The House of Moof

Moof mainly eats mice, which we buy frozen from the local pet shop. When we first got him, he could only eat "pinkies" (newborn mice with no hair at all), then he moved up to "fuzzies" (very young mice with hardly any hair). For the last year or so he's been eating mature mice, though until recently only the smaller sizes. Recently we've been trying him with medium-sized mice, which he may be finding to be a bit too big.

We've also been giving Moof smelt recently, either as an occasional snack, or to replace a mouse that he has refused.

Moof usually gets one mouse every week, with the occasional pinkie or smelt added as a treat. We defrost them in a bowl of warm water, then put them on his feeding platform once at the correct temperature.

Moof normally prefers to eat by himself. He doesn't need his prey to wiggle about as if it were alive, and is in the habit of looking on his platform every now and then to check for new food. Recently we've tried feeding him his fish by hand, but have only been successful twice so far.

We don't stick to a strict feeding time, as it's not exactly a natural way for snakes to find food. Usually he gets fed at some point on a Thursday afternoon or evening, but this can vary depending on whether he's recently had a snack or refused his previous meal.

Moof's feeding platform is his old outgrown water bowl, turned upside-down. It's tucked under the leaves of the big fake fern, to keep his food from drying out too quickly under his lamps: you can just see the end of it in the normal view. He usually approaches it from under the fern, so you don't often get a clear shot of him eating. (If we can get a second camera working, it will probably be a tighter shot of that area.)

In the past, Moof has embarrassed himself somewhat by trying to eat his mouse sideways. He hasn't done that for a while now, so hopefully he's grown out of it...

(Hah. Not always...)