the snake, this is only a guess. He ate for the last couple of weeks and now has stopped eating, you might want to look at his underside and see if it's getting a little darker than normal. He could very easy be going into a shed soon and they sometimes don't eat at that time. Also bloods don't have bowel movements as often as some of the other pythons, so I wouldn't worry to much about that. I have seen baby bloods go for a month easy without going. Bloody mice or not, I don't think it really matters much to a blood. Best of luck and hope it all works out great for you. Sounds like you have a nice snake there.

Thanks,

He actually shed just a couple of weeks ago and ate right after, so I don't think he'd be going into shed again. I've never tried offering him rats, so I'm going to try that soon (plus he's getting a bit big for mice anyway). Maybe he'll like rats better.

The nice thing is that he's tamed down so much from when I first got him. I took some pictures of him yesterday when I offered him his mouse; I'll try and post them soon. He's a great looking snake; a yellow blood x borneo hybrid, something I haven't seen around much.

I'm not too worried about him; he seems perfectly healthy and seems to be adjusting pretty well. Just not pounding those mice quite as vehemently as I'd like him to

Thanks again for your reply,
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A. Fox

Fox,

You could be giving him too much food. Sometimes when they see food around all the time they dont think they necisarrily have to eat right then..the camera might have scared him too.
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior