Eating Problem?

[elgnirkk]

Hi All, I'm new to this forum. You seem like you have alot of active members with alot of knowledge of BPs. I recently, 2 Months) acquired a 4ft long abused Normal Ball Python. I have several Corns, and could let this poor animal continue living in the circumstances she was in. Anyway, eating is the problem, all of my corns have been raised on f/t, when I got "Zoey" she was covered with several layers of unshed skin, after I got her all cleaned up and all the eye caps removed, I offered her a f/t lg mouse. I placed it in a feeding tray, that I use for all my snakes, and then set her in it, she crawled directly to the mouse and began to eat, no strike. The following week the same thing. The next week I offered her a juvenile rat (she's alittle under weight) and she refused to eat, that was 6 weeks ago and she has not eaten since. I'm concerned.

[dr del]

Hi,

Have you tried offering mice since?

It doesn't matter what she chooses to eat as long as she gets enough of it really so if she decides she is a mouser then it isn't the end of the world.

You can also try scenting the f/t rats with mice by either rubbign them with mouse bedding or even with a frozen mouse.

But I think one of the best things to try is feeding her in her enclosure where she feels secure and safe. If you are worried about her swallowing bedding then perhaps you could use a large flat rock or piece of slate?

Any further info you can give on your setup, method of offering etc would also help.

Do you pre-scent the room so that she knows there is food on its way?


dr del

[elgnirkk]

I do have aspen bedding and I am concerned about her ingesting bedding, I will go back to a mouse tonight, I will pre-scent the room, and I do have a large flat rock that I will try feeding her off. Hopefully we will have success, my Corns are such easy feeders and I'm just not used to having to work so hard to get a snake to eat. She's a really great girl, and I want to have her around for a long time. I'll post my results tommorrow, Thanks for the help.

[frankykeno]

A small amount of ingested aspen will very likely not bother her at all. Remember their digestive acids easily deal with flesh, bone, fur and teeth. However, if you are concerned, simply lay a pad of newspaper down over the middle portion of her enclosure and feed on that area. Once she's eaten and retreated back into her hide to digest you can slip the newpaper out.

Ball pythons can tend to be pretty prey specific and very shy. She may feel far more secure hunting from her hide and in her own home and taking the prey she at this point identifies as her food source. Personally, I'd do as Derek said and stick with mice for now (you can feed multiples to achieve the goal of enough total volume) and switch her to rats later if you want. Many ball pythons though do just fine their entire life on multiple mice per feeding.

[Wh00h0069]

If all else fails, you could try feeding live. I have much better results by feeding live.

Hope this helps.

[Dave763]

I feed live. I do have one pastel female that was refusing. After 3 months of not eating, I filled the tub with wadded up newspaper put in a fresh killed rat. It was gone in the morning. That was last Sunday. I fed her again last night same thing, P/K...checked this morning....rat was gone.
She has always been a picky feeder. I have had her for a little over a year and she has not gained much weight. Now hopefully I have discovered a way to get her to eat on a regular basis.
I have two normal girls I got from TSK. They were mouse eaters. I had no problem getting them to accept rats.
I started with weanlings, then worked them up to a proper sized rat a little at a time.

[elgnirkk]

Thanks for the suggestions! I placed a flat rock in front of her hide. Thawed a lg mouse and set it next to her viv for about an hour. When I set it on the rock outsdie her hide she was out within seconds and struck shorty after that. So we have a successful feed, I'll stick with this method for a while before I try a rat. If she still refuses the rat, then I'll just start offering a couple of mice. Thanks again everyone.

[BostonMacK]

As far as the snake not striking, that is most likely due to the fact you are placing the rodent in the cage and leaving it. I am willing to bet if your present the rodent to the snake by gripping the rat/mouse between its shoulder blades making it dance around a little you will get a strike out of your snake.

As far as the snake not eating these little buggers can drive you nuts as I recently found out. My snake had been eating rats like a champ for a good 9 months or so. He started slowing down and eventually stopped eating all together. His temps and humidity were perfect and I couldnt figure it out for the life of me. After about 10 weeks of him not eating I didnt know what to do. I love each of my pets like family members and it was killing me with each passing week. Talk about stress.

I eventually e-mailed a member here (shout out to fishmommy) and pretty much asked if she would like to adopt my boy because at this time, if he was sick I could not afford to care for him at the vet (i'm back on track as far as emplyment goes now). I was willing to give him away to insure his well being and I knew fishmommy would make that happen. Anyway, she said to try him out on mice because her snake stopped eating rats and would only eat mice. I went and bought a couple frozen mice and I barely got them threw his door before he was coiled around them. I felt so guilty that for 10 or so weeks of him not eating all I had to do was offer mice.

It was a learning experience that's for sure. Don't stress about the rat thing. Two mice are just as tasty as 1 rat

Good luck.