Bizarre feeding method

[sufficio]

Not looking for advice, just wanted to share this silly tidbit. My ball python baby has been eating super well, but last week suddenly went off feed for no reason. He'd just slither straight past the meal and ignore it. Today, I was a little fed up with it. So I picked up his body and just aimed his face at the mouse. Not in a stressful way, just gently handling him, he didn't struggle or act stressed. And like magic, he sniffed and struck right away. I swear, if I have to hold this snake and aim him every time for him to eat...

Has anyone else experienced something like this? This snake is so ridiculous, I love him.

[Ba11er]

Im glad you got your snake to eat but this is definitely not something people should try to do. This will stress a snake out even if it dosent seem like it and normally make a snake less likely to eat. They will eat when they are ready, it can be a real pain but they are on their own schedule not ours.

[Ratikal]

I actually had a Pastel female that refused to eat unless she was elevated above her food. So I setup a climb spot and would put her food below and she never refused a meal...it was pretty unique---

[sufficio]

Is it for sure stressful, ba11er? It's not much different than just handling him and he generally has been good about that. I didn't force him to strike, or shove his face at it whatsoever. Just gently held him up and he went for the mouse in seconds. If it's truly stressful I'll avoid it.

That's really interesting ratikal! Maybe this fella is the same way- I'll have to try giving him a box to be elevated on next time and see if he prefers eating that way!

[melcvt00]

Do you ever just dangle the food in front of him?

[cchardwick]

I've seen videos of people holding up a ball python by the tail and getting fussy eaters to eat, not sure it's really stressful, I doubt a stressed out snake would eat. Not sure I would ever try it. Usually I offer a fresh killed rodent for about 1 minute max, then if they don't eat I move on to the next snake and they skip a meal that week (or for a few days since I usually feed twice a week now). Snakes can go several months without eating and not really lose any weight, not sure I'd do this to try to power feed a snake. I've actually converted all of my live feeders to fresh killed by offering for a minute then skipping the meal. They figure it out and get hungry and eventually switch over and never look back.

The only snake I would probably try this on is one that has lost a lot of body weight and looks so skinny that it's sickly, then I'd resort to desperate measures. Recently I had a respiratory infection go through my rat colony, finally cured it. But I'm pretty sure I fed some sickly rats and some of my snakes went off of food for a few weeks, it was pretty interesting how the feeding response of a snake was directly proportional to the health of my rodents.

[Calider]

I have a spider girl who I MUST stabilize when feeding or she literally can not eat. Those familiar with spider balls know how hard it can be to feed a severe wobbler, and if I didn't stabilize Sassy when feeding her, she would never hit her target, and believe me, I have tried. Left it in front of her and watched her bounce her face off the ground until she seemed dazed. It is much less cruel to help her than to let her bash her own head in like that. This snake was given to me with an entire starter setup... Glass terrarium, lamps, hides, water dish, fake plants... The whole kazoo... Because her wobble was so bad that nobody else wanted her, and breeding her is out of the question. With a safe water dish and patient feeding, she will live a good life. I don't know that the OP snake is a wobbler, but every snake is different, and if the snake was comfortable enough to eat, he was probably not as stressed as you think. I would personally be more worried about setting him down after he started eating, I would be afraid he'd drop it and peace out and then not want it again... But clearly it worked this time anyway. As for me, I don't lift my wobbler up entirely because, being so unsteady, she feels insecure enough off the ground that she would immediately lose interest in eating at all. I sort of cup my hand around her, behind her head, so that when she wobbles, her head just bounces side to side off the inside of my hand. I hold the mouse RIGHT in front of her face and she usually gets it the first try. Disclaimer though, she is still a young'n, and when she bites it is pretty much like getting swatted by a playful cat. I probably wouldn't get this handsy with an adult... Certainly not with my other two snakes, LOL.

[highqualityballz]

I dont know if you know him, but henry piorun has a video on youtube called feeding reluctant ball pythons and he uses this same method. At first i thought it was just a coincidence that it worked for him but if it worked for you too, it must be worth a try!

[sufficio]

Do you ever just dangle the food in front of him?

Yup, I do the whole zombie dance. It worked perfectly for his past 3 feeds, then he just stopped taking interest. I tried a dozen or so other methods before this one, with no luck.

I've seen videos of people holding up a ball python by the tail and getting fussy eaters to eat, not sure it's really stressful, I doubt a stressed out snake would eat. Not sure I would ever try it. Usually I offer a fresh killed rodent for about 1 minute max, then if they don't eat I move on to the next snake and they skip a meal that week (or for a few days since I usually feed twice a week now). Snakes can go several months without eating and not really lose any weight, not sure I'd do this to try to power feed a snake. I've actually converted all of my live feeders to fresh killed by offering for a minute then skipping the meal. They figure it out and get hungry and eventually switch over and never look back.

The only snake I would probably try this on is one that has lost a lot of body weight and looks so skinny that it's sickly, then I'd resort to desperate measures. Recently I had a respiratory infection go through my rat colony, finally cured it. But I'm pretty sure I fed some sickly rats and some of my snakes went off of food for a few weeks, it was pretty interesting how the feeding response of a snake was directly proportional to the health of my rodents.

Good to know, I won't make a habit of it if at all possible. Hopefully he eats normally next week.

I have a spider girl who I MUST stabilize when feeding or she literally can not eat. Those familiar with spider balls know how hard it can be to feed a severe wobbler, and if I didn't stabilize Sassy when feeding her, she would never hit her target, and believe me, I have tried. Left it in front of her and watched her bounce her face off the ground until she seemed dazed. It is much less cruel to help her than to let her bash her own head in like that. This snake was given to me with an entire starter setup... Glass terrarium, lamps, hides, water dish, fake plants... The whole kazoo... Because her wobble was so bad that nobody else wanted her, and breeding her is out of the question. With a safe water dish and patient feeding, she will live a good life. I don't know that the OP snake is a wobbler, but every snake is different, and if the snake was comfortable enough to eat, he was probably not as stressed as you think. I would personally be more worried about setting him down after he started eating, I would be afraid he'd drop it and peace out and then not want it again... But clearly it worked this time anyway. As for me, I don't lift my wobbler up entirely because, being so unsteady, she feels insecure enough off the ground that she would immediately lose interest in eating at all. I sort of cup my hand around her, behind her head, so that when she wobbles, her head just bounces side to side off the inside of my hand. I hold the mouse RIGHT in front of her face and she usually gets it the first try. Disclaimer though, she is still a young'n, and when she bites it is pretty much like getting swatted by a playful cat. I probably wouldn't get this handsy with an adult... Certainly not with my other two snakes, LOL.

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. When I was picking out a ball to buy, I almost got a cheap spider but I'm glad I didn't. I didn't know the wobble could effect their feeding. But no, this guy is just a normal, not a spider and no wobbles. When I dropped him after he latched on, I just slowly lowered him and he didn't react at all. That's really sweet that you go to so much work to help your spider though. I'm sure she appreciates having such a good home

I dont know if you know him, but henry piorun has a video on youtube called feeding reluctant ball pythons and he uses this same method. At first i thought it was just a coincidence that it worked for him but if it worked for you too, it must be worth a try!

Interesting, I'll have to check that out! I wonder why exactly it works, you'd think it would make them less likely to eat when being held but if it works, it works, I guess.