i am concerned about my BP please help

Hi i am new to all this and i just got my first baby BP last week and the lady who sold it to me said she just shed for the first time and i should feed her soon.. well i keep trying to feed her and she wont eat. is this normal and should i just keep trying? or is something wrong with her? .. thanks for the help :)

Hi there.

If your husbandry is correct (There are multiple guides here on the site) and you keep interaction to a minimum for a week or so, your snake should start to de-stress and should be ready to eat soon. What are your temps/humidity like? Stress and incorrect temps are two of the big reasons a baby BP will not eat.

Congrats on your new baby. I wouldn't even try to feed until the snake has had 1-2 weeks completely left alone to adjust. Other than that we need to know what your set up is and how (and what) you are trying to feed. Once you post that we'll have better suggestions. We'd love to see picture of the little guy:)

First off, welcome to the addiction. Now, what are you trying to feed to it? Do you have any pictures of the enclosure? Tell us about the setup, temperature, humidity, hides, etc. Next, read the Ball Python care sheet http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

Put her in a small shoe box tub with a small hide in it. Then put a hopper mouse in with her (live) then leave her alone for a couple hours. If she does not eat you can pull the mouse out and leave her alone but put heat under the tub (only about half). Try again the next day but do it at night. This time I would leave the hopper in for longer, its (the mouse) won't survive on its own much longer anyway. You can give the mouse wet dog food but if the mouse is to large it will scare the snake.

I think you just got one of the new aferican captive hatched balls. And yes it does need to be offered food now. Do not wait 2-3 weeks that will lead you into more trouble getting it to eat than you want.

I'm sorry- I just re-read your post. I didn't realize you had a baby baby. I don't know how old he is but I generally am around them after a couple of sheds. I don't know if my advice would still hold. Boasandballs said no and probably has better understanding than me. I try to get them older and more established for my own peace of mind (though older doesn't indicate easier to feed). In the future I will read better- I don't want to give bad advice. :oops:

This is actually very normal behavior for a baby ball python. Just make sure that your temps, humidity, and caging is correct. I know when I first got my snake he didn’t eat until 2 weeks later.

thanks everyone for the advise! she is two weeks old and i have two hides. im not sure on the temp and thats probably not a good thing :/ but i have a heat lamp and a under tank heater. i am feedin her frozen pinkies (or at least tryin to) at the moment.

You should go to walmart as soon as you can and get an accurite thermometer to check your temps.

It is also very dangerous to run a heat pad without a temperature control device. They can get over 130 degrees, way too hot for a snake.

A cheap easy solution to control that is a lamp dimmer from lowes. It takes a little fiddling to get a 92 degree hot spot but it works okay. You just have to check your temps more than if you save up and buy a thermostat.

Pinkies are also too small, you want to try mouse hoppers.