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New BP Owner
Hello! I got my first snake on 1/27 - a "normal" baby ball python we named Nagini. She's in a 20L enclosure with a blend of Eco Earth and Forest Floor Cypress Mulch as substrate. During the day, she's under a 150 w daylight bulb that makes her warm spot/hide 90-95 degrees and at night she's under a 100 w ceramic heater that drops the warm spot temperature down to about 80 degrees. Do I need a heat mat as well? Would a heat mat be preferable to the bulb/ceramic combo that I finally have perfectly dialed in? It seems like every site says something different. She has a second hide available at the cool end of the tank, but prefers to burrow into the substrate under her water bowl when she needs to thermo-regulate.
Feeding:
The first time I fed her on 1/30, she took a F/T adult mouse right off the tongs within seconds. Likewise, the second time on 2/5 but this mouse was smaller. Both times, it seemed as though the adult mouse was really too small for her. She gulped them down quickly - within 5 minutes - and they left no bulge in her at all. Her maximum girth is a bit larger than a quarter. So, tonight, when she was out of her hidey hole and looked as though she was hunting, I tried a very small F/T rat. Bigger than a pup, but at the smallest end of the small rat category - girth right around that quarter size so I'm reasonably certain it was the appropriate size - but she refused it. Because she swallowed several pieces of cypress bark with her last mouse, I had taken out her water bowl and put down a tupperware lid to try and get her to coil on that to avoid the substrate issue.
So now I'm at a loss as to why she refused the rat. Is it because I disrupted her enclosure before feeding her? She almost seemed scared of it. Or because it was a rat and she's used to mice? Do I really need to worry about her swallowing a few pieces of cypress bark? One of the other sites I looked at said this must be avoided at all costs which is why I disrupted her enclosure and put down the tupperware lid. I was so confident after she took the first mouse and then the second 6 days later and now I feel like I blew it.
I'm totally confused. Every site I look at seems to say something different.
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