feeding

[daveyboy]

does anyone have any good proven feeding tips for ball pythons,my female who is 10 mths old has started getting finicky,how much and how often should i feed her,gettin her onto rats is no go
many thanx guys

[JLC]

Mice will work fine for the life of the snake.


Feeding tips:

I believe there are two keys to a consistent eater...

1. A proper and secure environment. If it's too cool, the snake may not want to eat. And if they don't feel completely safe and secure, they may not eat.

2. Consistency. Feeding on the same day each week....using the same routine each feeding day.

For instance, I'm feeding my BP on Thursdays. Every Thursday, I go to the pet store and pick up her rat (or mouse, in your case) and bring it home. I bump around a little bit on the top of her enclosure to "wake" her up....I put the rat in a small cage and leave the cage next to her enclosure for about 30 minutes...then I unlatch the top of her enclosure and very quickly drop the rat in. Rat rarely lasts more than 10 seconds. We do it this way every week and she is a very consistent eater.

Other tips...

Pre-scent the room ... This is why I leave the rat in a cage nearby. My snake smells it and it gets her into hunting mode, actively looking/waiting for that rat to drop out of the sky.

SMALL meals ... If you feed large (or multiple) prey, they may just not be hungry by their next feeding day. But if you feed a bit smaller than what you think they want...they'll likely eat every week without fail. (Although some don't care to eat while in shed) And even with the small meals, if they're eating every week, they're getting far more food on an anual basis than they would get in the wild.

My snake is about 18 months old, and gets fed small-small rats. I think one adult mouse should be plenty for a 10 month old BP on a weekly basis.

I hope this has helped some! Feel free to ask more questions!