at what point do i force feed?

I own 6 ball pythons. I have a 2y/o normal male. he hasn't eaten since dec 3 2007!!

well I got him to eat a young rat in the summer but was only a half meal for him.

he doesnt seem to have gotten much smaller. is plenty active when I take him out. sheds fine.

and is in the same rack as my others. all the same conditions. just won't eat.


What signs am I looking for before I need to find someone who knows how to force feed?


Shawn

Oh gosh....I'm bumping this up. I have no idea about adults that don't eat. Over a year seems a bit long :confused: You shouldn't have to get someone to help you, and I think you mean assist feed. Assist feed is when you open their mouth and put a prekilled or frozen thawed mouse/rat in their mouth. They should constrict and eat it on their own.

Force feeding is a lot more harsh and yes you would want someone to help you with that. I believe you make some sort of concoction and put it in a syringe.

Has the animal ever eaten for you on a regular basis and have you been keeping track of his weight?

yeah he ate weekly without hesitation and then nothing. i got him to kill a small young rat and eat it. but nothing since then.

his weight hasnt moved. which is another wonder to me. hasnt lost any weight heh

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Originally Posted by takagari

yeah he ate weekly without hesitation and then nothing. i got him to kill a small young rat and eat it. but nothing since then.

his weight hasnt moved. which is another wonder to me. hasnt lost any weight heh

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You may want to try him on a mouse. We have a male that will just not take a rat regardless. The breeder we got him from only fed mice. We also have a nice size girl that was doing fine with rats and then one day all of the sudden stopped eating for 6 months. We decided to give a mouse a try and she has taken mice every single time since then, but will not touch a rat again. Then we have our goofy girl who will only eat white rats. If the rat is more than around 25% some color other than white she will not touch it. Generally Ball pythons are not as hard as most say to get to eat. You just have to figure out what works and go with it.

My male that is 4yrs old now stopped eating for 8 months in 07. I was worried but he never lost weight and shed regularly also. I tried everything to get him back on feed but with no luck so I finally didnt try for about three weeks and then tried a mouse. He ate it and then ate 3 more that night and I fed him mice for a couple weeks and then went back to small rats. He hasnt stopped eating since and is now chowing on medium to large rats. Give him time as long as he isnt losing weight you should be just fine. Good luck.

i have 2 females that just now started eating one laid last year and the other was never bred

if they are not losing weight then let them be