Non-eating Baby

[metalsmoker]

to give update on my situation. After 5 weeks my new female finally ate, however, she did not attack the rat. She merely smelled it, so I left it in her cage and after about 20 mins she started eating it right away. I did not mind cause I was happy she ate. However, this week, she refused again. I do not know what I am doing wrong.

Just to let you guys know, if any of you had similar situation and solved it.

[ElliotNess]

Where are you at in socal? Maybe someone can give you a hand ...

[Navaro]

Where abouts is she located. Is there alot of foot traffic where she is? might suggest moving her to a quieter place. Also with other species that were problematic eaters (and sick in many cases during rescues) I found that allowing the warmed rodent to linger in the room a while near the tank can promote a pretty strong feeding response given enough time. Rather than have it in their faces right away.

Usually in my experience, and not just with Ball Pythons. Showing interest, or striking but not actually eating. Is a security issue. Can we see her setup / hides ect? Might be able to brainstorm something together.

Good Luck!

[metalsmoker]

Well she is in my room, in the corner and most of the time nobody enters except me and I spend a lot of time just on my pc so high traffic or disturbance should not be so much issue, should it?. If I have time I'll post some pictures here, but she has 99% the same setting as my male ball and he is doing perfect (refused his food maybe 1 time since I got him). I cleaned her enclosure completely yesterday and will try feeding her again on Sunday. I also tried pre-scenting the room, feeding late at night when she is active, covering the enclosure so that no light is getting inside and nothing helped. I don't want to feed her in separate enclosure because she is very shy and this would put much stress on her. I don't know if she is just so picky or if I am doing something wrong. I think the illness is out of question here cause when I weighted her she has not lost any weight, when examining body I have not noticed anything out of ordinary.

Thank you guys for your concern and help.

[Navaro]

Sounds like everything is in order without seeing pictures. As a baby the appetite should be there. I know you don't like the idea of feeding in another tub, but in my experience with other snakes, this is sometimes what it takes. They can be funny like that. Might be worth a shot

[metalsmoker]

Sorry for such a late reply. Anyway, after posting my previous reply, she ate like five days after. However, then she refused again twice and has not eaten since. She has only eaten twice since she has been with me (going to be 2 months on August 1). I am really getting desperate.

[Creepy Alien]

Sorry for such a late reply. Anyway, after posting my previous reply, she ate like five days after. However, then she refused again twice and has not eaten since. She has only eaten twice since she has been with me (going to be 2 months on August 1). I am really getting desperate.

This isn't exactly the same thing because my Albino is older (3 years). I got him mid March to very early April. His previous owner never had a problem feeding F/T. I tried everything for months. He'd never eat no matter what I tried. Temps and humidity were perfect. Everything was perfect I thought. I was heating with heat pads (I have a few other BPs... including two other problem feeders who I'll get to after). I had a Herpstat running the heat pads because I'm kind of in between building a rack and other stuff. Right now I'm using the poor man rack system (stacking tubs) :-) .

It was bothering me using the heat pads, but I didn't want to run heat tape on the container below. I came up with taking the backing from a dresser or tv stand or something (that thin cheap back that you nail on to budget furniture) and putting the heat tape on that. I wired everything perfectly so there are three rows of heat tape on three of those janky boards. I then attached them to the Herpstat and temps were perfect according to my temp gun.

(Sorry this is so long btw :-/ ).

So I've been running this little system for about a week. I have some great feeders and I have three that never eat. The albino just ignores it and happily slithers over it and around it (and I swear he smiles at me :-) ). A newer acquired Lesser just looks scared at feeding time. Last is a Spider, who came with the lesser. She can be either scared or indifferent.... another thing about her.... I was told she only eats live.

So to wrap this up, the first time feeding since my janked up heating contraption... (just 2 days ago)... Here's how it went. The Albino looks at the dangling rat for a second and then punches the thing with it's whole body, mouth first :-) . The rest was typical of a good eater. The Lesser looked at it for about 30 seconds, and then boom! Second successful feeding. I'm hoping for the Spider, but I don't feed live so F/T attempt once again.... Bam! Three for three!

The moral of this long message is first, don't give up... and second, are you sure the are getting a good regular heat (set properly) with a reliable heat source? I think my stupid mistake was using heat pads. I now think they weren't providing a regular enough heat for the picky ones (the rest were champion eaters). Take a good look at your heating methods and look at all the parts involved.

I hope that might help a bit. Good luck!

[dek593]

Try to feed the snake at night and in completely dark surroundings without bothering. You should offer f/t or pre-killed rat only.
This method perfectly works for my shy sub adult champagne girl. Some balls like to eat only at night when it's dark in silence.
Good luck~

[metalsmoker]

Already tried, and did not work :-/ thanks, however, for your comment :-)

[metalsmoker]

This isn't exactly the same thing because my Albino is older (3 years). I got him mid March to very early April. His previous owner never had a problem feeding F/T. I tried everything for months. He'd never eat no matter what I tried. Temps and humidity were perfect. Everything was perfect I thought. I was heating with heat pads (I have a few other BPs... including two other problem feeders who I'll get to after). I had a Herpstat running the heat pads because I'm kind of in between building a rack and other stuff. Right now I'm using the poor man rack system (stacking tubs) :-) .

It was bothering me using the heat pads, but I didn't want to run heat tape on the container below. I came up with taking the backing from a dresser or tv stand or something (that thin cheap back that you nail on to budget furniture) and putting the heat tape on that. I wired everything perfectly so there are three rows of heat tape on three of those janky boards. I then attached them to the Herpstat and temps were perfect according to my temp gun.

(Sorry this is so long btw :-/ ).

So I've been running this little system for about a week. I have some great feeders and I have three that never eat. The albino just ignores it and happily slithers over it and around it (and I swear he smiles at me :-) ). A newer acquired Lesser just looks scared at feeding time. Last is a Spider, who came with the lesser. She can be either scared or indifferent.... another thing about her.... I was told she only eats live.

So to wrap this up, the first time feeding since my janked up heating contraption... (just 2 days ago)... Here's how it went. The Albino looks at the dangling rat for a second and then punches the thing with it's whole body, mouth first :-) . The rest was typical of a good eater. The Lesser looked at it for about 30 seconds, and then boom! Second successful feeding. I'm hoping for the Spider, but I don't feed live so F/T attempt once again.... Bam! Three for three!

The moral of this long message is first, don't give up... and second, are you sure the are getting a good regular heat (set properly) with a reliable heat source? I think my stupid mistake was using heat pads. I now think they weren't providing a regular enough heat for the picky ones (the rest were champion eaters). Take a good look at your heating methods and look at all the parts involved.

I hope that might help a bit. Good luck!

Well I have the same set up as for my other BP, and he is thriving. The temps on both sides are as should be. I also check them with the temp gun on a regular basis. I am running out of ideas, but I see that it is important to never give up