Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently caught a Bull snake about 3.5',the snake has never once showed aggression towards me. Not a strike or bite since capture. I tried to feed it after having it for nearly a week now and theres no interest yet.All it wanted to do was hiss and strike at the small rat,not to bite it but more to just be pushing it away.Kinda like a head-butt if you will LOL! pretty funny to watch.Any suggestions on how to intro this guy on store bought food ?its a very healthy snake and looks to have shed recently with no signs of a recent feed.Its very alert and squirmy when held.Any tips from the pro`s on dealing with WC Bulls.
TIA

What I do is make sure they always have fresh water and try again in 3-4 days. Sounds to me like your snake is ok, otherwise. When they start eating make sure your wallet is handy...they can be big eaters.

Mike B

When trying to get a wild caught bull to eat many times we use live small fuzzy mice even for 6 - 7' animals. Something about the squeaking and movement many times will get them to feed. Once they have taken a few fuzzies, then we offer a fresh killed adult mouse on froceps. 8 out 10 times the trick works. Then once they start feeding well you can switch them to whatever.

Good Luck,

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

OK good info so far,I`ll try the fuzz route this weekend.
Now........ whats a reasonable time frame for a snake to chill out and be held without all the escape manuvers LOL!!
I hold her(?) acouple times per day for about 10 min each,she has a good set-up in a 45 tank with aspen sub and black plastic hide and good size water dish(she can coil inside and completely submerge)
Temps on steady 80*-85* humidity 60-70% since day one.

She did finally(but lightly)hiss at me after about 15 min of handling her LOL!! you could barely hear it.
I just cant get over how different this snake is from the ones we caught (and everything else that was wild in west Texas)as kids when growing up in this area.Usually 3-7'Bulls will nail your ashtray when ya mess with trying to capture or handle in any way.
This one hasnt so much as thought of it ???????

Awesome Critter she is )

I would cut back on the handling, especially if she is not eating yet. A few times a day at 10 min each isn't always the best thing for a new captive, especially one that is not feeding yet. But that is my opinion.
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Andy Maddox
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Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

If you steal in hunger, I will kick you when you try. These stand for me. Name your god and bleed the freak. I'd like to see. How you all would bleed for me.-Alice In Chains