My Wild Caught

[Hazardous]

Will not eat. I have had him for about two weeks now and he would rather be friends with the Rat then kill it.... Any suggestions on what I should try next to get him to eat something?

Is actually kind of funny seeing the rat go face to face with the snake and the snake shy away LOL.....

[JASBALLS]

First off thats what you get when you buy w/c LOL! Try a gerbil with him next time..

[lillyorchid]

WC's are known to be non eaters, or very very very picky eaters.
Like Jas said get a gerbil next time and the time after that get a rat or a mouse and rub a gerbil all over it.

[Larry Suttles]

I would also make sure he has a nice hide box and isn't in a high traffic area where people will be walking be him a hundred times a day. Just give some quiet time to help his stress level a bit.

[frankykeno]

Two weeks really is a short time for any snake, even a captive born one, to settle in and feel secure enough to eat for you, let alone a wild caught one. Here's a link to a post I did some time back about how we set up a female w/c adult that has not eaten in 8 months in captivity (well verified 8 months but possibly quite a lot longer than that...she was very skinny for an adult).

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...560#post457560

We did get her eating with those methods. Her first feeding was actually a hopper sized gerbil and a large pup rat. We put them together in a carrier with lots of airholes and set it on top of her tub. We left the room and let them run around and pre-scent the area for an hour. When we snuck back in she was out of her hide and peering intently at the interesting vibrations and smells coming from above her. We dropped in the gerbil...she snatched it up...then as soon as it was done...in went the rat pup....she took that as well (probably smelled like the gerbil somewhat). The next week she responded just fine to another rat pup and then we gradually moved her up to weanling rats, then small rats over many, many weekly feedings.

Has the snake either been seen by a vet or had a fecal float done? They can often be carrying a load of internal parasites that will make them unhealthy and affect their feeding response.

[Hazardous]

Thanks for the feedback, will try a gerbil next time.... In the mean time my captive ball got a double meal yesterday

[frankykeno]

You do have the new w/c quarantined from your captive one right? It's just me...I'm so anal about quarantine procedures...but I wouldn't have taken a prey animal from a quarantined w/c's cage and fed it to any of my established collection snakes.

[Uncle Festae]

Joanna, its not just you

[Entropy]

My few W/Cs took about six months to get feeding regularly. Luckily they were 'big girls' before then so it didn't take as much of a toll on them as the lighter ones. They are now feeding on F/T or live rats and mice (not picky in the slightest) but they still won't eat if you watch them so I always feed them right before I go to bed so the whole house is dark and quiet.

I do agree to start them out with a small gerbil or a small gerbil scented mouse (one of mine took a gerbil scented mouse lucky me, but I think she's just a glutton). Frankys link is quite spiffy actually, nice info.

[Ginevive]

Wow; with a WC, I would give it a minimum of 4 weeks just to settle into captivity without any unnnecessary disturbances.. think of the transition from being in the wilds of Africa.. to now being in a tank or tub in your house.