|
He sounds very cool. I miss the bull snakes I used to keep (& I bred a few too).
With all snakes, though, it's more important to let them settle in, not just for a few days, but until they've fed at normal intervals for 2 or 3 times easily. For a snake, eating is "job 1". There's truly no rush to tame them & if you handle them before they feel safe enough to accept food in new surroundings, you might stress them into refusing food for some time, to their detriment. No matter how sassy them seem, they still might refuse food: what you're seeing is defensive striking, not feeding behavior.
For a young snake you can feed one small mouse (what we call a "hopper") about every 6-7 days as long as the snake is warm enough* & digesting ok. (*as you know, they need some UTH warmth in just a portion of their cage; this time of year, it's easy to forget that the amount of A/C we run for OUR comfort can impact our snakes too) Consider that the only thing that picks up a snake in the wild is a predator about to eat them, that's why handling can stress a snake into not eating; just their new surroundings is scary enough. They seem tough (& bull snakes have the 'act' down pat, lol), but snakes are shy. So I know how badly you want to pick him up to tame, but I hope you'll show restraint & patience...always better when they settle in first.
|