Unusual Behavior..

[CARLiTO_]

My bp is 4 months old and did not eat for about a month. Last Wed, I put in a hollow log (cork wood) in the tank and she has been inside the log ever since then. I know her shed has started. The next day after i put the log in, I put it a small mouse it walked into the log and never returned. I was happy that she finally ate. About her being in the log for the past 4 days, is this normal?

[mykee]

Only 4 days?? sounds normal to me...if you give your ball a hide, don't expect to ever see them. Also, unless you're watching her 24 hrs. a day, you don't know she's in there all the time. My guess is while you slumber she roams.

[marisa]

totally agree, it's what they do.

Marisa

[sapphire_moon]

you let a mouse just walk into a snakes hide? That mouse could have seriously hurt your snake, and you would have had a hard time getting a mouse attached to a snake out of a hollow log.

If you haven't looked in and can see the snake, maybe they killed each other. It is a possiblity.

[CARLiTO_]

the snake is alive and moving, are they less active when they are going to shed?

[nita]

Originally posted by sapphire_moon
If you haven't looked in and can see the snake, maybe they killed each other. It is a possiblity.



Scary thought but definately a possibility. I would check on your snake immediately, you never want to leave a live meal with your snake unattended although I have never seen a mouse attack a snake(mine eat live) I have seen pics of snakes where the mouse did more damage than the snake. If a snake is not hungry it will ignore the mouse, if the mouse is hungry it will eat your snake!! :eek:

As for staying in the hide, my male Osiris basically was unseen from December until just two weeks ago. I only saw him each night when I would lift his rock and check on him and on Saturday when I take him out to offer food. I also do not feed in their living quarters that can lead to the idea that whatever comes into their tank is a meal item, including your fingers! Both Osiris and Demetae seem to have finished their winter slow down as both have eaten the last two weekends without fail my other female Isis just shed today so she did not eat these last two weeks, but is cruising and will most likely eat no prob on saturday. Mine only eat live unfortunately, but if someone is being picky and I am going to leave them unattended I will stun the mouse so that it can not hurt my snakes. Two of my snakes when I got them had injuries that appeared to be bites, Demetae has a permanant scar but Osiris's went away with his first shed after I got them. I make sure they don't get anymore.

[sapphire_moon]

I feed in cage and none of my snakes look at my hands as food. They look at the tongs as the "bringer of food" now if you use your hands to feed then thats just a SFE.

[nita]

They usually will stay hidden when in a shed since they can't see well and the skin is very uncomfortable since it is getting ready to come off. Once they are going to shed they will usually come out to start rubbing at stuff to start the skin coming off, then as they cruise their home the shed should just come off as they are moving. If you find they have trouble with a shed, just create a humidity box for them with a small plastic container with a hole in it and some damp sphagnum moss I usually put this in when their eyes have been blue for about 2 days, so that they don't get too much moisture.

[nita]

I've yet to have a problem with dropping a mouse into their feeding container, my hands get no where near them while they are eating, and are cleaned of rodent smell before I handle them again. I certainly would never hold a dead or live mouse in my hands expecting them to take it from my hands, but the only time I bothered with tongs was when I had to jiggle a PT mouse as incentive for a different BP I owned, who I did finally manage to get onto PT mice.

[mykee]

I feed live rats to almost all of my 20+ balls, and I would NOT recommend leaving even a stunned mouse in there for a second. Stunned isn't dead, and not dead could still be an injury waiting to happen. If you're going to feed live, please be responsible about it.

[Syco]

I have a couple of BPs that won't take anything but live, I never walk away or even look away until they have the mouse constricted and dead. Last time I fed I put a mouse in with my female and it promptly walked up to her and just took a bite! I quickly got it out and thumped it and it became corn snake food and my BP got a more "laid back" mouse. The mouse didn't break the skin, but I would hate to think what might have happened if I hadn't been watching.
These two are definately going to have to be eating FK or FT before they get rats.
Oh, and Mykee is right, stunned isn't dead. I've seen quite a few stunned mice come to and start walking around just fine.

[sapphire_moon]

exactly, if your going to feed live, do it responsibly!

[tHeGiNo]

Wow, you threw a live mouse into the enclosure, and didn't even bother to make sure things went alright? Talk about responsive husbandry! Smarten up dude.