New Python at Home

[msolorz]

Got a 2 new pythons but the female won't eat. I have had her now for about 5 days and tried for several days to feed her prekilled and F/T rats. She seems to be very skittish about everything including F/T rats. How long should it take before she will eat? The male ate a few days after he arrived. HELP!!

[gen]

You should give her at least a week to acclimate and adjust to her new home, if not two. If she does not eat then, give her another 5-7 days before you try again. Trying repeatedly to feed her day after day will further stress her out and there will be less chance that she will eat for you.

In the meantime, you can make sure that you have optimal conditions for her to live in to avoid stress. Make sure your husbandry is all set so that you know your bp is comfortable. So I have some questions for you. What is the temperature in the tank? How are you heating it? What kind of tank is it? Do you have two hides for her, one on the warm side and one on the cool side? What is the humidity in the tank? Are you housing the pythons together or seperately?

Just don't panic. Ball pythons can go for a while without eating. Give her time.

[Ginevive]

Yeah, I would definately give her a week or more, to settle in and get used to her cage. As long as your setup is set up properly, things will fall into place.

[msolorz]

Thanks for the info people, really appreciate it. I think I am more stressed than she is though.

To answer your questions:
Tank is set at 90°, heating it with 2 reflective ceramic heaters. The tank is a Vision cage 48X?X?(can't remember the exact size), but it is a pretty good size tank. I have one hiding spot in the cool side, her other is on the lip above the glass doors (she likes it up there). Humidity? Good question, buying a gauge tomorrow. No, they are living in separate cages. The male is about 1200grams, don't need her to get pregnant by him.

Any other advice would be appreciated. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

[Marla]

Please give her at least a week before trying to feed again, preferably longer! You can turn a good eater into a food striker trying repeatedly like that. Also, when you say the cage is at 90°, you mean just on the warm side, right? She does need to thermoregulate, and those temps need to be measured accurately (if you got a thermostat with thermometer to go with your cage, that is fine) as does humidity. Welcome to the site!

[msolorz]

I hope she is not a food striker. What are the consequences of her being a food striker?

I think I startled her this morning, she struck at the glass twice. I have Helix controller; the probe is directly under the middle heat lamp. The cool side is about 82-84°, I will find out what the humidty is today.

[Marla]

When I said food striker, what I meant was like going on strike against eating food, rather than striking at food. I guess with snakes that's not clear, though, is it? Anyway, the consequences of having a non-eater on your hands should be pretty apparent and generally start with stress-induced symptoms for you.

[gen]

I suggest you get a digital thermometer/hygrometer from Walmart. They accurately measure the temperature on both sides of the tank and measure the humidity all in one!! They're around $15, they're usually in the section with outdoor thermometers, or some people have said by the mailboxes. The stick on thermometers and hygrometers from pet stores can be inaccurate. Your humidity should be somewhere in the range of 50-60%.

[msolorz]

Got that right, I continue losing sleep over this.

[Marla]

Give her several days to settle in, make sure your temps and humidity are right, and get a good night's sleep.