New Ball Python question

I just recently got a 2 year old BP. The man that I got him from said that he fed him 2-3 mice at a time, sometimes a rat, and sometimes F/T. I have a baby corn snake that I feed F/T with no problem, but I also understand that BP can be very picky. When I got the BP about a week ago, the guy said he is about to shed and probably will not eat for awhile. It has been a week now, and he does not look like he is shedding, he will not eat, and he will not come out of his hide. He has a large water dish, a hide on each side of the enclosure, a large climbing branch, and some fake plants. The temp inside his hide is always around 87 degrees and the humidity is about 55% usually. I'm not sure if he is just not used to his surroundings yet or if something is wrong. I tried to feed him a F/T rat and he just flicked his tongue at it and then went back into his hide. I'm thinking maybe I should try to feed him a live mouse or rat but I'm afraid to feed him a live rodent since he was already attacked once while with his previous owner and has some scars on the tip of his tail from it. Can anyone give me some advice? Thank you

Hi,

Let him settle in a bit more and try and raise the hot end temps a bit - I normally aim for 92f inside their hot hide and 82 in the cool end.

Just let him relax and no handling or offering food every day or anything. He will be fine till next week.

I would give him a lot more time to get settled in. He is two years of age and being introduced into a new home plus it is breeding time, so with all those factors in play I would leave him alone for a few weeks and offer after that.

If you do offer live make sure it is supervised and do not leave the rodent in with the snake otherwise.

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

Let him settle in a bit more and try and raise the hot end temps a bit - I normally aim for 92f inside their hot hide and 82 in the cool end.

Just let him relax and no handling or offering food every day or anything. He will be fine till next week.

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This x2. At this point, I wouldn't worry about it not eating, and you hopefully have only offered food once - it can stress the snake out to have food offered repeatedly when it's not quite hungry yet.

-Jen

Ive found mine have all done great having given each new snake 2 weeks of solitude no food offered no handling only changing out water and needed spot cleaning. Give it that time to settle in and all will be fine. Also id raise hot side temp ti at least 90.

How bad is it that I already tried offering him food though? I also handled him, thinking he would be ok with it since he is older. I hope I didn't ruin his chances of getting comfortable in his new home.

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Originally Posted by rvca1990

How bad is it that I already tried offering him food though? I also handled him, thinking he would be ok with it since he is older. I hope I didn't ruin his chances of getting comfortable in his new home.

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Lol you are going to snake keeper prison!

I'm joking of course! its not big deal. Almost everyone handles their new animals before they are settled in. Just try and give him as much alone time as possible. Offer food weekly, and not any more often then that.

If he is hiding a lot, that is a good sign. It means he likes his new home!

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

Lol you are going to snake keeper prison!

I'm joking of course! its not big deal. Almost everyone handles their new animals before they are settled in. Just try and give him as much alone time as possible. Offer food weekly, and not any more often then that.

If he is hiding a lot, that is a good sign. It means he likes his new home!

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Thank you for the help! He really is hiding a lot! I haven't seen him come out of his warm hide in days! The first few days I had him he would come out a few times a day and he would come out right after I turned the lights out at night! What should I be trying to feed him? The guy I got him from said he fed him F/T sometimes but I'm not sure if he really did or not. I keep wondering if I should just be trying to feed him live prey.

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Originally Posted by rvca1990

Thank you for the help! He really is hiding a lot! I haven't seen him come out of his warm hide in days! The first few days I had him he would come out a few times a day and he would come out right after I turned the lights out at night! What should I be trying to feed him? The guy I got him from said he fed him F/T sometimes but I'm not sure if he really did or not. I keep wondering if I should just be trying to feed him live prey.

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You can feed him whatever you feel comfortable with. I prefer live feeding but that is mostly because I have a lot of snakes and I breed my own feeders.

Most ball pythons will take frozen thawed rats, but some have a taste for live that can't be broken :P

I would say a small rat is a good sized meal for him. You want something that is about as wide as the snakes widest part.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

You can feed him whatever you feel comfortable with. I prefer live feeding but that is mostly because I have a lot of snakes and I breed my own feeders.

Most ball pythons will take frozen thawed rats, but some have a taste for live that can't be broken :P

I would say a small rat is a good sized meal for him. You want something that is about as wide as the snakes widest part.

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Thank you again for all of your help! and sorry for all the questions. This is the last one (for now) haha. If I put a small live rat in there and he doesn't eat it, do I just pick the rat up bare handed and take him out. I personally have never handled a live rat in my life so I don't even know if it will be aggressive toward me or not.