Hi im new! Feeding question

[burgo345]

Hey guys Ive been viewing theses forums for a few weeks now but have not posted yet. My name is Anthony and I am 20 Years old. I have had ball pythons for 2 years now. A few months ago I got rid of my two oldest ones to one of my buddies that wanted some older ball pythons. My third Ball Python my current one is about 7-8 months old. For the first 4 months or so everyone mouse I feed them went very quickly. Over the last few months I try offering food and he will not eat. He will not even kill the mouse. I have checked temps on both sides they are fine. Humidity is right on. I have soaked him several times over the month. I know during the winter this can happen. Just like 20 mins ago I put a mouse in the cage and he killed it almost right away, I got really excited but now he is just going around the cage is not eating it. I guess it is a step up. Im just get extremely discourged because he will not eat. Sorry for this being so long if anyone has any suggestions or thoughts PLEASE feel free to share them. I hope to tell you more about myself and my BP later. I will try and get some pictures uploaded later next week.

[mwedgley]

hey check out this thread I posted awhile ago. But most importantly don't handle or anything while it is off feed and only offer food once a month no exceptions.

[Freakie_frog]

But most importantly don't handle or anything while it is off feed and only offer food once a month no exceptions.

What!!!!! Please let me what makes you think offering only once a month is a good idea ?
There is no need to not offer food. Period end of story. Not offering food can add to the problem.

The not handling is right I agree there it keeps the stress down and lets you focus on getting it back eating

Offer food once a week every week on the same day at the same time. If your offering mice and the snake doesn't kill and eat it set you up a small enclosure for the mouse to keep it till next week.

In the 5 years I have been keeping Ball pythons I have seen them go off feed for many reasons some do it for no seen reason at all. offering once a week give the animal the chance to eat even it doesn't. Not offering means your the one deciding that the snake doesn't eat let decision be theirs. Getting them on a schedule seems to really help with the going off feed. Not to say that they might still for what ever reason but it cuts down on the likelihood of it .

You say he killed the item but has not eaten. I have a few suggestions for you but first I need some info. You say that the temps and humidity are right on so please forgive the question but what is you current hot and cool temps and humidity and how are you monitoring them. What is the animal housed in.

[burgo345]

My current set up is a 20L tank with a UTH and a basking light. Cool side is set to 85 the basking side is at 91 currently. Humidity is at 55 right now I make sure it is around 60-65 during shedding time. I have a digital guage that sells me temps of both sides. To update the snake moved the snake across the cage and is looking at it, Lets hope for the best!

[mwedgley]

What!!!!! Please let me what makes you think offering only once a month is a good idea ?
There is no need to not offer food. Period end of story. Not offering food can add to the problem.

The not handling is right I agree there it keeps the stress down and lets you focus on getting it back eating

Offer food once a week every week on the same day at the same time. If your offering mice and the snake doesn't kill and eat it set you up a small enclosure for the mouse to keep it till next week.

In the 5 years I have been keeping Ball pythons I have seen them go off feed for many reasons some do it for no seen reason at all. offering once a week give the animal the chance to eat even it doesn't. Not offering means your the one deciding that the snake doesn't eat let decision be theirs. Getting them on a schedule seems to really help with the going off feed. Not to say that they might still for what ever reason but it cuts down on the likelihood of it .

You say he killed the item but has not eaten. I have a few suggestions for you but first I need some info. You say that the temps and humidity are right on so please forgive the question but what is you current hot and cool temps and humidity and how are you monitoring them. What is the animal housed in.

whoops that was an error I mean once a week. Thanks for the save that would have been horrible

[Freakie_frog]

whoops that was an error I mean once a week. Thanks for the save that would have been horrible

shoooo.. Thought you had gotten that from some one here.. LOL hey I really can't say any thing if it weren't for spell check I'd come off looking like a 5th grader

[mwedgley]

You say he killed the item but has not eaten. .

He actually said it didn't kill it which leads me to believe it's just stressed out. Maybe the mouse was too big. Maybe it was too active. A lot of things will scare ball pythons. I reccomend wait a week. Feed the snake a mouse a little smaller than what it would normally eat. Pre-scent the cage with the mouse nearby the cage. Kill the mouse. Quietly put the mouse in it's cage about a foot away from the hide with the lights out in the room that it is in. I reccommend doing this with long tongs so the snake doesn't see the heat signature given off by your hand. Quietly leave the room for about 15 minutes and I'll bet it will eat as long as you give it a week from your last attempt and your last handling. If it doesn't eat it then freeze the mouse and next week try again after completly thawing it out in luke warm water, once it is thawed put it in warmer water to bring it's heat signature back up and put it in the cage. If again it doesn't work freeze again and repeat as twice thawed rats put off a greater smell that your snake will possibly pick up. My bet is if your patient and do exactly as I described the snake will eat it the first time around. Oh and also if it is in a busy room like your living room consider moving it to a quieter room like your bedroom and maybe even in a closet where it won't have lot's of noise vibrations. Good luck bud and if you have any questions feel free to ask. Sorry about the whole offer once a month thing I just woke up. ( I bartend )

[burgo345]

UPDATE: The snake did kill the mouse. Left it alone for a good 30 mins then moved it accross the tank. About 10 mins after that he ate it!!!!! After 3 months of no luck he finally ate it. Hopefully he will continue to keep eating every week from now on!

[starmom]

UPDATE: The snake did kill the mouse. Left it alone for a good 30 mins then moved it accross the tank. About 10 mins after that he ate it!!!!! After 3 months of no luck he finally ate it. Hopefully he will continue to keep eating every week from now on!

Nice!

[ajeff]

Glad he ate for you, but I got some suggestions:

If the ball python is eating mice and its in a 20L (long I assume) this tells me the animal is still young and that means the 20L may be too big for the animal so the animal don't feel safe enough to eat, but still may strike and even kill.

The location of the tank can be a problem too, if the animals cage is in a hi-traffic area, this could stress the animal. I personaly use tubs, most of my animals are in sterilite 1756's (32qt) in a rack system. Some are going to need moved into the CB-70 sized tubs which are 41qt) Granted you only have a single animal (I think I read that right) so a rack is probably out of the question for you. Even so, you can set up a tub for the animal, ditch the heat lamp and use the flexwatt style UTH and a thermostat, you should be good to go, just as long as the room temp stays warm, like 75. The tubs hold heat and humidity pretty good which means good sheds! They are transparent, but not 100% A 1756 may be too big for your animal, it has roughly the same floor space as a 20L but a 15qt shoe box (1754 I think) should work

The prey item could be too big or too small. If its too big, the snake may feel threatend and defend it self, if the prey is too small, the animal just may not be interested because it don't move in such a way it does not trigger a feeding response from a snake.

Also, you can offer your snake rats, and personaly, I would instead of mice. I think rats have more "meat" to them then mice do and when the animal gets older, its easier to feed one rat then multiple mice. A fuzzy rat, or chub (eyes closed) is about the same size as a mouse, but its safer to leave a chubby rat in a cage then an adult mouse.

If you offer food and the animal don't eat or even seem interested, remove the food item, if its a live prey item, freeze it for later and just leave the animal be till the following week.

Hope this helps