Monty's giving me trouble

[alexrls]

just for a quick rundown on him

ive had him for over a year and have been feeding him live started on mice moved to rats at the of may and hes been eating fine but recently his feeding has been all wacked 5 weeks ago he downed a meduim rat just fine and then the next week he didnt eat. no big deal . i fbring the rat out 3 days later nothing doing. continues for aound 2 weeks. he never touched the rat. i finally gut pissed off and returned the rat cause i was spending more time taking care of the rat than Monty.

i waited a couple of dayz (till yesterday) and bought a smaller end rat (not juvie but a small medium) and last night he wouldnt touch it. its in the cage right now running circles around him and he wont even look at it. hes had rough feedings before but im getting worried.

thats the regular part about all this. my MAIN CONCERN however is that when ever i get near the tank now he immediatly goes psycho hunting mode and snaps at me!!. i mean like ill walk pass the cage and he'll lunge at the glass!

so i got below level of the tank (its on an aquarium stand) and i "snuck up on him" and i noticed a bit of scale rot on the underside of his head (sort of like a few stringy looking things and a few brown spots) and im wondering if its a combination of all these things that throwing him off so bad


a little help here please

[mr~python]

same here! exactly like that too! 5 weeks ago i fed zulu a med rat and he's never touched anything since. i asked the same Q. and everybody here said he was fine. im not worrying and i dont think you have to. he'll eat eventually. they can go for months. zulu acts like he always did though, no lunging at me or anything. i cant help you with your other problems but as far as feeding... dont worry about it.

[alexrls]

thanks lil dude looks like u been paying attention to what e'rybody one this sites been tellin u .


the feeding things not my biggest problem but i am really worried about the potential scale rot and the lungeing and how the heck im gonna get the rat outa his cage tonite (and even if i leave it in tonite itll have to wait for tomorow nite to take it out and i dont want to leave it in there so long w/o supervision

but thanks for the boost

edit: soooo anyone out there can help alay my fears?

[mr~python]

you prolly wanna get that rat outta there asap no matter what monte does. the rat(im thinkin) would stress the snake out and cause him not feed even longer. you could probably get the rat out by putting a guard of some sort like a lid to a tupperware or something to make a guard from monte while you get the rat out.

with the mouthrot you should take him to the vet as soon as you can.

[iceman25]

How are ur temps and when was ur last vet visit?

[vinnimac]

I had one of my males decide he didn't want rats anymore. Offered him mice, and he gobbled 'em right down. I tried rats for three weeks, though before going to mice. and then gave him three of them for one meal. Didn't slow down on any of them.

[Adam_Wysocki]

Feeding medium rats to a ball python can keep them filled up for a long time. Even my largest adults only get small small rats 40-50 grams which keeps them on a 7 day feeding schedule.

Also sounds like a little bit of stress going on there as well.

What are your temps and humidity and how are you measuring them?

-adam

[alexrls]

my temps are 80-84 cool 87-90 hot and the humidity averages across the tank at 40% ( hot sides gotta bump up a little but it varys on the time during he day its fine and at night when the heaters on its fine but at twilight it drops a bit. im working on it)

im measuring w those digital walmart thingys

i dont wiegh in my rats but how wold u do it in a pinch (bathroom scales not gonna work is it?)

i guess i cold get a mouse but those dudes are tiny!! like the size of two botle caps