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Feeding advice
I just had two quick questions, and would appreciate some general advice. Noel, my ball python that had such a turbulent beginning, is growing like a weed, and doing great! He's still on one f/t adult mouse a week (since the only local reptile breeder in my tiny town only sells live, and most pet stores' smallest rats are a bit bigger than he can handle right now).
Way back in the beginning I started moving him to a different container for feeding on the grasping hope that he'd associate it with food and make later food changes easier. I wasn't really expecting him to, but he absolutely has, and will poke his head out any time I open the cabinet where I keep his container. That leads me to my first question: is his strict schedule of one mouse on Thursdays what he should always stick to? Several times lately he's starting becoming restless and testy a few days before Thursday, and would excited when I opened the terrarium, so I think he gets hungry. The mice seem just on the edge of what he can swallow, and he's pretty bulgy afterward, so I don't even know if I could move him up a size. Should I feed him whenever he seems hungry, or make him wait? Question two: every time I get him out to feed him (or handle him at all), I have to lift his hide to find him, which seems to spook him. He doesn't stay nervous at all when I'm handling him, but I always feel invasive and scary knocking his little world all to pieces to catch him. Is that just what I have to do? Isn't that stressful for him? I'm not sure how else I'd get him, because he usually only starts meandering around around 12 or 1 AM, and I try to feed him right after dark. Not pressing problems, but advice would be great!
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