Feeding Questions

Hurley is still not eating on his own. But we would like to know how to serve warm food to him. We thaw the mouse pinky out in hot water. Hurley is on the counter next to this but by the time the food reaches him it is cold. Dipping and blotting leave the pinky cold, too, by the time Hurley gets it. How do we keep the food warm to present it to him so he might be interested? Never had this problem with our red tail boa, who eats everything. But Hurley seems finicky. Live mouse pinkies seem to scare him. When should I feed him anyway? Every week or every two weeks? Or wait until he poops it out?

I'm sorry but I can't remember Hurley's background. Pinks seem like they would be small prey for a Ball Python. I keep the food warm with a hair dryer and feed about every 8 days.
You might try something larger like a fuzzy or hopper. Sometimes they just don't bother with smaller prey.

Sorry, is Hurley your son's snake. PetSmart baby??? he didn't eat for them either????
Is he losing weight?? I would have him checked over by a vet.

We did an assist feed on him about eight days ago. Severely limited in variety can get at local feed store. Will try to get mouse fuzzies, they have no hoppers. Is that mouse fuzzies and hoppers or rat fuzzies and hoppers he needs? I'll be ordering from lll Reptile as soon as can find out for sure. Yes, Hurley is a Petsmart baby. We're still trying to get him interested in eating on his own. He's going to the vet as soon as get money on the 1st. He just seems to be a real finicky baby. But we do have his habitat set up right now and he seems more secure in his 4 gallon container. It's beige, not see through. It has a hot spot, 90, and a cool spot, 85; his hide is on the hot side. It's too small for a second hide. But he has a water dish on the cool side.

I have a rosy boa that I am trying to get to eat frozen thawed (she only wants live.) Here are some of the pointers that the snake experts here gave me.

-let thaw at room temp for a few hrs naturally (to ensure that the prey fully thaws even on the inside)
-then put in plastic bag and run hot water on it, or use hair dryer to raise the mouse's temp (alive mice have a body temp of about 100F)
-use the feeding tongs to crush the head slightly (this will push some juice and brain matter out of the nose)

good luck, from what I hear these guys are tricky to feed soemtimes.

I can't believe it! Hurley ate! By himself! I am such a proud mommy! Apparently the food size was too small. Petsmart had given us the wrong food size for the guy! I tried a live hopper inside a paper bag and the first thing I heard was a strike. I left him for a half hour and sure enough! He'd eaten! I even shook the bag out to be sure-- I was that amazed! So ordered F/T from LLL Reptile and will try him on that next week. I usually leave mine thawing in the refrigerator (grossed out some visitors once but why were they looking in the fridge anyway?), put it on the counter for about 10 minutes while water heating in the micro, and soak it for however long it takes for the entire body to have a warm feel. Next time I'll try the hair dryer trick. And definitely going to get a thermometer that measures temp real soon now that I know Hurley needs 100 degrees! Things are looking up! Thanks everyone!

When I was breeding mice, I had 2 extra pinkies that I gave to my friend to give his ball python. The snake was perplexed for several minutes, but finally ate it. It looked like he was eating a piece of candy. Very funny.
oopieceofcandy.jpg

That picture is great! The scales around the mouth of the snake make it look like it has human teeth!