Question about handling my new CB BP

[dfitzsim]

I bought a CB Ball Python Wednesday last week. He's about 16 - 17 inches long so I guess hes only maybe a month or so old. He's eating great (3 meals so far). The first two meals I fed him hopper sized mice and now as of yesterday he's eating fully grown mice.

I've handled him twice so far and he seems to be ok with it. He spends some time crawling arround my hands and then just hangs out.

Since he only comes out of his hide except at night is it ok to remove his hide and then pick him up. If I don't then I'll very rarely get to pick him up. I've done it once and he seemed a little startled kind of breathing heavy but then he calmed down quickly and I picked him up.

He has two hide boxes one on the cool side and one on the warm side. During the day he prefers the cool side hide box and at night the warm side hide box.

[dvs]

first off switch to rat pups as soon as you can.... that's great that he's eating but the sooner you switch the better... I think people should just start off with rat pups to begin with when it comes to BP's.

and for handling him.... it's ok to take him out of his hide as long as you give him a minute or 2 to adjust to being woken up and startled... I wouldn't do it everday though.... Think about it... how would you like to be disturbed everday in the middle of your days rest??? prolly not to much, right? so yeah it's ok... but try to have some consideration for what the animal wants to.

that's just IMO

[dfitzsim]

I wanted to feed him rat pups because I heard they were better for the snake but the pet store never seems to have any when I go to pick up food for him.

[dvs]

yeah, they are better.... I have a 2 month old BP and he's been on rat pups since his very first meal. You can order them frozen online for very cheap compared to the pet stores... rodentpro.com I think a bag a 20 was 12 bucks.

[dvs]

actually, Fuzzy rats are 50 for $21 and rat pups are 25 for $13.... it's a pretty good deal considering when I go to the pet shop it's almost 12 bucks for a small rat and a couple rat pups.... and they to run out pretty quickly.

[daver676]

dfitzsim,

How are you preparing and presenting the food to your bp. I only ask because I've had mine for almost 3 weeks and he hasn't eaten anything yet.

Dave

[dfitzsim]

At first I tried dangling them with hemostats but he wasn't interested so i left them in there and they were gone by morning.He wouldn't touch it during the day. The third feeding which was a full sized mouse was in the middle of the day. He came out of his hide in less than a minute and ate it.

You can try leaving it over night and see if that works. Also if your feeding frozen/thawed or a fresh killed mouse you can get maybe a hopper and throw it in live. The movement of the mouse might make him wanna eat it. Also I hear the bag trick works where you put the snake and the food in a bag in his cage over night.

Was your snake Captive Bred?

[dfitzsim]

DVS,
How much did they charge you for shipping? Also was it difficult to get your bp eating frozen/thawed and how are you thawing him out? Leaving him out for 12 hours or putting him in a ziplock and throwing him in warm water?

[daver676]

Yes, my snake was captive bred.

[tHeGiNo]

I take the feeder out about an hour or so prior to feeding and place it in a warm bag which I then put in warm water.