Food, food, food.

[Miko]

How big should my prey item be?
Usually, it should be 1.5 times the size of the girth of your snake.
Example: If your snake was the size of a dime your prey should be the size of a nickel and if your ball python was a nickel the prey should be the size of a quarter.

How often should I feed my snake?
If your snake is 0-9 months you should feed every 5 days.
If your snake is 9-12 months you should feed every 7 days.
If your snake is 1 year and older you should feed every 10 days.
(Make sure that you monitor the growth and development of your snake, this varies on your snakes metabolism and it's growth rate.)

My Ball Python Won't Eat!
Ball pythons are known for going on hunger strike. There are usually two reasons for this, stress and the prey item. IF your snake only skips one meal, don't worry. It happens sometimes. Ball pythons can go a pretty long time without eating, around 8 months usually. Here is a thread about assisted feeding, please don't do this unless you need to for it is unhealthy for the snake.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...g-Instructions

How to determine if your ball python is stressed or if the prey item is not right...
Usually, if your ball python is stressed they will be eating perfectly fine and then something will change in their general space and change their behavior. For example you recently got your ball python and they're new to their environment, or it's too busy around their tank, etc. These can be easily changed but sometimes it's hard to find out which one is causing the problem.

With prey items, perhaps your ball python strikes but does not take the prey, or maybe it seems afraid of the prey. There are SO many ways to feed your ball python, it's hard to explain all of them but I will try my best.

Stressful fasting
Ball pythons are sometimes easily stressed and this can effect their feeding. Here are some tips if you think stress is the problem...

+ Busy, busy.
- Sometimes the room is too busy for your ball python, try to move your ball python into a tub, preferably a non-see through tub or slightly distorted clear tub.
- If you have a tank, cover three sides of the tank (or more) with black paper or an aquarium background, you can get them at your local pet store.
- You can also cover the top of your tank with tinfoil and tape, this also keeps humidity in if you have a screen top. You can even make a hole for your lamp if you have one. Most people cover 3/4s of the tank.

+ It's that time again.
- Some snakes won't eat during breeding season, they've got other things to worry about.

+ Don't touch me!
- Too much handling can be stressful, give your ball python some space. A simple way to do this is don't handle your ball python as much! If he/she is new to their new home, let them get situated in their new home, and congrats.

+ Shedding
- Some ball pythons don't eat when in shed or around shed. Check for a pink belly, darker color, foggy eyes. Perhaps help your ball python through the shedding process by giving him a few sprays of water, upping the humidity, etc.

+ You want me to eat in here?
- Some ball pythons will not eat inside their enclosure, or outside their enclosure. My ball python won't eat inside his enclosure, not to mention he pretty much throws the mouse around so it will take a trip through the water bowel, over the hide and into the corner. Plus, it won't even get eaten.

+ Make sure it's dark.
- Ball pythons generally hunt at night, try to put your ball python in a dark place before feeding or just have a night lamp.

+ Put it back!
- Change can be stressful for anyone, if your ball python stopped eating when you changed the layout of his enclosure, perhaps you should change it back or to something similar. After he likes it, do not change it often because it may cause more stress.
- Temperatures could also be the problem, check your humidity and temperature to see if they okay, remember hot side and cool side.
- Size of tub/tank, ball pythons enjoy small places normally so perhaps the size of the enclosure is the problem.
- Perhaps your tank set up is not entirely perfect, if this is the case here is a wonderful guide for tank set ups!
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ass-tank-setup
And this site also has a wonderful caging forum!
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/forum...8-Caging-Forum

+++ There could be other problems, talk to your ball python! I'm serious, watch their body language and if he/she 's always staying on the hot side maybe you should up your temps, or if he's always on the cool side, you should lower your temps. Also, watch if your ball python is sick! Do research on common ball python ailments.

Prey Problems
There are three different types of prey, pre-killed, frozen, and live. Please, safety first. Whenever you feed your ball python frozen make sure it is thoroughly thawed. When you feed live/pre-killed, make sure the prey item is healthy and does not appear sick. Also, when feeding live please stun the prey so that there's a less chance of it harming your snake. Have tweezers handy to pull the prey away from the snake if it looks as though it's going to harm it. (If the snake has the prey item already in grip, just stall the prey until the snake successfully constricts it.) ALWAYS, watch your ball python when it's eating live.

*General Prey*

+ Species of prey item.
- Try feeding something like a gerbil, they are genetically closer to the rodents that ball pythons hunt in the wild. So, they're usually a winner.
- Other types of prey are mice, hamsters, rats, and chicks. If you have a big ball python, there are guinea pigs and even small rabbits. (So I've heard, most people never feed their ball python anything bigger than a rat.)

+ Gender of prey item
- For some reason some ball pythons prefer male over female or vise versa prey. I would think male could possibly be preferred because males tend to smell more than females. (No joke intended. )

+ Size of prey item
- Usually ball pythons will eat if the prey item is too small, but if the prey item is too large it may scare the snake into not eating it. Perhaps if your snake strikes the prey, but does not eat it, it may be too large.

*Frozen*

+ Make sure it's warm!
- Ball pythons are sensitive to heat so it may not be attracted to the prey if it's cold. Run the prey under or place it in warm water for a while until fully thawed, as mentioned above.

+ Do a little dance~
- Sometimes your ball python needs a little bit of convincing to take the prey. You may need to do a bit of a puppet show with the mouse. Use tongs or tweezers and have your prey do somewhat of a little dance.

+ Weird position?
- Sometimes frozen will stay in a weird position even when fully thawed, try to kind of bend the mouse so that it's straight.

*Pre-Killed*

+ ... How do I do this?!
- Perhaps stun the prey a bit by bonking it on something so it will stay still, then literally take a small hammer (You can improvise) and smack it in the head hard enough to penetrate the skull, use a cloth or paper towels to cover it up while doing this if you really don't want to see it. Otherwise, use some other sort of clean surface. The whole point is to open the brain so that it is more enticing for the snake smell wise.

+ More dancing!
- We're on a roll tonight. Please refer to Frozen part 2.

+ OW, it bit me.
- Yeah, try not to get bit. You can wear gloves and hold the prey by it's tail if it has one.

*Live*

+ Again, safety, safety, safety!
- Bonk 'em! Seriously, just hit the prey against something to stun it.
- Use tongs and tweezers for dropping the rodent in/preventing it from hurting your snake.
- Always watch your snake eat your prey to prevent it from getting hurt. We don't want your snake to get beat up by the prey item.
- Again, don't get bit.

+++ For all safety/warning tips look at the first paragraph under "Prey Problems". You can also mix it up between these, be creative.

And last but not least, here are some nice care sites.
http://www.kingsnake.com/ballpythonguide/
http://www.anapsid.org/ball.html
http://ballpythoncare.devhub.com/
http://ball-pythons.net/

Please, if I have made any mistakes, correct me. Also mention if I have forgotten something because I did this mostly from memory, however, I also realize it's extremely long.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Actually I would nit recommend feeding a prey size 1.5 the girth size.

There are also more than usually two reasons why snakes go off feed

[rabernet]

Thanks for putting that together as a general guideline - I can tell you worked hard at it.

As for live feeding - I have never, ever stunned live prey - it's simply not necessary, and it it more dangerous to the snake to put a frightened stunned animal in with it. If feeding live, feed live - no stunning.

[Bishop]

Awesome post. Very informative and covered everything. At a great time too, mine just went off feeding for 2 months. Now i have a few areas to check/ work on.

[rabernet]

Awesome post. Very informative and covered everything. At a great time too, mine just went off feeding for 2 months. Now i have a few areas to check/ work on.

Check out our caresheet here for the "Why won't my snake eat?" section:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

[Miko]

Actually I would nit recommend feeding a prey size 1.5 the girth size.

There are also more than usually two reasons why snakes go off feed

Yeah, I was thinking it was timing, stress, and type of prey. However, I just put timing in stress because perhaps it would count as a stressful time. It would be great if you could help me if I'm wrong.

[Miko]

Thanks for putting that together as a general guideline - I can tell you worked hard at it.

As for live feeding - I have never, ever stunned live prey - it's simply not necessary, and it it more dangerous to the snake to put a frightened stunned animal in with it. If feeding live, feed live - no stunning.

Well, I don't feed live and I think you're probably correct. I heard that some people do it, it probably isn't necessary as long as you have something to lessen the chance of your ball python getting hurt.