just rescued a ball python..help

omg, so i was at the petstore buying a rat for my bp when i walk out and this lady is coming in with a ball python that looked no older that 5-8 months, off course im like aww how cute, and she's like, "im gonna see if they'll take her cause my son dont want her no more"...im like, =O! ur just gonna leave her...and she's like "well imma see if they want her, so i was like "ill take her" [[goddess nows i wasnt gonna leave her in THAT petstore, y'all should see the conditions of their bp"....so she gave it to me, just like that, i asked how old she was and she said 2 years!.... so she's majorly underweight....i went back to the petstore, bought an UTH...then rushed to walmart, got a thermometer and a tub...blah blah blah, got everything ready at home and put her in...she;s now chilling in the water acting like she's havent been in water in forever [[she's not soaking, no mites, but she's drinking a lot]] my question is, what do i feed her! how often and how much??... i feed mine a rat pup a week but she's not underweight [[juss a little from her fasting]] should i wait to feed her when she has settled in...or now...i have frozen mice in my fridge from when i was trying to get mine to eat.....so i dunno...i'll take a pic with my comp. so y'all can see it...oh and "she" is a "he" i did the whole popping thing and the semipenis came out =l poor BP

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/9584/photo63hs.jpg

thats him

You can feed him an apropriately sized mouse or rat once a week. I would say that snake could eat two adult mice a week easily.

The ball python looks like he could handle a mouse, but you may want to wait a week before feeding. Trying to feed too soon could lead to stress, and then they may continue to refuse. Good rescue though, I would have done the same thing. Good luck to the both of you.

Wait awhile until it's stress level is down a little. As far as feeding, I would go a little smaller than I would if it was a healthy snake.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

Wow great job! :gj:

At least he is not balling up so much which is a good sign. He will probably eat soon :D

I would feed him a mice for the first meal and then go from there.

Rat pup would work as well. I prefer rat pups because they are not as defensive as mice the same size and can be left alone with a snake for long periods(even overnight) without any fear of harming the snake.

yeah, im going to start feeding him a rat pup every 3 days until he gets some meat on him, then extend the feeding days...im doing the same with my old one since she was gone for 8 months and also lost some weight [[although not as drastically]]

Major kudos on that rescue. I can't believe he is 2 years old. Wow. I'm sure he is tanking his lucky stars you were walking by when you did!

The store would probably have tossed him in a tank and slapped a sale sticker on him. :(

As for food sizes, here is a chart that might help: http://www.ball-pythons.net/gallery/...seRatChart.jpg

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Originally Posted by maria1232

yeah, im going to start feeding him a rat pup every 3 days until he gets some meat on him, then extend the feeding days...im doing the same with my old one since she was gone for 8 months and also lost some weight [[although not as drastically]]

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I would feed him very 5 days to allow him to digest a little bit more. Sounds like he is in good hands. Make sure he has a warm spot around 90 to help him digest. Let us know how it goes and congrats on the new baby.