Couple Questions

ok so I have a couple questions about my new Ball Kaida...here goes

1. I was told when I got here that she was being fed 1 large rat once a week...is this enough? She is 3+ ft and pretty thick (i'll post a pic at the end). I didn't think it sounded right so I gave her a Rat earlier this week, and a couple days later gave her a large mouse....which brings me to my next question

2. When I fed her the mouse....she struck at the glass! The mouse was right in front of her. So Just a few minutes ago I decided to add more substrate to her tank and she perked up and started moving around like she was being fed, and now she is looking around her cage for something to eat (i think). Is something wrong with her? I've never seen a snake not get the mouse...seems like maybe her senses are off?

and finally...
3. what is mouth rot? How can you tell if your snake has it? She has a brown spot on the outside of her mouth. I noticed it after I brought her home and started taking her out. It looked like something was stuck to her mouth though as opposed to an illness...I can try to get a good pic of it.

This just throws me off b/c when I first brought her home she was fine with being handled...now it seems like she wanted to try to strike at me...would this just be signs of her being hungry? here's the pic

Okay...

1) One appropriately sized rat per week is fine... The rat can be as thick as the thickest part of your snake, if not a little skinnier.


2) If you feed a rat, those are big, and you feed mice right after, your snake may have misunderstood the scent or heat source, and struck above it. (This is what I see it as)

3) Mouth rot is inside the mouth. Superficial interior problems that can get very dangerous if not payed attention to.. Outside of the mouth maybe just rubbing against things, and scarring up the tip of the nose.

If anyone has anything else to add, please feel free.

Thank you very much. I thought that one rat was ok, but had heard it wasn't. I thought this would be the place to go to find out. I never even thought of the size difference being a problem...i forget snakes senses are different. Thank you again for your help.

(oh and just as a side note...my dog is usually NEVER any where near my snakes...he got away from my sis when the pic was taken)

No prob!

Like LadyOhh said 1 rat a week is more than enough. Also non-breeding adults can be fed every other week and they will do just fine, possibly even live longer.

I would stay away from mice with that girl, they are small for her and feeding those could turn her off from rats. Although I've never had much trouble with switching them back and forth.

What is that white area on her? Is it a scar from a feeder?

The mouth wound sound like the ones common in snakes fed live prey. A lot of times a poor strike leads to a few war wounds from rodent teeth. Sometimes they are on the body, and sometimes they are in/on the mouth.

I would watch it and make sure it doesn't get any worse. If it starts to seep or you see any pus, I would get it to a vet to get it properly cleaned.

Well truthfully I would still take it to a vet to get it checked out. It is a new acquisition, and you should get a fecal done anyway.

Get a weight on her in grams......just take her to any pet store and they should wiegh her or go and buy a small $20 electronic food scale with a bowl and use that (its a one time buy and you will use it alot for a long time if you are an avid and mindful snake owner) I weigh my snakes usually right after each shed. That's an accurate weight, or after a poop. Once you get a weight on her, then we can better tell you what she should be eating. She looks from the pictures to be 2000+ grams at least. and probably about 50+ inches long. Shes a monster!!! She should survive on one large rat per week and would probably take more....but too big is not necessarily a good thing. They tend to have more health problems, have a hard time keeping their body temps up, Their scales end up bending permanently where she folds up in her hide and they seem to need a lot more care than the smaller ones do. Plus they poo and pee more. She's a beaut tho. One large rat per week if you have her temps and humids right should be enough for her. To answer your question about her striking into the air or at the glass....that is perfectly normal. My girl sometimes hits it right on, other times she strikes the air three or four times before I end up putting it right to her nose so she can get it better. If you are feeding frozen/thawed mice, here's a trick that works almost everytime......wrap the thawed mouse in thick paper towel except from the ears down.....hold the mouse's head up close to a warm light bulb/heat lamp bulb for about 30 seconds and have everything ready to go to feed her. Shut all of the lights off except for one in the far background so you can see where she' s going to strike. When you've warmed your mouse's head and nose up, pick it up with tongs by the tail and hold it for her in the dark. She'll get it everytime I can almost guarantee you. You see, the light distracts them and they are night time hunters. I always feed my snakes with a completely dark room and a blue or red bulb on in the corner or the cage ( snakes do not get disoriented by these colors of light) and they have no problems catching live or thawed prey. Try this out....

Thanks again everyone! I figured the tiny lil mouse wasn't good enough for her...she seemed hungry so i went and bought a large rat today...the poor thing was only in the tank for like 2 seconds! she got it dead on too!

What is that white area on her? Is it a scar from a feeder?

actually, it is just white spots. I thought scarring at first glance...but then as i looked closer, its just the color of the scales. She has them randomly down both sides.

I will stick to giving her one a week. I do feed her live...i know all the risks...but that is was she has been fed as was my male before i got him. I feed them one at a time and watch one eat (make sure it gets it right away) then go feed the other. This way I can make sure that they are not getting 'picked on' by the food item.

Would a small scale and bowl be enought to weigh her?

as long as you can fit all of her in the bowl and balance the bowl steadily on the scale, then you should be ok just to buy the scale and use your own bowl. Remeber to "zero" the scale with the bowl on it before you put her in it....

Ok, thank you. I think I might just go to Walmart tonight and buy one. Is there any special one I need to get? Do I have to make sure that it weighs in grams? Any suggested brands?

grams are the easiest, but if you want to constantly convert everything to grams from ounces for us, it doesn't matter as long as it is not just pounds. a smaller animal needs to be weighed with a smaller scale measurments. A human losing ten grams may not be a big deal, but a small snake may be showing signs of illness bu losing what seems to us like a small amount of weight.