Jungle Feeding

[ianp]

Hey I have a roughly 6 month old old jungle and wont hesitate to take a mouse when i'm holding it with tweezers but when i just put a mouse in there it will go up to it and just sit there for like an hour expecting it to move or something...
Can anyone tell me how to get it to eat a thawed mouse just placed in its eclosure???
thanx for your help

[Hawke]

If it is eating fine when fed from the tweezers why would you worry about the other ?

[mysnakesau]

I agree with Hawke. Why do you not want to feed him from the tweezers? I love hand feeding my snakes, I even ditch the tweezers and use my hands As far as I'm concerned him taking the mouse would be more important than how he takes it. So long as he's eating it, you know he's building strength.

[PhilK]

He doesn't eat the one just lying there because it isn't moving. The one hanging from tweezers moves with the movement of your hand. Much yummier for a snake.

[ianp]

Yeah dont get me wrong i love hand feeding him, just thought it'd be handy to get him to eat mice just placed in there for times im away etc as my parents are to scared of snakes to hand feed him haha

[S.D.]

Originally Posted by ianp

Yeah dont get me wrong i love hand feeding him, just thought it'd be handy to get him to eat mice just placed in there for times im away etc as my parents are to scared of snakes to hand feed him haha

I usually feed my n00bs the way you want (without tweezers) as it’s a lot less stressful and I want to leave them settle in with as little interaction with me in the first few weeks as possible.

What I find is best, (as you might have read already in the wiki) is to leave the mouse in at night, keep the lights off (or better yet, cover the glass or the click-clack as well), leave it alone for a few hours, and if it hasn’t eaten it by then, it’s best to throw the mouse/rat and try again in a few days (they’ll get the hint… or hungry enough eventually).

Another thing to keep in mind is where you place the mouse/rat. Leaving it in the open is good because you know that if it’s gone, it’s been eaten etc. and you don’t have to keep lifting or opening the snake’s hide to check. However sometimes the snake might not see it in the open or might be too reluctant to come and check it out. I’ve always found with smaller hatchie Carpets (like in your case, a Jungle), they really do prefer the food item in or at the front of their hide (as they’re hesitant to want to come out into the open too much at the start). Be careful though not to stress the snake too much by throwing it in the hide and/or prodding them etc. (just lay it gently at the front of their hide or just inside it).

Larger Carpets, Womas and BHP’s seem to prefer the food out in the open as they seem to get “food aggressive” and if you put something at the front or just inside their hide, they’ll usually hiss and get all angry/stressed. They seem to prefer to come out and check the mouse/rat out for themselves in the cover of darkness and the Womas and BHP’s usually try to drag the food item underneath the newspaper/substrate so as to eat in privacy.

I think most of the above has all been gone over before and nothing new is really presented here. Hope it helps though (even though I know your Jungle currently feeds from tweezers, maybe some of the above examples for new arrivals might help you or your parents out too).