She is losing weight!

I feed every Thursday, today I played with her a lot before eating and then the fuzzie just sat there until it looked like an overcooked rubber chicken. I replaced it with a fresh one, we shall see.

My concern is that she is 16 months and started at 25gms when I started keeping track right before feedings 3 weeks ago, she stayed at 25 but today she was down to 23.

I have made a few changes to her viv, I added some driftwood that she like to hang onto and I started putting a wet towel over half of the screen top to bring up the humidity. It is really dry here in Phoenix, so I thought this might help since she never uses her waterbowl to soak in.

The humidity now fluctuates between 30 and 80 daily, the cloth dries out fast. Would this stress her out at all? And if so, how do I keep the humidity up?

She currently has an overhead heat lamp and does like it on that side mostly, but it is so drying!

Any thoughts would be welcome.

One last question, the fuzzies they gave me seem pretty large, she got one down last week but should I go back to pinkies, maybe 1 1/2?

As you already have humidity issues and the lamp won't be helping, can you change to a regulated UTH?
As for the growth rate, could you try 5-6 day intervals with the fuzzies? Personally I don't move to weekly feeds until I'm feeding adult mice

I wouldn't be feeding fuzzies at 25 grams. Maybe peach fuzzies. A big poop in that size snake can take off 2 grams- maybe you weighed her before she went, and your next weight was after. If you have a scale that weighs in tenths of grams it's much easier to track weight and not get worried if you don't need to be.

Diamondlil, sorry for the ignorance, but what is a UTH?

Nancy, she was at 25 grams, not 15.

Under Tank Heater. Doh. Yes, I have one and it is regulated, I set it right in the middle (there are no marked temps on the dial) and we will see how hot it is in the morning and readjust as needed.

Now, as for humidity, am I doing her wrong by keeping the wet towel on the top of the cage since it dries out so quickly and the humidity levels go from 25-80% within hours?

smigon said:

Diamondlil, sorry for the ignorance, but what is a UTH?

Nancy, she was at 25 grams, not 15.

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TYPO! I'll fix it. I SURE wouldn't be feeding peach fuzzies at 15 grams!!

UTH is Under Tank Heater. Heat mat. Heat pad.

smigon said:

Now, as for humidity, am I doing her wrong by keeping the wet towel on the top of the cage since it dries out so quickly and the humidity levels go from 25-80% within hours?

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I would rather see you put in a BIG water bowl, near the warm end, and if that isn't enough, cover the lid loosely with plastic wrap- just laid on the screen, not sealed at all. Then mist occasionally. But really, you shouldn't have to do anything with the humidity until your snake goes blue (before shedding).

Thanks. She still hasn't eaten, it has been 3 days since her regular feeding day, I brained the mouse today so there is enough blood to attract her if she wants it. As for the humidity, I will leave it alone since she was fine before I started the wet towel experiment.

Thanks!

I found out why she wouldn't eat: she was blue! Her eyes were perfectly clear, she didn't show the usual signs of shedding and she shed just about 1 month ago, I didn't expect it for another few weeks.

As soon as I saw the shed in the viv I put a mouse in with her. Gone within minutes. Poor girl, it was like I was dangling a hamburger in front of a starving person!