Off feed success story!

[Geckodelic]

Since I am still a bit new to ball pythons, It drives me nuts when a female hits 1000g and then goes off feed for no reason. Especially a female that has eaten every single meal that was ever put in front of her. Almost 1.5 months went by without any interest in her rats, so I decided to start some testing.

Is she going off feed because she just isn't hungry? Something else? My husbandry seems fine since every other snake in that rack are feeding with gusto. I feed F/T by the way.

The testing began.

1. Test 1: only open the cage a few inches and lower the F/T rat in there slowly. No response.

2. Test 2: Do the zombie dance lightly grazing the BP's mouth area. No response.

3. Test 3: Leave the Rat in overnight. No response.

4. Test 4: Shut all the lights off and lower in the rack with tongs. No response.

5. Test 5: Heat water up inside an old coffee mug to where i can just about keep my finger in there, dip the rat in there for 10 seconds, dab the rat with a paper towel. Result = Instant strike and successful meal!

Three days later I tried again my old way....nothing...Then I tried the hotter water coffee cup way....BAM! Struck within seconds! I guess my snake likes her meals hotter than normal now!

Don't give up on non-eaters. Something has to make them tick!

[Vasiliki]

I use that technique for my corn snake. She would eat her meals, but it was casual, not excited. She wouldn't even strike and coil. She would just.... put her mouth around the mouse when I offered it on tongs and slowly start to pull it away, haha. Funniest thing ever. But I started to worry when one time she just rubbed her face all over it instead of eating it

So I boiled up some hot water, dipped her mouse into it, dried it a bit, checked to make sure it wasn't TOO hot.... Offered it that way, and she got so excited that she was almost vibrating, haha. Hunched, watched, tracked, and hit that mouse so hard it twisted the tongs out of my hand, knocked over her warm hide and you could just eat the bones breaking as she constricted that thing like craaaaazy.

Best feeding response she's ever had was with that method. I tried it again last night (especially because she's blue right now) and she didn't even miss the strike. Same enthusiasm.

Gotta love when they strike like that!

Congrats on getting your girl to eat. That's fantastic

[Geckodelic]

Thanks!

[alkibp]

Great info! I'll have to try it.

I too have had females shut down around 1100 grams, forcing me to offer live rats instead of frozen/thawed.

I would much rather use the hot water trick if it'll work for me.

[bivman]

Thats interesting. I feed live ASF's and they still go off feed, mostly during the Nov-March time. I just found something that works for me. I offer an hor dourve first, an ASF hopper. If they take it, I follow up 10 minutes later with a mid sized ASF. This worked twice recently, and everyone is back on. I think after a long period of not feeding, a regular sized rodent intimidates. Go figure?