Not eating!! Please Help

Hey,

So I got a baby ball Sat Sep. 10th. The breeder said they fed her live rat pups every Friday. I left her until the Friday and offered her a f/t pup and she took it after about 20/30 minutes. The following Friday I thawed a pup the same way and offered it to her, but she was not interested at all. Last night I offered her another f/t pup. She was in her hide, but came out once she smelled the rat. She was very interested in it and would approach it and smell it. I eventually just placed it in her tank for her to take when she was ready. She continued to smell it, and was almost touching it, and then she went back into her hide. I decided to try to blast it under the hair dryer for a couple of min to give it some heat, and zombie danced it in her tank, and again she came out of the hide getting really close to the rat, but wouldn't bite.

I was wondering if I should offer her pre-killed in a couple of days, or wait another week to offer another f/t as it would be 3 weeks without food if I wait until next friday. What else can I do to entice her to bite the f/t rat?

How is your setup? (Complete details from enclosure size to temperatures, how and where they are measured)

Have you handled your BP?

The key to get an animal to feed is to wait for the animal to be well established before switching to another type prey, if the animal feeds live, live should be offered, switching is not a priority at this point.

She's in a 10 gallon enclosure. She has an UTH on one side, attached to a thermostat. The hot side is 90, the cold side is around 78, I use a thermometer on both sides. The humidity is around 62. She has 2 hides, one on either side. I handle her once or twice a week when she climbs to the top of tank and looks like she wants to explore. I think she is comfortable as she sleeps all day in her hide and sometimes comes out, but only at night.

Your temps and humidity seem to be right on. Did you give her at least a week with no food no handling. If she is used to live offer her a live pup, if she eats it, then feed her live till she is well established and eats for a couple of months, then try a ft again, switching can be sometimes very fustrating. I have a girl that ate live from her breeder, I thought i had her switched to ft after she ate ft for a month, but then she just stopped eating, after 2 months i offered a live pup and she ate like she was starving, so i feed her live . I might try switching her again to ft, but some just won't make the switch.

Pic of your setup? Are you using digital hygrometer? Are you using a digital thermometer with probe for uth? Make sure the thermometer probe is under the substrate (bedding) right on top of glass over uth and that it is no hotter than 94. I would not handle until she has ate 4-5 times consistently. As Deborah said if she was eating live rat pups before you bought her then feed live until she has ate consistently for you and then you can try to switch. Also if she refuses make sure to wait another 5-7 days before offering again or it could stress her out. Feeding in a dark room also helps.

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Originally Posted by kaylxo

She's in a 10 gallon enclosure. She has an UTH on one side, attached to a thermostat. The hot side is 90, the cold side is around 78, I use a thermometer on both sides. The humidity is around 62. She has 2 hides, one on either side. I handle her once or twice a week when she climbs to the top of tank and looks like she wants to explore. I think she is comfortable as she sleeps all day in her hide and sometimes comes out, but only at night.

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http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-hatchling-101

I ended up trying her with a live pup and she took it right away without hesitation. I'm relieved that she's not on a hunger strike and is comfortable enough to eat. I'll keep giving her live for a couple of weeks and then try to transition to f/t again.

Thanks guys :)