Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, after over 4 years of wanting one, I acquired a baby CB Red Blood. A sweetheart compared to what I was expecting (though he was right cranky for the first 24 hours or so). Up to date I have kept balls and boas, with more than a little monitor experience. The point to this being, all of my babies to date have been excellent feeders. Downright greedy to be truthfull (all of my animals have always been CB, so yes, even the ball is greedy). Ren, my baby blood, has been in my possession for 7 days now, and spends most of his time in his sphagnum hide. Which makes it hard to present feeder items without disturbing him. I have found disturbing a snake before its first couple of meals in your care to be bad juju. I presented a fresh killed small mouse the other day, which he patently ignored. I don't think thereis a major issue yet, but I want to prevent one. He is hands down the most amazing, deep, and alert snake I have ever kept and I want him to thrive. Any advice on getting him to take his first meal?

I just got my first blood a week ago and was worried about the same thing. Today I gave him two rat pups live. At first he didn't seem interested so I put all his hide boxes back in the enclosure and let him be. I came back about an hour later to find a fat baby blood and no rat pups. I am going to try frozen thawed next week . I just wanted him to eat something before I tried. I hope this helps,
Tom

First i dont usually try to feed new snakes for 2 to 3 weeks to let them settle in second i have one blood that wont eat unless its dark and you put it in his hide box and its has to be quiet for a couple hours.

It sounds like you're doing good by not disturbing your new snake and by providing a moss bowl,usually all my baby Bloods would hide under the substrate or in the moss bowl with just their nose sticking up,theyre generally ambush predators and lie in wait for the prey animal to cross thier path,rarely do I see any of my Bloods actively searching out thier prey so the pre-killed rodent could be an issue,not moving and just sitting there the snake probably smells it but it simply waiting for it to come close enough to snag,you might want to try a small rat pup,an immature one that crawls just enough to stimulate a feed response as well as place itself in the snake's range.
Most of my hatchlings feed enthusiastically on rat pups and progress to larger rats as they grow,once you get a few good meals down your snake then you can move to feeding pre-killed prey but it's not really necessary with immature prey items such as rat pups,pinkies,etc..though as you offer larger and mature items such as weaned or adult rats I would definitely recommend pre-killing all prey tat has the potential to inflict injury with teeth and claws.
Once you get your Blood eating you will find they generally feed enthusiastically,the things that keep Blood Pythons from eating are generally lack of a secure hiding place and frequent handling and it sounds like you're well aware of that so don't worry,your snake will eat soon enough

Heh, thanks folks. It is pretty rough getting rat crawlers around here, as the shops don't seem to gether that some animals PREFER one over another. I put a mouse crawler (stil nursing but almost off teat) in with him, pulled his moss hide as he wasn't in it for once, and am leaving him to his own devices. He usually wrecks the enclosure while I sleep, so I am hoping he will feed at that time as well. My pet shop is getting a rat pup in for me tommorow, so if this doesn't work I can fall back on that. I am just worried that I am doing something boneheaded, as Boas are hardly an evaluation of skill. Mine seem to eat no matter WHAT. Take care and thanks all.

i feed my baby bloods small adult mice i think a fuzzie or crawler are two small to really draw much interest but maybe its just me

heh, yea. he doesn't seem to be really regarding them as FOOD. I got a couple of rat pups coming in, so we are gonna give them a try. got my shop owner asking what he has been eating, he looks to have had a few meals under his belt.if the rat pups are no joy, then I will just give him another week for acclimation. he has good body weight, and drinks copiously, so, we'll see. thanks.