How can I get a stressed snake to eat?

I got my ball python a couple weeks ago and he seems to be fine and comfortable, but after 2 attempts so far I still can't get him to eat. It has been over 2 weeks since he last ate for his previous owner. My only guess as to why he won't eat is because he is still stressed out from the move but everything else about him seems fine. I am trying to feed him f/t small rats which he had been eating regularly before. Any ideas? I'm stumped.

Hi,

I would make sure you are doing everything you can to help him settle in - no handling and keep all interaction to a minimum etc. Try and mimic the setup the previous owner had if you can if he won't settle in the one you'd prefer.

How did the previous owner prepare and offer the prey? That can make a difference as well.


dr del

You may have to give him a little more time. Try not to offer to soon after a refusal. Give at least 5 days inbetween a refusal. Stop all unnecessary interaction. Check your husbandry and temperatures. Make sure his hides are size appropriate and tight fitting. He should have to jam himself in the hides. You may have to get him eating with an offer of live prey. But if you want to keep trying the ft it may be the technique your using to offer it to him. Many people dangle the prey by the tail above or right infront of the snakes face. That freaks them out and a stressed snake would refuse an offer like that. Try dangling the rat near the floor of the cage and making it dance around a little. The zombie dance. This usually works a bit better with snakes that are stressed.

I would: Try a F/T mouse. If he refuses that try a live rat pup. After that try a live mouse. I bet he takes the mouse, just make sure it is nice a warm and stinky. Try not to let him see you, only the mouse. Offer it at night with the lights out and be really quiet. Hopefully he will be in his hide and not see you at all. Sometimes I feel like I have to trick my picky snakes to thinking I am not there and their mouse is alive still. Then I have others that lunge out of their bin to get to the mouse on the tongs. How big is your snake?

In January I bought a girl who was used to a 15 qt shoe box and made the mistake of putting her in a 20 gallon glass viv. It triggered a 3 month hunger strike. She lost quite a bit of weight during the ordeal. Now she's back in a shoe box and doing much better. She's always just freaked out when I try feeding with tongs. Very shy feeder.

I just lay the f/t rat pup under the newspaper where she is in the evening without bothering her and it's gone in the morning. It might work for you. It's really really important to leave them alone during these kind of hunger strikes so they can get used to their new setup peacefully. Frequent intrusions and food offerings will only drag it out much longer. Please learn from my failures! ;)

Put her is a small enclosure, give her a nice tight hide, keep ambient temps in the 80's basking temps in the low 90's and don't handle her. I picked up an adult female recently and I was told she was fasting. After a week in those conditions she ate first try.

Large enclosures and cool temps are the main reasons BP's won't eat;)

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am pretty sure my husbandry is fine. It is set up the same way the previous owners tank was. I am going to make the hide box smaller though. The way they did it before was just putting the rat on a plate in the tank and leaving it which is what I did and he never ate it. I haven't handled him much and I blacked out the sides of the tank so he can't see me at my desk all the time.

How are you measuring the temps?
Don't be offended by this: but just because the snake was eating in their possession doesn't mean they were doing things the right way. If you replicated that way, combined with stress of a new enclosure would cause a hunger strike. Just trying to give you perspective. I've answered questions from people that have owned their snake for years and didn't know they were doing the wrong things. Doesn't necessarily make them bad or their fault. But there is usually a very simple reason for hunger strikes. Stress, inadequate husbandry, illness, or breeding mode.
This could all be from the new enclosure but it wouldn't hurt to check temps, and review husbandry from the care sheet. Especially with new animals and set ups things sometimes have to be tweaked. Wouldn't hurt to check. I hope he gets over this quickly for you.

Meanwhile while he isn't eating I strongly urge you to grab a notebook and start doing the most important thing with owning a ball python. Get a digital scale that measures grams ( mine Is a kitchen scale I got for 10$ at rite aid) and take an initial weight for him and write it down in the notebook with the date. Do this every month. I also write down food refusals, accepted meals, sheds, and defecations. Balls are notorious for going off food yearly or even more often. Yet they do not show their weakneas' quickly. If your snake is on a food strike you will know if there is a problem way before it is detrimental to his health. Also if you should have to bring him to the vet bring the notebook and your vet has a true accurate history right there. No guessing mean worry less nights, and quick diagnosis which in the end could save his life. Start that now especially because he's fasting. I've seen Many questions of people that think their snake is sick because he's not eating, yet if they only kept a log of weights and other activity they would know whether or not right off. Dramatic weightloss is the number one sign of illness. But by the time the human eye notices they are on deaths door. Anyways I'm sure he'll come out of this for you but it doesn't hurt to be thorough.

I measure temps with 2 digital thermometers, one on each side. The hot side is about 90 and the rest stays in the middle 80's. Humidity is always around 50%. I did some reorganizing which I hope helps more than stress him more. I made his hide box smaller so he can really curl up tight, and I put it on a side that gets darker. How soon do you think I could try feeding again? It's almost been a week since my last attempt.

5 days between refusals is perfect. If there's a little added stress in that time going a couple extra days won't hurt. You temps seem great! It's always good to check. So It sounds like this is a stress related fast. Which is easy to fix. Patience and diligence is the key.