My baby BP, Vyvian has a little problem and I would like opinions on how I've decided to tackle it. Bearing in mind he is my first BP so this is based purely on a combination of my overall knowledge of snakes, previous experience with different groups/species of snake and the research I've done into royals.

I have had him for around 4 or 5 weeks now. When I bought him (on a sunday) he had eaten the day previously. So, the following saturday I fed him, he took it no problem. The saturday after, he fed again just fine. The saturday after that he refused it. I left it with him overnight, it was still there in the morning so obviously I removed it and didn't think much of it. The following saturday, same again. 2nd flat out refusal. At this point it may be worth noting that he's a baby male and it's summer over here atm so it's not like I could be dealing with an adult males winter fast! but anyway, tbh, at this point (this was the saturday just gone) I'm not too concerned, I figure he may be due a shed as he hasn't yet in the time I've had him which is about a month now. Yesterday is when I got concerned about him. I had him out and he was happily sat in my hand and exploring my lap when I felt him jerk a tiny bit, almost like a hiccup. He did it a few more times so I held him up to my ear and listened... there it was. A very slight, only occasional wheeze and very faint, barely there and even more infrequent 'pop'. Respiratory problems.... great. First port of call, check the temperature and humidity... all is fine. His hot spot registered at just shy of 100ºF and his humidity was high enough but not too wet.

So, here's what I've concluded.

Possible causes:

- Stress due to me over handling him.
- Stress due to upcoming shed.
- Something more serious... vague, simply because I don't know what!

From this I have decided that I am not going to touch him or attempt to feed him on saturday as I usually would. On monday I will get him out of his tub and check his breathing and look for any signs of an impending shed. If there is any change for the worse I will take him to the vet and get him on anti-biotics. If not I will continue to quietly monitor him for the rest of the week until feeding day. I will then attempt to feed him on saturday and see if the rest from handling and attempted feeding has relaxed him enough to want to eat again... unless of course he has begin the shedding process by then in which case I will wait until he's finished.

I'm not worried per sé at the moment because I know that they can be finicky feeders and I know that shedding can cause susceptibility to problems like this as they get a bit run down in the run-up to it. But all the same, I am concerned about his breathing and of course, as he's so young, even if it is normal, the lack of eating is still bothering me sufficiently for me to be keeping a very close eye.

Now then, don't get me wrong, I am not delaying a vet visit because I can't be bothered or because of money or anything of the sort. I am just giving it a couple of days because a) I want to monitor him and be 100% sure of what I'm dealing with first. b) I don't want to stress him out by putting him in a bag and taking him out to get poked and prodded if it's not necessary as extra stress will only make it worse and c) vets are unavailable unless its an emergency over weekends anyway. I know that I've caught the respiratory issue in the very early stages so I am at least relieved about that.

Anybody got any other suggestions of things I could do myself to either make his environment better for him or suss out what the problem is etc? For reference, he's in a medium sized Contico with a heat pad underneath one end, orchid bark substrate, a cork bark hide, silk leaves to hide beneath and a resin water bowl.

Thanks in advance if anyone can suggest anything.