worried about my blood python...

[dshin963]

Hey guys soo I fed my snakes today my ball python ate like a champ as per usual but my blood is acting strange for the last two weeks she has just sort of sniffed and nudged no striking but will eventually eat the thing. Three feeds ago she ate fine great strike but now nothing... Only thing I have changed was the substrate switched from papertowels to cypress mulch anyone know why she may be acting this way? Or how I can improve her strike I an going to try a live small rat next week and see if she strikes. Thanks for the help :-D

[ilovemypets1988]

is the humidity too high by any chance

[dshin963]

Possibly... Your not suggesting a R.I. Are you? Please dont be suggesting a R.I...

[ilovemypets1988]

no not an ri but if the humidities too high, it could be making her uncomfortable

[dshin963]

Ok well I just drilled about 24 holes into the lids of the tubs ill check back with her in a couple hours

[ilovemypets1988]

ok, happy to help, either that or you could try her with different substrates, never hurts to use trial and error, as you will find the best substrate for her, meaning, the 1 that shes most happy with

[Lankyrob]

From memory Bloods are ambush feeders - is tere plenty of foliage (fake or real) that she can strike from? May be worth recreating as close to natural conditions as you can to see if that helps/

[marvelfreak]

When i started using Reptile bark in my Borneo cage she quit eating. So i started feeding her in a different tote with nothing in it and she started eating again. She love having the reptile bark to burrow threw, but will not eat in her cage. Never had a problem with her eating when in her cage when i used new paper. I would just try feeding her in a different cage.

[ineedsoap16]

It does seem that someting like a substrate change could make them moody. My first ball did this when I first switched to cypress, but she eventually got over it. It's kinda like when we move a plant in our Oscar's tank he gets moody and sulks for a couple of hours until he gets used to it.

[dshin963]

Well update on my blood "Mary" she ate today like a champ took a little convincing but she struck coiled and downed the med rat.
She also shed earlier in the week... it was one big piece and a tiny itty little piece that broke off all in all not a bad shed little bit on the tail that i took off quickly, I had heard bloods are notorious for bad sheds sooo im pretty happy... on other news I bought a leopard gecko yesterday, he came with two hides a few heat lamps(which dont work) a UTH ( which didnt work) and a 20 gallon tank I believe. not too bad for 50.... I had a spare UTH sooo heating is no issue I have it plugged into the same thermostat as the one running my flexwatt for my snakes... keeps the temps round 88-90 so I am not overly worried...

I will keep you all posted on my Leopard "Moses" in a new thread I will make tomorrow :)

Also I changed his substrate... the guy I bought him from had him on what looked like road gravel... It was nasty... and there were bugs underneath the substrate that I couldn't identify or really find all that well for that matter...
So I went to the hardware store and picked up a bag of play sand... I baked it for an hour and a half at 300 degrees f. And he seems to like it so far I checked the size of the sand and its really fine.

I also picked up a dozen crickets and two dozen meal worms for future meal times as well as calcium sups... I have a little waterbottle full of calcium in his cage and a couple meal worms in there that are gut loaded and shake and baked... If anyone has any critiques please let me know :D

[stephanbakir]

Make sure you quarantine them, that gecko sounds like it might have issues. (commenting on original substrate)

[dshin963]

ughhh crap i didnt know you had to quarentine geckos from snakes... poop...

[shaunyboy]

Hey guys soo I fed my snakes today my ball python ate like a champ as per usual but my blood is acting strange for the last two weeks she has just sort of sniffed and nudged no striking but will eventually eat the thing. Three feeds ago she ate fine great strike but now nothing... Only thing I have changed was the substrate switched from papertowels to cypress mulch anyone know why she may be acting this way? Or how I can improve her strike I an going to try a live small rat next week and see if she strikes. Thanks for the help :-D


its still eating so i would not worry too much

if you give it live once then it may only take live from there on in

i have no problems with feeding live when its 100% neccessary,like a problem feeding snake

but i'm not a fan of doing live for no good reason

not having a go at you

cheers shaun

[dshin963]

Lol its all good Shaun :) She ate great yesterday I think it was because she was shedding :)