suggestions/help needed

[Scobel]

HI all, its been a while since we were on here. We have a new member of our family. an adorable noodle named Arthur, he's my sons spotted python. The noodle weighs 15grams, we've had him 2 weeks and fed him twice, he's handling and eating beautifully.

HOWEVER, my sons friend has a baby black headed python. she had it shipped from Darwin, to sunny coast about 9 weeks ago. it was only a hatchling when it arrived. For the first few weeks she pretty much left it alone, no handling it just offered it food once or twice which it completely ignored and struck at which ever persons hand tried to feed it. it would strike at the enclosure if she walked near it etc. My hubby went around to have a look and suggested she start handling it to see if that calms the aggression down, then when its not so scared of her it might take food.

He handles well now. However we are now at about week 9 and it has not eaten since she's had it. she's tried quail and pinkies. my hubby went and helped her heat up a pinky, hold it by tail and shake it slightly. no interest at all, will either ignore it or strike at her hand so they left it in there for a couple of hours. nothing! they've done this 3 or 4 times in the last fortnight..

i'm worried that that's a long time without food for a baby. We have asked her to weigh it, we have nothing back yet.
Any and all suggestions welcome.
Thanks!!

 

[OneEyed]

HI all, its been a while since we were on here. We have a new member of our family. an adorable noodle named Arthur, he's my sons spotted python. The noodle weighs 15grams, we've had him 2 weeks and fed him twice, he's handling and eating beautifully.

HOWEVER, my sons friend has a baby black headed python. she had it shipped from Darwin, to sunny coast about 9 weeks ago. it was only a hatchling when it arrived. For the first few weeks she pretty much left it alone, no handling it just offered it food once or twice which it completely ignored and struck at which ever persons hand tried to feed it. it would strike at the enclosure if she walked near it etc. My hubby went around to have a look and suggested she start handling it to see if that calms the aggression down, then when its not so scared of her it might take food.

He handles well now. However we are now at about week 9 and it has not eaten since she's had it. she's tried quail and pinkies. my hubby went and helped her heat up a pinky, hold it by tail and shake it slightly. no interest at all, will either ignore it or strike at her hand so they left it in there for a couple of hours. nothing! they've done this 3 or 4 times in the last fortnight..

i'm worried that that's a long time without food for a baby. We have asked her to weigh it, we have nothing back yet.
Any and all suggestions welcome.
Thanks!!

I got my partner a bhp about 9 months ago. It's in my name but for her. Same deal got it was incredibly flighty and striked at anything and everything and refused to eat. Went on food strike for 9 weeks. We tried many things rats pinkies mice etc. Even tried soaking in egg nothing worked. Got him to a easy handling stage but. We cracked the feeding problem by tub feeding some people are against it but to this day we still tub feed works a treat with him, also removed the common issue of them been cage defensive. Our tub is not able to be seen into. So perhaps try that ? Worked for out fella. Now smashes fuzzy rats every week. Will grab a picture of our tub but worth a shot try once and let it sit in there for 30 mins and see how you go. No harm in trying

 

[Herpetology]

Pinkies are way too small for a bhp (even for carpet python), even a newborn, they are generally a larger species and will start on something like a hopper mouse!

These not only would smell better, but they also are far FAR more nutritious with the whole Shabang of fur,more developed organs etc

Bhp are very voracious feeders and will 9/10 strike at anything they can

If not, it’s almost certain to come down to a husbandry problem..

Please don’t tub feed, it puts unnecessary stress on the animal and makes 0 sense.. you move it to feed, only to move it again and risk a regurg?

 

[OneEyed]

Pinkies are way too small for a bhp (even for carpet python), even a newborn, they are generally a larger species and will start on something like a hopper mouse!

These not only would smell better, but they also are far FAR more nutritious with the whole Shabang of fur,more developed organs etc

Bhp are very voracious feeders and will 9/10 strike at anything they can

If not, it’s almost certain to come down to a husbandry problem..

Please don’t tub feed, it puts unnecessary stress on the animal and makes 0 sense.. you move it to feed, only to move it again and risk a regurg?

I've never had a snake regurg on me regardless of how it's fed. Not that he's tub fed anymore anyways but it broke the food strike he done for that one

 

[Herpetology]

I've never had a snake regurg on me regardless of how it's fed. Not that he's tub fed anymore anyways but it broke the food strike he done for that one

And I’ve never had a snake not feed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comes down to proper husbandry

Tell me what part makes sense, you moving a snake to an unfamiliar environment to feed it, then moving it afterwards which is a general rule to not move for atleast a day after feeding

It’s the equivalent of eating bats in China for medicinal prop... whoops

 

[OneEyed]

And I’ve never had a snake not feed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comes down to proper husbandry

Tell me what part makes sense, you moving a snake to an unfamiliar environment, then moving it afterwards which is a general rule to not move for atleast a day after feeding

All of my snakes are used to been put into a tub wether for cleaning there homes etc so it's not a unfamiliar environment for them. I personally never had any issues with a snake not taking food aside from this particular specimen which was produced by someone I didn't know.

Snakes move after eating naturally in the wild and are alot smarter then people realise for all he knew that was a prime hunting location. All be it captivity is slightly different kettle of fish to wild specimens but snakes certainly won't regurg the moment they move.

That been said most of my snake collection is in tubs not vision enclosures so I guess it's a part of the parcel for them here.

Everyone comes from different background with reptile keeping. Some keep up to date with practices some don't. I personally supplement feed all my collection with chicken drumsticks. Never had healthier snakes and bigger growth then previously. Going onto 6 years of this.

 

[Scobel]

Pinkies are way too small for a bhp (even for carpet python), even a newborn, they are generally a larger species and will start on something like a hopper mouse!

These not only would smell better, but they also are far FAR more nutritious with the whole Shabang of fur,more developed organs etc

Bhp are very voracious feeders and will 9/10 strike at anything they can

If not, it’s almost certain to come down to a husbandry problem..

Please don’t tub feed, it puts unnecessary stress on the animal and makes 0 sense.. you move it to feed, only to move it again and risk a regurg?

They don't tub feed (neither do we). she doesn't handle it just prior to feeding at all. will suggest larger mouse, apparently she did try quail also to no avail. any other suggestions?

**edit, my son tells me she's been offering it fuzzies**

 

[Sugar]

Maybe try holding the food item with long tweezers, I know it sounds funny but it could work.

Or possibly even live feeding may work. I know a lot of people don’t agree with it but it’s as natural as you can make it.

I also saw a video, where this guy put a budgie feather in the mouses mouth and ripped a bit of skin on the mouse like between the eyes and nose.. ( with a pair of tweezers ) exposing raw flesh then offered it to the problem snake. It worked well.