Established collection just not eating constantly; should I change to live ratrs

Hey everyone!!

I have a collection of about 30 ball pythons made up of several different morphs. I have had some of these snakes 3 years, with the newest arrivals being maybe 9 months ago.

Here is what I am looking for help with; about 90% of the snake in my collection don't eat very reliable. By this I mean they may eat 3-4 weeks in a row then not eat for 2-4 maybe 5 months. Obviously they are not putting on weight like I would like but other then that seem perfectly healthy. Both males and females do this. I change their water 3-4 times a week, the cool side if 77-79 degrees with the hot side being 92-95, the tubs are cleaned as needed with a bi-weekly cleaning as a maximum, they shed completely most of the time....unless I fall behind on my water bowl filling or misting :rolleyes:

They are kept in a rack system in a storage room what kept @ 75-77 degrees with the lights off unless I am in the room working so they are definitely not in a high traffic area.

I have feed them frozen thawed, from several different sources, strictly. I am wondering if I should feed them live occasionally to peak there interest and see if this get them going again.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Sorry for the long post.

Dave

I would say try live with them once and see how they react. A lot of our balls prefer live over f/t. If that doesn't work, try scenting the rat with mice. Sometimes that gets them going too. We've had to do that with a couple of our balls who went off feed for a while and now they're back on rats with no hesitation, some on f/t, some still on live.

Another thing I have success with is warming the rats up pass 90 degrees. If you have extra heat tape, have them dethaw on that. Once they're really warm all the way through, then do movements like a live rat in the tub. That works pretty well also.

Good luck!

Dart,

Thanks for the ideas I will give them a try. Has anyone else out there run across this type of problem? With soo many of them acting the same way I feel like I am doing something sysematically wrong but am missing. Like not seeing the forest through the trees.

Thanks

Dave

I've been experiencing something similar. Until last week less than half my collection were taking rats (live or f/t, I feed both) regularly. Some of them are still off feed, but a lot more have started eating again. They would eat for a couple weeks, then fast for a month or two.

I really have no idea why they would go off feed like this. All I can think of is they are just being typical picky ball pythons.

Try prescenting the room by using a blow dryer on a rat or two for a few minutes first. It wakes mine right up into feeding mode so that by the time I come to them with a rat, they hammer it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Piebald Dave3

...the cool side if 77-79 degrees...kept @75-77 degrees...

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Should the cool side be up a little higher? I'm thinking 79-82.

Do you notice if they stay on the hot side more or move equally between hot/cold?

Do you know your ambient temps in the tubs? If their ambient temp is also in the 75-79 range, you probably want to bump that up.

Thanks everyone again for the ideas! I will try the blow dryer idea and see if that "perks" them up.

Pyrate, i don't know the ambient temperature of the tubs but I can find it. Most of my snakes seem to spend alot of time on the cool side almost to the point that I was actually thinking of lower the ambient temp of the room to see if that would affect anything.

You said you keep the lights off unless you are in there working. Other than that do you have a day/night cycle for them? 12 day / 12 night should work since they are originally from a place close to the equator. Something like 10/14 should work too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Piebald Dave3

Thanks everyone again for the ideas! I will try the blow dryer idea and see if that "perks" them up.

Pyrate, i don't know the ambient temperature of the tubs but I can find it. Most of my snakes seem to spend alot of time on the cool side almost to the point that I was actually thinking of lower the ambient temp of the room to see if that would affect anything.

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Isn't 92-5 a bit high for the hot side, too?

Been keeping mine in the 90-91 range. (I'm a noob though so I could be wrong, but that was the impression I got reading around caresheets before getting my BPs.)

Interesting. Yeah, let us know how you make out.