Just curious

I have a 9 month old BP, got it from petsmart. Not my first snake or BP. Its just been many years since my last. My question is this. I was last able to get it to eat about 4 weeks ago before a shed. Now that its shed I have been unable to get it to eat. Its not dehydrated, not agressive. The temps on high side are bout low to mid 90's and mid to low 80s on the low. How much longer should I let it go without eating before I assist feeding? Also snake doesnt look like its lost any weight but has been spending more time in its hiding spot than before shedding.

Welcome to BP.net!

First, please don't try assist feeding. For a BP as old as yours, it almost always causes more harm than good. It's very stressful on the snake and is an almost sure fire way to keep a hunger strike going or trigger a regurge.

We’ll need a lot more info before we can start trying to give you any useful advise.

What kind of set up do you have your BP housed in?
Tank or tub?
How big is the enclosure?
How many hides?
Where are the hides located?
How are you heating your enclosure and how are you regulating and measuring the temps?
What are you using for substrate?
How often do you clean the enclosure?
A picture of your set up would be worth a thousand words.

About your snake.
Male or female?
How much does it weigh?
Please keep in mind that a hiding ball python is a happy ball python. Spending most of its time inside a hide is normal and preferred.

About your feeding.
Are you feeding mice or rats?
Live or F/T
How big are the prey items?

Ok..gonna try and answer as much as I can. The snakes in a tank thats probably 10 gallons or so with one hide. I usually keep the hide about in the middle of the tank and heat is regulated with two lights, one for the day and one at night. Im using natural shavings for substrate. and it was just cleaned about 2 weeks ago, right after the last shed. Not sure if its male or female or a weight. Im feeding F/T small mice. Never had a problem with it eating before.

How is your humidity with that set up? Using exclusively lights for heat can really wreck the humidity in a set up like yours. How are you measuring your humidity? Also, the temps you mentioned in your OP, are those ambient temps, or surface spot temps?

Lots of things you can try in this situation. But if your snake was eating, and now it's not, I would look at the husbandry to make sure everything is spot on. Might want to try one hide on the cool side and one on the warm side. Might want to think about using a UTH on a thermostat to provide some belly heat on the warm side.

And, sometimes they just get bored with F/T. Might want to try live just to kick start the feeding response.

Yeah im wondering if thats the problem as the last meal it ate was live. im hoping i can get it back to eating f/t as its more convienent as i live in the country

I have a couple that backslide to live, then back to f/t on occasion. Weirdos, the whole lot of them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jinx667

I have a couple that backslide to live, then back to f/t on occasion. Weirdos, the whole lot of them.

---

True Dat!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by txredneckmedic

Ok..gonna try and answer as much as I can. The snakes in a tank thats probably 10 gallons or so with one hide. I usually keep the hide about in the middle of the tank and heat is regulated with two lights, one for the day and one at night. Im using natural shavings for substrate. and it was just cleaned about 2 weeks ago, right after the last shed. Not sure if its male or female or a weight. Im feeding F/T small mice. Never had a problem with it eating before.

---

Where and how are you checking your temps? Surface temps? Ambient temps? How are you regulating them? Do you have a thermostat, rheostat or dimmer controlling your lamps?

I would offer hides on BOTH ends of the tank. A warm and a cool hide.

As Slim said, lamps destroy your humidity, but this is easily fixed with extra misting or covering part of the top of the cage with aluminum foil, wax paper or a damp towel.

You say you're using "natural shavings". Aspen? Pine? Cedar? Cypress? Other? There are lots of different types of shavings and they are not all created equal. Pine and especially cedar are toxic to reptiles.

Ball pythons, even when established f/t feeders can and often do decide they will only eat live sometimes. 4 weeks isn't long for a ball to go without food, at least a healthy ball that isn't losing drastic amounts of weight. I certainly wouldn't resort to assist feeding yet. Assist feeding should only be used as last resort and it should only be done by a reptile vet or an experienced keeper. If you don't know what you're doing you can cause far more harm than good.

fix your enclosure setup. one hide in the middle is no bueno. also, a heating lamp as the only source of heat probably isnt providing the temperature gradient or humidity your snake needs. read the caresheet sticky. once you get your enclosure more comfortable for your snake, he/she will probably be more at ease and want to eat.

Unmei, I have used the same setup for months and had no problems. The shavings are aspen, sorry I didnt put that. The humidity is usually in the 60-70 percent range. Theres always a bowl of water for it and I also mist several times a week.