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Post-first feeding questions. worried.

C

corsara

New member
Last night we fed our little snake for the first time. Since she's about 16 inch and kind of bigger than hatchings, the store recommended we give her a fuzzy instead of a pinky. Also, her thickest part appears less or just about 2/3 of the fuzzy girth, so we went ahead and did that, gave her a fuzzy.

Since it was our first time feeding a snake, we weren't really sure how to thaw the fuzzy, so we left it out at room temperature for a couple of hours. The actual feeding went well: I handled the snake for about five minutes, she calmed down, then we put her in an empty plastic container with no substrate. With tweezers, I introduced the fuzzy, and left it in front of her. She approached slowly, sniffed it, opened her giant mouth and stuck it to the head of the fuzzy. The swallowing lasted about 10 minutes. After the fuzzy was somewhere in the mid of her body already, I gently "poured" the snake out into her vivarium. She immediately hid under the substrate on the warm side, where she remained for the evening.

Today around lunch I lifted the aquarium to look underneath and see where she is. She was on the cold side, which is mid to low 70s. Just now I checked again, she doesn't seem to have moved at all for the last 12 hours or so. I really don't want to disturb her, but can't help to worry and wonder why she isn't preferring the warm side, which is in the high 80s. Is my snake still alive? Is this normal? Could it be that the fuzzy wasn't thawed enough, we didn't really touch it with fingers to see if it's warm... please help
 
Everything sounds fine!

Personally, I like to thaw my frozen mice using hot tap water, for two reasons: one, it's more convenient for me, and two, because I wouldn't leave meat out on the counter to thaw if I was going to eat it, so I don't do it for frozen mice either.

My snakes don't always stay on the warm side after eating. Usually they will be over their heaters for the first night of digestion and then after that, they're hidden around the tanks in various places.

Just leave her be for a bit. Two to three days after feeding her, you can check on her and hold her again.
 
Thanks a lot for the reply, it really makes me feel better knowing that this is not uncommon.

Regarding the thawing, I left it on the floor in the baggie, lol, no mice on my counter ever!!!

I hope it will be all alright. I'll check on her tomorrow by looking under the tank to see if she changed position.

Anyway, thanks, I'll sleep good now.
 
If it took her that long to eat the fuzzy, she may have not had one before. I would leave her alone and not check on her. You don't want to disturb her digesting such a large meal. They quite often prefer the cooler area.
 
Two preferred ways to f/t..You can thaw in hot water directly or put the mouse in a bag and let the bag sit in hot water.

The general rule is to leave the snake alone for 2-3 days after a feed. Corns are pretty hardy tho. They are also nocturnal so you won't see much movement throughout the day and they just go where they want to digest.

Sounds fine! :)
-Skully-
 
corsara said:
Last night we fed our little snake for the first time. Since she's about 16 inch and kind of bigger than hatchings, the store recommended we give her a fuzzy instead of a pinky. Also, her thickest part appears less or just about 2/3 of the fuzzy girth, so we went ahead and did that, gave her a fuzzy.

Since it was our first time feeding a snake, we weren't really sure how to thaw the fuzzy, so we left it out at room temperature for a couple of hours. The actual feeding went well: I handled the snake for about five minutes, she calmed down, then we put her in an empty plastic container with no substrate. With tweezers, I introduced the fuzzy, and left it in front of her. She approached slowly, sniffed it, opened her giant mouth and stuck it to the head of the fuzzy. The swallowing lasted about 10 minutes. After the fuzzy was somewhere in the mid of her body already, I gently "poured" the snake out into her vivarium. She immediately hid under the substrate on the warm side, where she remained for the evening.

Today around lunch I lifted the aquarium to look underneath and see where she is. She was on the cold side, which is mid to low 70s. Just now I checked again, she doesn't seem to have moved at all for the last 12 hours or so. I really don't want to disturb her, but can't help to worry and wonder why she isn't preferring the warm side, which is in the high 80s. Is my snake still alive? Is this normal? Could it be that the fuzzy wasn't thawed enough, we didn't really touch it with fingers to see if it's warm... please help
Click to expand...

My snake is probably about a month in size bigger than yours. Instead of going to fuzzies, I just started feeding 2 pinkies at a time ~6 days. A bigger meal at once seems to be better for building up their digestive tracts. So far, I've done this feed twice in the last two weeks and she is great and growing more appropriately now!
 
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