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We got ourselves a Vietnamese blue beauty at the beginning of the month at the all-Ohio snake and reptile show in Cleveland. We were told a mouse a week would do the trick, and she enthusiastically ate a small mouse a week her first couple weeks here (she's 6 month old). Put a mouse in with her yesterday, and she's beginning to molt -- today her eyes are completely clouded over.

No problem. Just that she last ate last Wednesday, and it stinks that she would start to molt a week after last eating. She'll be all right, right? I mean, ideally she'd eat, a couple days later molt, and then resume her regular eating schedule.

It's our first snake, so I just want to make sure she can go 10 days to 2 weeks, however long it takes to shed, without eating with no problem. Thanks.

She'll be just fine, Matt. It's common for snakes to go off feed while "blue". The prolonged mouselessness won't be a hardship on her. Worst case scenario, you'll find a notebook of bad poetry tucked away in her hide.

Yeah she'll be fine. She could probably go for a month or more without eating and without any problems. But her shed should end in a couple of days. Good luck!
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-Doug Daly

0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake

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Edited on March 27, 2005 at 10:04:42 by phwyvern.

As stated...You have nothing to worry about. Our snakes won't, for some odd reason, adhere to the "ideal" schedules that we dream up for them. They are, for the most part however, VERY hardy creatures. Good luck with your new snake.

Some of my snakes eat when in shed (at least SOME of the time!). They are not always offered food when "blue" ... But often when I thaw out the amount of rodents that seems about right for my group of 13, and one that I thought would eat does not....I offer food to one that I thought would not. I have several that will usually eat when in shed IF given the chance, and a few that almost never will.

Duffy