Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Should I be handling it if its not taking food yet. If so how much? or maybe even not at all. Also, my cage is set up in a 40 gallon breeder tank right now with a hide box on the cooler side and a small kitty litter box on the right side which I use as a water dish. I also have a heating pad set on low underneath the cage on the water dish side. I am using newspaper for the ground. Should I only feed in the dark. I just wanna know more specifics. Kind of a step by step on what to do to try and get her to feed. If there is any way you can help I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you sooo much!

When I was being extremely picky on my setup I had hides in every temp gradient in the tank. I even had some hides with water available inside the hides. I would at least add another hide or two if I were you. Be carefull with the water over the heat pad. Not only can it get very warm...but you can get some serious bacteria buildup quickly if you are not keeping things sterile. I would not handle the snake much at all. If you can avoid handling this is best. You never know how long it will take for them to calm down after handling. Many times snakes will refuse food quite a long time after being handled. And yes, feed in the dark and leave the room the snake is in. Right now I have all my snakes in an area that is not trafficed at all unless I am working with the snakes. I am moving soon and my setup will be a little different but I plan on keeping the more shy feeders in a walk in closet. I do not plan on having any clothes or anything but snakes in it either. This makes it easy to make dark and easy to keep stress down for them. Good luck.

Eunectes4 made some very good points. Keep handling to a minimum until it starts feeding, and make feeding attempts at least weekly. Also, the best time to feed is in the dark, but it is much better to feed in the first hour after lights out. I have found that feeding them later in the dark period than this raises the chances of startling younger greens. This correlates well with field studies that have shown that greens in the wild have low activity levels late at night. A large percentage of their activity has been shown to be at dawn and dusk. Good luck.

Kelly