Question regarding a terrible eater.

Hello!

I have a female Piebald that's an interesting feeder... She's fed f/t rats every 5 days and always takes it like she's starving. She has one of the best feeding responses in my collection.

Problem is, she sucks at actually swallowing it. Unless she strikes it by the head, she can't seem to readjust. 2 out of 3 feedings she'll let go, attempt to readjust and find the head, then give up after about an hour.

She was kept on cypress mulch initially. I thought maybe that was causing her issues so I switched her to paper towels. Last night was the same issue.

She's 150g and being offered fuzzy rats. My next feeding I'm going to attempt offering her a couple pinky rats. I'm hoping she'll do better with something a little more bite sized... Trying to angle the rat so she takes it by the head is the only successful thing I've done so far.

When I got her in December she was 100g and put on 50g since then so she's growing and not in any danger of starving but she's way behind her almost 400g sister.

Does anyone have any tips or ideas?



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Here's a picture of the brat hitting the rat in the stomach last night before failing to eat it.

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My Black Widow male was a bit like that. I'd just rewarm the rat when he got distracted from it, offer it again, and eventually he'd get it down. No problem with that now, though lately he's been refusing f/t and wants live, pesky brat that he is.

When I warm up the rat, I warm up the head more than the rest of the body. That creates sort of a target for it to strike at. I warm up the entire mouse/rat and then cover the body with a towel and keep the blow dryer straight on the head for 30sec to a min and it's worked well for me

You can try "guiding" the rat head towards the BP by using tongs. I've had to do that before and in some snakes that are eating challenged, it helps. Also most get better with time. Rosey was always a fast learner for food. Same with Dottie. Both of them would let go if they didn't grab the head, push on the rat with their face until the felt the head and start swallowing. Vicky was kind of a slow learner. If she didn't grab the head, it would take a while to eat. She would search, hug the rat, sniff the paper plate, sniff the aspen and then finally find the head. She is almost 2 years old now and she zaps rats pretty fast and is as fast as Dottie and Rosey at eating now. Just try with a pair of feeding tongs or I personally use BBQ tongs as they are big enough, thick enough and rounded all over so the snakes wont hurt themselves if they hit it. Just hold the fuzzy rat perpendicular with the tongs so the tongs are pointing straight to the floor and the rat is sticking out 90 degrees. Grab it by the hind hips and point the rat head at the snake. They usually slam it right on. Good luck.

My pied female did the same thing for about 4 feedings straight until I switched her to live and she has not had a problem since. Now she is my only live feeding Ball python in my collection of 30 ball pythons.

Last night was feed night! I offered her two rat pinkies. The first one she nailed by the head and had no issues with. The second one she hit in the stomach like she usually does but still managed to turn it around and get it down butt first. I guess we're just going to offer the little goober smaller prey for now.

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