New ball not eating. Is his tub too big?

[Dezoruba]

Hey everyone, I got a new ball python on June 5th and he still hasn't eaten for me. He acts like he doesn't even recognize the prey -- he doesn't watch it or track it or anything. My concerns:

-the breeder only fed him live rat pups, and I can't get them live where I live, only frozen. I've tried a live large mouse and live small rat, he had no interest in either. I can get frozen rat pups but I'm not sure how to feed f/t because my other girl only eats live..

-my rack uses cb70 size tubs. I bought that size because my other snake, a female, is 2500 grams. He's only 950 grams so I feel like it's too big for him. The breeder kept him in a sweater box. I have 2 hides in his tub, it looks like this: http://m.imgur.com/LIhVuFc is this ok or would it cause him to be too stressed?

-temps... I'm having some trouble/confusion with. If I set the thermostat to where it's 96° on the tub under the substrate (how I have it now), then the ambient temperature is too low at around 75° on the cold side. But, if I raise it so that the ambient temperature is 80 and it's 96° on top of the substrate on hot side, that leaves the tub under the substrate reaching Temps of 107 which feels dangerous to me. Which is correct?

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[Alexio]

As far as the temps go, have you tried adding / removing substrate instead of changing the temps? Making it thinner to allow more heat to travel up words and running at a lower temp.
I usually worry more about what the surface temp of the tub is more than ambient temperature.
What is the ambient temperature of the room the rack is in?
96 also feels rather high for a temp at the tubs surface.

As far as the size of the tub itself, it is a large tub but with your hides and water they take up a lot of room. How big is the hide compared to the bp? Is he tight fitting in those hides? Even though there is not much open space he may not feel secure in the hide.

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[BMorrison]

If you're in cb70 and he's 950g I'd say you're 100% ok my Killerblast is 267g and in cb70 3 more around the same size will be here Tuesday and also in a cb70 rack. Kick your thermostat down to 90 (works flawless for me with aspen in those tubs) hottest spot they touch comes to about 90.7 gradient to 77 on the cool side with the ambient about 81.
My setup is 1 hide and a water dish, power eaters minus my male normal who's a typical eat 9-12x's a year kinda guy.
Balls aren't as fragile as people make them out to be. They can handle some variation.
As far as feeding he could be like my boy and just not a big power eater like my other male and female. I'd say offer him a live appropriate sized mouse if you can't get a rat then if he doesn't take it wait 2-3 days and try again.


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[Dezoruba]

As far as the temps go, have you tried adding / removing substrate instead of changing the temps? Making it thinner to allow more heat to travel up words and running at a lower temp.
I usually worry more about what the surface temp of the tub is more than ambient temperature.
What is the ambient temperature of the room the rack is in?
96 also feels rather high for a temp at the tubs surface.

As far as the size of the tub itself, it is a large tub but with your hides and water they take up a lot of room. How big is the hide compared to the bp? Is he tight fitting in those hides? Even though there is not much open space he may not feel secure in the hide.

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I haven't tried that, I'll try removing substrate and lowering the temp. Hadn't thought of that!

As for the hide, it's just a little bit too big for him but the medium size is too small. He likes to get all the way to the left where his body touches 3 sides, but not the other side or the roof. It could ideally be a lot more snug though. I leave a little space between the back of the hide and the tub and he likes to squish himself back there where it's nice and dark.

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[Dezoruba]

There's a size comparison. It probably is too big. I bought the hides for my large girl but they were too small for her

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