As a novice snake owner, there are a few different milestones that one has to face. Of those milestones, one of the most interesting is the first feeding. Feeding a snake can be a slightly tricky business, particularly for newly bought + young snakes. A snake owner in this situation has quite a few different hurtles to overcome:
- Snakes are finicky eaters.
- Snakes only eat (at this age) once every 10 days or so and can go for much, much longer.
- Since you just bought the snake, you have interrupted its previous eating patterns and environment.
- Depending upon your choice of food, you can be introducing a new food to your snake.
- Snakes can be shy, which can end w/ them not wanting to be watched + fed.
So, after reading about 10,000 articles on the subject, I went about my first feeding. According to quite of few of my readings, first-time owners have ended up spending hours, trying to feed their baby snakes for the first time whereas it is usually a 15 min process.
Preparation
In order to pull off an adequate feeding, you have to have a few things in place. In my case, I am feeding Lillith (my snake) ‘fuzzies’ – otherwise known as frozen baby rats. As it turns out, rats are more nutritious than mice and are generally the preferred choice of food. In order to feed the snake, one has to completely thaw the mouse so that its body temp is slightly higher than room temperature. Failure to do so, can lead to interesting effects which could include snake regurgitation (very, very hard on a snake) and the snake attacking a warmer object next to what you are trying to feed it (your hand!). Also, its good to keep the scent of the rat intact by keeping it in a Ziploc bag during the thawing process (I failed to do so in the 1st video).
The 2nd most important part is to establish a feeding zone. Some people feed their snake directly in their cage. Generally speaking, a better idea is to have a separate feeding bin for the snake. Establishing a feeding ritual w/ the snake, outside of its pen, is important because it disassociates an incoming hand and food. :)
The Feeding
(If you don’t get the reference, check here)
The feeding routine is rather simple, you get some tongs (or, in my case, pliers) and dangle the mouse in front of the snake. I found that slowly withdrawing the food from the snake seemed to entice it into a more predatory position. If you are lucky and your snake is in the mood, your snake should strike within a few minutes of enticing it.
In my case, it took ~15 mins or so to get my snake to eat. All things considered, I felt very lucky since so many snake owners find this first feeding to be difficult. Sadly, I didn’t get a video of the snake actually striking the food, but I took several of it consuming the food. I think the most interesting part is seeing the snake actually unhinge in jaw in order to eat something bigger than its face.
All in all, this first milestone went very well. The key was to have patience and to also be very wary of the snake. Luckily, I didn’t get bitten at all during the process, which is a very real possibility when your snake is in ‘hunting mode.’ Now that this is under my belt, I feel confident that future feedings will go smoothly with less uncertainty on my part.
Speaking of milestones, the next one for me is my snake’s first molt. During this time, the snake can be extra aggressive and vulnerable. Also, there are a plethora of tasks for me to keep in mind that range from keeping the tank more moist than usual to making sure the snake’s eye-caps come off. The best indicator that a snake is about to molt is that its eyes turn a milky blue color. While I thought I had a while to go before worrying about this, this is a picture of my snake from today…
/sigh. Good times.