Eye Caps and Feeding

[Jay_Bunny]

As some of you know, my friend rescued a ball python about a week ago and she has really bad eye caps (I found my camera and will be taking better pictures of these eye caps so you can see what I mean). I tried feeding her today since it has been a week and while she kept striking out, she kept striking in the wrong direction, even if the rat was right in front of her face. It was a rat wean (she is usually fed mice but I had a rat available to feed to her so I figured I'd give it a shot). Her eye caps have not come off yet, but I'm not sure if that is making striking difficult for her or not. Any suggestions? I want to try another meal somewhat soon since she seems hungry.

[A.VinczeBPs]

Eye caps can reduce vision, and most of my BPs going into shed will miss because of them, which is why I don't feed them in shed, I wait until after.

Also, eye caps, if left on for too long can do permanent damage to the eyes.

I would suggest leaving a F/T rat or Pre-killed in with her, she'll probably take it and that way she won't need to strike, or if she does it's in a safe area.

[Jay_Bunny]

We are not sure how long she has had the eye caps. Her previous owners called her Cyclops because they figured she was blind in one eye (which she might be). The other eye looks like it has 1-2 layers of stuck eye cap.

I don't think leaving a f/t or p/k rat or mouse will entice her to eat. She is definitely hungry. She kept striking but either struck in the wrong direction or kept missing her target. The feeder was live since I am not certain which she was fed before. She could smell the rodent and kept acting like she was trying to locate it, but never seemed to get a real fix on it.

Getting those eye caps off would help but I have tried getting them off with no success. Also, she is not in shed at all, though we are unsure when was the last time she did shed.

[mpkeelee]

you can do a search on here for retained eyecaps and find all types of stuff that people have done. the best way is to have a really high humidity during the next shed.

i always feedduring shed, sometimes they strike sometimes they dont. if she cant strike at it then just leave a f/t or prekilled in the warm hide for a few hours or over night and most likely she will find it and eat it.

[A.VinczeBPs]

If she's hungry, I doubt she'll have a problem with prekilled or F/T. Just leave it in there for a couple hours or overnight and she'll probably eat. And if she eats, then she'll grow, and she'll shed.

[Kaorte]

I would try leaving a f/t or p/k in with her overnight. If she is hungry, then she will eat it.

And if she doesn't, well it was worth a try!

[BPelizabeth]

I agree with Kaorte. Leave it in overnight...she will get it. I always feed live....but when my babies are in shed I definetly pre kill for them. Last week my poor Elizabeth grabbed the mouse by the tail and coiled it....lol.