Husbandry help

[chrid16371]

I've been having trouble with my super pastel eating and I got some advice to post pics of his enclosure. He has ate 4 meals in 2 and a half months. Temps and humidity are perfect. He gets interested then scared. Its very frustrating. Here is some pics and please let me know what you would change. I was thinking maybe of moving the hide that's front left to the middle but I'll see what comments I get first.

Good news is the killerbee I picked up last night just ate her first meal with me!

[Scottywelsh]

Hey. I'm just wondering what size your royal is ? And what size the viv and hides are ?

[piedpipper]

That looks like a very secure/comfortable environment to me. I have a ball python like that that sometimes is interested and then gets scared. Its almost like a psychological thing with her lol. In order to get her to take the rat I can NEVER touch her with it as she instantly gets scared. Instead I just start wiggling it far away from her as she slowly approaches it on her own to take it. Sometimes takes 1-2 minutes to do this process. Hope that helps.

Also, there are just some bp's that are naturally picky or just not hungry. If your husbandry is good which it looks like its more than perfect I would just continue offering food once every week or two until he wants to take. Nothing really to be worried about if he's a healthy weight.

P.S. four meals in two and a half months would be about every other week? Thats pretty normal for many bp's in my experience to not want to eat more than that.

[chrid16371]

Hey. I'm just wondering what size your royal is ? And what size the viv and hides are ?

My bp is about 2.5 feet long not sure of weight. When he balls up he touches sides of all hides. His favorite hide is the right cool side exo Terra snake hide, most likely bc the opening is much smaller then the others. He goes to the bathroom in the hot side log hide. He is now in a v400 was in v211 before but it was way to small IMO. He hasn't taken 3 meals in the v211 and 1 meal in the v400. He took his first meal in his snake cave cool hide and the other 3 meals he took were after handling him. He also has only ate red eyed white rats. The ones he's refused were not red eyed and white so is it possible he doesn't like or recognize another other color?

[Coluber42]

You could try covering the front of the tank with a piece of cardboard when it's feeding time. He might feel better about it if he can't see you. You can still peek around the edges to check up on him.

[Yodawagon]

Don't take offense to this, but why would you get another snake when you're still working on perfecting the one you already have.

You should never use a hide with a hole in it, they can get stuck.

I see a wireless sensor in one of those pictures. I hope that's not taped. You should be checking your parameters where the snake lives, not 7 inches above it.

Also what are you parameters?
Heat source?

[Yodawagon]

How big is the snake? That's a huge cage for anything but a large adult ball.

[chrid16371]

You could try covering the front of the tank with a piece of cardboard when it's feeding time. He might feel better about it if he can't see you. You can still peek around the edges to check up on him.

I've read a few places to remove yourself view when feeding. I usually stand beside the cage so he can't see me. It's just frustrating. Every time he refuses I think I must be doing something wrong. First 2 times I tried feeding him he refused and then I found out he had mites. I used reptile relief and pam and then he ate 2 times in a row. I did 2 more treatments with reptile relief and 3 more of Pam. I thought that was the problem but he has no mites now and still no luck. Its especially frustrating now bc of the killerbee I picked up last night, not even 24hrs later she ate....now if she keeps eating on her scheduled days it will be even more frustrating. I know not all bp are the same, some are great eaters some are stubborn but that still isn't enough for me. I just want him to grow up to be a big healthy boy.

[KH88]

I don't know if you are feeding live or frozen? But i know my snake will turn down his rat if it isn't warm enough. With my guy it seems like the heat from the rat is what interests him most.

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[piedpipper]

I've read a few places to remove yourself view when feeding. I usually stand beside the cage so he can't see me. It's just frustrating. Every time he refuses I think I must be doing something wrong. First 2 times I tried feeding him he refused and then I found out he had mites. I used reptile relief and pam and then he ate 2 times in a row. I did 2 more treatments with reptile relief and 3 more of Pam. I thought that was the problem but he has no mites now and still no luck. Its especially frustrating now bc of the killerbee I picked up last night, not even 24hrs later she ate....now if she keeps eating on her scheduled days it will be even more frustrating. I know not all bp are the same, some are great eaters some are stubborn but that still isn't enough for me. I just want him to grow up to be a big healthy boy.

Lol if that isn't good enough for you you shouldn't have got into ball pythons. As someone on here has as their signature: "the only thing consistent about ball pythons is their inconsistency".

Like I said, if you have your parameters set and a good amount of hides etc. he will eat in due time. If you want to try something switch to a smaller cage as someone suggested.

Yodawagon - the op is obviously taking great care of her snakes. One picky ball python doesn't mean you can't get another snake. There is no such thing as "perfecting" a ball python's appetite. They just eat when they want to eat.