Ball Python won't eat

I'm sure most of you remember this thread http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-up-3-BP-today.

They have not eaten sense we got them around 3 weeks now, every time we offer food they seam interested but never take it. We tried f/t rats, f/t mice, now we were told that they eat f/t rat but now I'm thinking they were live eater. My girlfriend tried force feeding for a few mins but they didn't want to. Is there anything we can do to try and get them to eat?

If they haven't lost a significant amount of weight I don't think force feeding them is the best option as it is highly stressful for the snake.

have you tried live

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Originally Posted by JaGv

have you tried live

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No not yet don't have any live one to try with. But my girlfriend don't really want to feed live, she afraid of it hurting the snake. We should start breeding mice and rat next week so we will be picking up live one and will try then.

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Originally Posted by JaGv

have you tried live

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I have one that refuses to eat f/t. I have offered SO many times and tried all the tricks. I guess i got lucky the first time i offered f/t because he took it. After that he wouldnt go for it at all. He went without for about 4 weeks, "which isn't unusual around breeding season" so I finally put a live rat and he ate right away. In my own opinion, feeding live is not a big deal as long as you're responsible. I've been feeding him live for almost a year and never had any problems.


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Originally Posted by RobertJR

No not yet don't have any live one to try with. But my girlfriend don't really want to feed live, she afraid of it hurting the snake. We should start breeding mice and rat next week so we will be picking up live one and will try then.

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they can hurt it but if you there supervising them until the meal is gone then there shouldnt be an issue. i feed live and i hadnt had an issue the only way i see a mouse hurting the snake is when its being constricted and the meal is panicking(again none of my snakes have been hurt by their meals)

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Originally Posted by RobertJR

No not yet don't have any live one to try with. But my girlfriend don't really want to feed live, she afraid of it hurting the snake. We should start breeding mice and rat next week so we will be picking up live one and will try then.

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If you plan on feeding live, NEVER walk away and expect your bp will eat it. If the mouse/rat isn't eaten in half an hour, remove it. ALL while keeping an eye on it.

Be sure your feeders are well fed/hydrated and don't hold them by the tail while offering to your snake. Drop it in, sit back and watch.




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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?ul54bm

Also, if you notice the rat/mouse tryin to bite your bp, shove feeding tongs into the mouse/rats mouth.

I feed live, and have yet to have any problems. Just remember to never leave the live prey item with your snake, without supervision


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?gixkfs

We had a 9 foot Red Tail that ate live and one Saturday night ( that our feeding night) we drop in a rat with her and watched her strike and constricted the rat. We never left her site and we also watched the rat bite her left eye and we tried to get the rat away from her but she wouldn't let go of it. Never feed live after our Red Tail lost her left eye. Its been 3 year the last time we feed live.

EDIT: This all happen with in 5 mins of dropping the rat in.

We are just going to try and leaving them in over night with them and see if they take it. If not they will be in the trash and will get some live small mice and give that a try.

EDIT: If they were eating fancy rat and we are offering normal rat would they take it anyways? He could of lie about feeding the normal rat if we lied about the rest, we have some frozen fancy we can always try.

Also he girlfriend breed hamsters, could that be one more thing that they would have feed them and lie about?