Another feeding question

[Marco1212]

My ball python still won't eat. It's been 3 weeks. Could it be that the mouse I'm offering is too small? Should I try something a little larger? She is about 2 1/2 feet and just under 1 lb. I've been trying 1 small mouse frozen/thawed. She did eat once when I first got her. I am feeding her in her tank. Thank you.

[blue roses]

First checkk your temps, and humidity, make sure they are all correct. Use an infa-red temp gun, they are the most accurate, and not expensive, and can be found in any hardware or auto parts store. If everything is good, find out what the breeder fed, was it FT, or live , was it mice or rats. Once you know then thats what you offer, if FT, then make sure its warm enough when you offer it. If your set up is in a busy room then feed late at night, when its quiet. Don't handle this animal till you get 4 or 5 meals into him, then wait 48 hours after feeding and start short 10 min. handling sessions. Stress on a new animal can cause refusals, and some might take longer then the standard 1 week toget used to their new home.

[JodanOrNoDan]

Not eating can be caused by many things. It can also be normal. Please let us understand your entire setup including temps and humidity.

Mouse is too small. If the animal is actually that weight it should at least be be on weaned rats.

[Marco1212]

She is kept in a 40 gal tank. Warm side is 85 (90 directly under infrared heat lamp) cool side is 75. Humidity is 50%. Night time temp is between 75 and 80. I also have a heat pad at the warm side of the tank that I only use on low at night with no lamp. I use newspaper as substrate. She has the usual hide and large water container for soaking. Also A tree like structure and fake vines for hiding and climbing. She doesn't seem nervous. She is extremely docile and seems to like being held.

[Marco1212]

UPDATE: I offered her a small rat and she took it! Yes, finally!

[cchardwick]

UPDATE: I offered her a small rat and she took it! Yes, finally!

That's great! I fed a full size mouse to a baby ball python that was about 500 grams, I thought that snake was going to explode LOL. The next week it grew two inches LOL

By the way, this is based on the Munson feeding schedule, probably the absolute high end for feeder weights, but I find it useful to estimate how much to feed. For King snakes I usually try to hit these numbers by using several smaller meals. Ball pythons can take a larger meal. I think I actually exceed the high end numbers with one of my 'garbage disposal' king snakes that gets all my uneaten mice!

Snake Size in Grams	Feeder Size in Grams
4-15 grams	2-3 grams
16-23 grams	3-4 grams
24-30 grams	5-7 grams
31-50 grams	7-9 grams
51-90 grams	9-12 grams
91-170 grams	13-20 grams
170-300 grams	20-30 grams