He Ate!!!

[lilyskip]

AHHH! Hux the bp just took his first meal with me tonight!!! I was so nervous...I've never even SEEN a snake feed before, let alone feed one myself, so I had no idea what to expect. (although, yeah, I should have seen him eat before I bought him, but that was logistically impossible and I trusted the store when they told me his feeding habits...) Thanks so much for all your support, guys...!

I read on a message board to just hold the food really close to the tip of his nose, so I did, and the first time he tried to climb up the tongs that I was feeding him with and get out of the tank, and didn't show any interest in the food. Then I moved the tongs, and he fell flat on his face. I moved the mouse again, and he flicked his tongue at it, but then I touched it to the side of his body, which freaked him out. After he stopped moving, I held it about 3mm away from his face. He flicked his tongue at it a bunch of times, kind of coiled back from it (with me thinking, "Not AGAIN...") and then before I knew it I heard a sharp rustling in the tank and felt the tongs move, and he'd snatched it right out of the tongs and had coiled around it! I think the fact that my hand (and thus the mouse) was shaking helped make it look more alive.

At that point, I was really worried that he'd realize it was already dead and just drop it (he'd only eaten live food at the snake store), but pretty soon he had it in his mouth and was trying to swallow it. Now he's lazily crawling around, falling off of things, maybe looking for more (the mouse may have been too small...i want to feed rats but the only pet store I have immediate access to does not sell pinkie rats). I was thinking about buying pinkie rats online, but they come in bags of 50, and i dunno how long Hux will be eating them if he's about 2 months old now.

I'm esctatic that he ate. I know that they are such picky feeders and just don't eat sometimes, and he'd already turned down one feeding (that was probably a technique error on my part), so I was ultra-nervous. How wonderful. Now I'll be worried that this wasn't enough food (I don't really see a visible lump in his body) and since he's going to the vet on Monday (which will be ultra-stressful), I can't feed him between now and then, nor will I probably be able to for a few days afterwards. I'm sure he'll be fine, though. I'm just so relieved that there's food in him, I couldn't help but share!

Question, too...Hux ate the mouse inside of his water bowl (his head may have been underwater at times, not sure, it was dark). I fed him above the water bowl, so this may be an explanation, but could something be wrong with humidity? it's at 53% on a digital gauge. Is it possible that he needed lubrication?

Sorry I'm rambling, I'm just so excited. Shocked and awed, really. How exciting, he ate!!