My first Ball

[flamekitty84]

Hello all! My names Amanda. I picked up my first BP at the Baltimore Repticon
Here he is before I bought him

His name is Cherry Pi



The man that sold him to me informed me that he was about 6mo and taking live rat pups.
I don't really like doing this so I'd like to switch him over to f/t asap
Does anyone have any tips on doing this? What has worked best for you guys?

Thank you and I look forward to becoming a part of this community!!

- Amanda

[BumbleB]

Awesome first ball python welcome to the site!

[Lizardlicks]

Cherry, aw baby! What a nice lookin' snake!

[Gerardo]

Welcome to the forum. That's a great looking pied.

[flamekitty84]

Thank you guys!! I love him to bits
He's very active and curious, but I'm trying rly hard.to leave him be for a week so he can adjust. I just got him this saturday
I'm nervous about his first feed this friday

[phil89]

gorgeous pied, absolutely stunning. as soon as i can afford one of these both monetarily and spacewise im all over getting a pied.
this one looks like a sweetheart. what cool animasl BPs are.

[Atrox]

Welcome to BP.net, Amanda! Enjoy your stay and your time with Cherry Pi! He's beautiful.

To answer your question, I have seen this answered many times on this forum. After you've allowed him to settle in for a few days, try offering the same sized food F/T and animate it's body with the tongs. Before offering it, try to warm up the entire body with a hairdryer and then pin the neck down and heat the head even more. Once you've done that, quickly take it to the snake before it loses heat. If he doesn't accept it first time, don't worry. He will just have to wait until your next scheduled feeding date and you can try it again. I just hope you're not one of the unlucky ones that has a snake that'll only take live.

[MarkL1561]

Hi Amanda, I just recently got a ball as well. At first I was nervous about whether or not he'd eat due to the stress of shipping. I let him sit for a week then offered him food and he took it right away. I'm not sure if he was feed live previously though. What has worked best for me with my snakes is to use hot water to raise the rats body temp then use long tongs and mimic movement. Most of the time the snake can't tell the difference and will strike. If this doesn't work cover the feeding tank with a towel and let him sit for 30-1hr before offering the food. If done in dim lighting the snake will mainly use their heat sensors, which increases the likelihood of a response.

[flamekitty84]

Thank you guys so much!! When I got him on saturday at the show, the guy said it had already been a week since he ate, so when feeding day on friday comes along, it will have been 2 weeks since he's eaten...I'm hoping he will be super hungry by then and won't have any problems. I'm assuming after the first f/t I shouldn't have to worry about finding live rats for him?

[The Snakery]

Awesome first BP! Hopefully switching to F/T won't be too difficult. I know you must be super excited.