Non-feeding Ball-HELP-tried everything !!

Hi , I have a female hey pied ball that's about 150grams , she often has trouble feeding as often she won't and if she does , it's very random , but she's been three weeks without food now , refusing all three times (I feed them weekly) I may need to note that she has only struck at her food once and every other time I attempted feeding she gets scared of the rat, except when I assist her with it , and like I said before, she eats randomly so it doesn't always work.

I always feed at night , which seems to be the best time for all my other ball pythons to eat.

I try warming the rat, and it's head in warm/hot water .

I try leaving it In with the snake - she just slides over it , ignoring it.

I also tried braining a spare pinkie rat to see if she'd eat once .

As you can probably tell with her sporadic mental feeding reputation it becomes very frustrating for me.

She is currently inside a tub/faunarium , within a larger vivarium which she will move up into once big enough .

It's also made more frustrating that her future mate Baldrick (pied) eats weekly , every time on frozen thawed , strikes and all , whereas she is too timid to go near the rat.

The rat sizes being offered are fuzzy rats , as I wanted to give her something smaller after last weeks regurge , which was definitely caused by too large a food item.(I waited at least 10 days before attempting to feed )

Basking spot set to 31/32 *C , with an inside the hot spot hide temp of around 30/31*C , humidity is good no too much that my hand is damp and not too little that it comes out dryer than before .

If anyone could please give forth some help or advice it would be greatly appreciated.


Stan:

Vivian the cornsnake
Nymeria the Het. Pied Royal
Baldrick the Piebald Royal
Larry and Lizzy the common wall lizards

It is quite likely that she is just fasting for some reason right now. Ball pythons can go for many months without feeding because of their slow metabolism. She will eat when she's ready, try not to assist her because it is not really necessary right now and will just stress her out.

Try fresh killed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stannos

Hi , I have a female hey pied ball that's about 150grams , she often has trouble feeding as often she won't and if she does , it's very random , but she's been three weeks without food now , refusing all three times (I feed them weekly) I may need to note that she has only struck at her food once and every other time I attempted feeding she gets scared of the rat, except when I assist her with it , and like I said before, she eats randomly so it doesn't always work.

I always feed at night , which seems to be the best time for all my other ball pythons to eat.

I try warming the rat, and it's head in warm/hot water .

I try leaving it In with the snake - she just slides over it , ignoring it.

I also tried braining a spare pinkie rat to see if she'd eat once .

As you can probably tell with her sporadic mental feeding reputation it becomes very frustrating for me.

She is currently inside a tub/faunarium , within a larger vivarium which she will move up into once big enough .

It's also made more frustrating that her future mate Baldrick (pied) eats weekly , every time on frozen thawed , strikes and all , whereas she is too timid to go near the rat.

The rat sizes being offered are fuzzy rats , as I wanted to give her something smaller after last weeks regurge , which was definitely caused by too large a food item.(I waited at least 10 days before attempting to feed )

Basking spot set to 31/32 *C , with an inside the hot spot hide temp of around 30/31*C , humidity is good no too much that my hand is damp and not too little that it comes out dryer than before .

If anyone could please give forth some help or advice it would be greatly appreciated.

---

You said it's been three weeks since she ate, but she regurged a week ago?

If she's in a position to eat, have you tried live?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 200xth

You said it's been three weeks since she ate, but she regurged a week ago?

If she's in a position to eat, have you tried live?

---

I also suggest maybe trying live. One of my boas wouldn't eat F/T for a while and he's too small that I didn't want to risk him losing weight, so I gave him a live hopper mouse and he struck immediately. I think next time he feeds I'll do a prekilled mouse and then F/T and hopefully he takes it. Perhaps you could try the same?

Or I've heard that dunking the rat in chicken broth can help because they like the scent

I would try the fresh killed. I had a 3 month not want to eat from the breeder. Knew it wasn't breeder or husbandry. Tried fresh killed, he took. Once he started taking regularly I switched him to frozen thawed. Hang in there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atrox

It is quite likely that she is just fasting for some reason right now. Ball pythons can go for many months without feeding because of their slow metabolism. She will eat when she's ready, try not to assist her because it is not really necessary right now and will just stress her out.

---

Please no. While it is expected that an ADULT BP could go on a fast for one of a few reasons, for several months, a baby of this size shouldn't be fasting at all.

To OP: I too would recommend live. How is your setup? 2 hides, appropriately not in an area/amount of activity which could stress the little girl out? Some of them need most of the sides covered (my girl) and some do not seem to.

Some Balls just don't like rats. A lot of people will tell you that rats are better for ball pythons, because the python grows faster on a rat diet. They don't tell you that the supposed increase in growth rate assumes the ball will actually eat rats. While most balls will, devour rats, some will not. I would try two mouse fuzzies, or if the snake has enough girth one small adult mouse. See if this starts the feeding. If the snake starts feeding, you can just stick with mice. You may need to feed more than one, but your snake will be fine. It is a bit more expensive to feed two mice instead of one rat, but if your animal eats well for you, then piece of mind is worth it.


David