Feeding time

Kisara, she's been a good eater and but was surprisingly eager for once. Her huge pupils are adorable lol



https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...205-055318.jpg




Ralph has decided to be dumb dumb today and refuse to eat despite being obviously hungry and looking for food everywhere. When I offered he was smelling everywhere looking for the rat, I'll never understand him. He looks like he's saying "mom where's the food? I can't find it?" :rolleyes:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...205-055233.jpg




And, not a bp but, my carpet Dream was also quite eager tonight and content with the meal. She is still in the stage where she wants to kill me so she's just giving me the stink eye here haha

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...205-055223.jpg

Did you try re-heating the prey for Ralph? And do you use a blow-dryer, right before offering? That might be what he needs (more heat), even if the others don't.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Did you try re-heating the prey for Ralph? And do you use a blow-dryer, right before offering? That might be what he needs (more heat), even if the others don't.

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Yes, unfortunately tried that. I always blow dry prey until they are very warm, and continuously reheat throughout offering. He hasn't eaten for a few weeks now so he may just be on a hunger strike. That being said he was out and about as he always is when he's looking for food :confuzd: I never usually refreeze my rats but I decided to try and see what condition it's in when refrozen and make a judgement off that, didn't want to waste such a big rat. Hopefully some day my carpet will be big enough to be the resident food disposal lol

Aww your snakes are very cute! Kisara's big pupils are indeed adorable haha, my BP's eyes get big like that as well when he gets fed.

For Ralph I agree with Bogertophis that it's likely that the rat was not warm enough. My BP is also like that sometimes - he'll be very eager to eat, but if I don't warm up the rat enough he doesn't recognize it as food when I offer it to him. However, he will always take the rat if I remove it, heat it up adequately, and try feeding him again.

A larger rat like the one in your photo is also harder to heat up all the way, especially with a hair dryer. I'd recommend thawing it for 3-4 hrs outside of the fridge, then heating it in a container of warm water (the hottest water that will come out of the tap) for 10 mins, changing the water, waiting another 10 mins, and then offer it. That way the internal temperature of the rat will be warm as well as the external temperature.

If your BP hasn't eaten for a while, maybe try a smaller rat next time since that will be easier to thoroughly heat up and may be easier for him to eat.

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Originally Posted by Luvyna

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A larger rat like the one in your photo is also harder to heat up all the way, especially with a hair dryer. I'd recommend thawing it for 3-4 hrs outside of the fridge, then heating it in a container of warm water (the hottest water that will come out of the tap) for 10 mins, changing the water, waiting another 10 mins, and then offer it. That way the internal temperature of the rat will be warm as well as the external temperature.

If your BP hasn't eaten for a while, maybe try a smaller rat next time since that will be easier to thoroughly heat up and may be easier for him to eat.

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Excellent points! I don't have any rat-eating snakes any more, & I sure don't miss thawing rats, especially those larger than "small"- their fur is very thick, so it "insulates" their body, making it much harder to THAW them. If you don't really feel them deeply with your fingers, it's easy to miss it if they aren't fully thawed internally...I wonder if that could be the OP's problem here? Combined with how fast they cool off, if, as you suggested [Luvyna], only the quick heat from a blow-dryer was relied upon too heavily to get the job done.

I also agree that I'd try feeding smaller rats- male BPs seem to accept them more reliably. Plus they're easier to warm. It just doesn't pay to try to make up for missed meals by giving meals that are bigger than the snake wants anyway.

Another couple of things to try. Firstly, check all the temperatures throughout the enclosure including the humidity percentages. Skip the next scheduled feeding and just overall increase the feeding interval going forward by one week. Secondly, place a small amount of cypress mulch in his hide for now, enough to cover the base of the hide. Don’t attempt to feed him for at least three days plus the previous time factor after the cypress mulch is in place. Then, before feeding him next, scent the thawed rat with litter from a enclosure that has live rats or mice. :gj:

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Originally Posted by 55fingers

Yes, unfortunately tried that. I always blow dry prey until they are very warm, and continuously reheat throughout offering. He hasn't eaten for a few weeks now so he may just be on a hunger strike. That being said he was out and about as he always is when he's looking for food :confuzd: I never usually refreeze my rats but I decided to try and see what condition it's in when refrozen and make a judgement off that, didn't want to waste such a big rat. Hopefully some day my carpet will be big enough to be the resident food disposal lol

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Yep ..

My first call is checking temps ( especially surface temps ) with a digital temp gun or digital thermometer


Then try the hairdryer method of feeding

I’ll send it to you by pm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

His temps and humidity have been perfect. I thawed the rats for about 4 hours as well, always feel the stomach and head to make sure it's thawed all the way too. And I warmed them by hairdryer several times while offering, every minute or so.

I feed him a medium rat every 2 weeks, it hasn't caused any problems yet but certainly if he continues not to eat I'd try something smaller.

He's always been a good eater so I honestly think this was a one-off where he wasn't in the mood. Unless he continues I'm not really concerned at all, but I don't expect him to. Even now he's been out and about looking for food again lol.