Snake refuse F/T and live, what can I do?

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

I think you should take a look at the care sheets too. You have much to learn young grasshopper

1. No you should NEVER handle a snake when first buying it. They need accumulation periods to adjust ot the new smells.

2. Feed in the enclosure, moving from one cage to another is enough to cause refusals. Feeding in their home is enough to keep them relaxed and comfortable to eat.3

3.Size of the cage makes HUGE sense, ball pythons are not free roaming snakes in the wild of Africa. They live in SMALL tight holes like termite mounds in the ground. They barely come out and spend 80%+ of their life hiding.

4. 4 weeks is nothing to make a vet trip for, seriously what kind of advice is this. Sounds like a petco employee

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1) Where did you get your D.V.M at???? You can read a care sheet guide great for you young grasshopper.... It is guide only... I have handled my pythons from DAY 1 and I am pretty sure my pythons have been taken care of better than most exotic pets.

2) There is a debate on where to feed your snake. Some people think that by feeding in their cages it will increase the chance of the python attempting to strike when we put our hands inside of the cages. There is also the change of the snake getting their bedding caught inside their mouths when feeding for the people who do not use news papers.

3) Tell me this.... Where is your study to prove this young grasshopper? Have you ever put a micro chip inside a wild python and followed it? OOOOH yes you read it online so you must at lease have a high school education... Having a smaller cages make no sense in less your only breeding the animal.... Which than they are no longer pets.. No matter what anyone says. Their living conditions are less than desirable.... We should put the breeders in the same conditions and see how they like it...

4) When you have a young python that is not eating you should take it to the VET... When you have an older python it is not that big of a deal. You must remember he also said he did not eat at the pet store... The python needs to be checked out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Samara

I have to disagree with all the post so far.

1) You should handle your python at least once every 2-3 days after purchasing him.

2) Try feeding in a separate cage at night and try only thawed mice and heat it up with a hair dryer.. Try feeding him once a week and if he does not take it than try live mice. I would not try every day one than the other.

3) Size of the cage make no sense... Python are born in the Wild and have an extremely large area where they are found. If size really was an issue I do not think they would have survived and they would be extinct ..

4) If your python refuses food after 4 weeks I would take him to an exotic vet and they may need to force feed him. Once they get older they can go much longer with food. Do not give up.. You snake will eat when it is ready. I have a captive breed python who is also picky and she goes 4 weeks at times without eating.

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1.) All that would do is stress the snake out more.

2.) I have to disagree since he is not eating you want to feed him in his enclosure were he feels more secure. You don't think that moving the snake out of his cage to another enclosure while stressed wouldn't cause refusal of the food?

3.) Down sizing the cage with Ball Pythons that don't eat has worked before. Also I'm not sure if your aware of this but Ball Pythons live in tight burrows under ground in Africa and only really come out to eat and breed.

4.) Force Feeding I heard can be dangerous so if I heard the truth I wouldn't recommend this.

I also suggest you go do some more research on Ball Pythons before you start giving advice.

I speak from experience when I say that leaving snakes alone aids them in feeding. When adding new snakes to my collection it has worked perfectly for me. I only have 4 right now so we'll see when I get more if it continues to work.

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Originally Posted by Samara

1) Where did you get your D.V.M at???? You can read a care sheet guide great for you young grasshopper.... It is guide only... I have handled my pythons from DAY 1 and I am pretty sure my pythons have been taken care of better than most exotic pets.

2) There is a debate on where to feed your snake. Some people think that by feeding in their cages it will increase the chance of the python attempting to strike when we put our hands inside of the cages. There is also the change of the snake getting their bedding caught inside their mouths when feeding for the people who do not use news papers.

3) Tell me this.... Where is your study to prove this young grasshopper? Have you ever put a micro chip inside a wild python and followed it? OOOOH yes you read it online so you must at lease have a high school education... Having a smaller cages make no sense in less your only breeding the animal.... Which than they are no longer pets.. No matter what anyone says. Their living conditions are less than desirable.... We should put the breeders in the same conditions and see how they like it...

4) When you have a young python that is not eating you should take it to the VET... When you have an older python it is not that big of a deal. You must remember he also said he did not eat at the pet store... The python needs to be checked out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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1.) Do you understand how annoying and immature it sounds when you keep saying "Young Grasshopper" I'm also pretty sure he is smarter then you are about Ball Pythons, especially since you already proved that to us.

2.) Putting the snake in a separate enclosure to feed won't hurt your snake, but doing it while your snake is not eating is not a wise choice and drastically decreases your chances of the BP eating. However if he is in a small tight enclosure he will feel more secure so there is a higher chance of the BP eating.

3.) Its actually a known fact by allot of people how Ball Pythons live in the wild. Also how are BPs not pets if you breed them?

4.) I agree the Ball Python needs to be checked out by a Vet but the owner hasn't tried enough stuff to try and get the Ball Python to eat.

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Originally Posted by Samara

1) Where did you get your D.V.M at???? You can read a care sheet guide great for you young grasshopper.... It is guide only... I have handled my pythons from DAY 1 and I am pretty sure my pythons have been taken care of better than most exotic pets.

2) There is a debate on where to feed your snake. Some people think that by feeding in their cages it will increase the chance of the python attempting to strike when we put our hands inside of the cages. There is also the change of the snake getting their bedding caught inside their mouths when feeding for the people who do not use news papers.

3) Tell me this.... Where is your study to prove this young grasshopper? Have you ever put a micro chip inside a wild python and followed it? OOOOH yes you read it online so you must at lease have a high school education... Having a smaller cages make no sense in less your only breeding the animal.... Which than they are no longer pets.. No matter what anyone says. Their living conditions are less than desirable.... We should put the breeders in the same conditions and see how they like it...

4) When you have a young python that is not eating you should take it to the VET... When you have an older python it is not that big of a deal. You must remember he also said he did not eat at the pet store... The python needs to be checked out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Wow your How old now and you talk as mature as a hs student.

Do what you want but before you go around telling everyone your way is the best and only way to do things considering you only been keeping a snake for what few months. I been keeping snakes for 15 years so i dont need to read care sheets.

And a young snake not eating does not need to go to the vet, 99.999% of the time a snake not eating when young is due to housing problems.


And for you to insult someone you know nothing about to say i have a HS education, i mean seriously how stupid are you. Your are absolutely Childish in this thread and shows how far your threads will go. Keep it up you will only push people away from helping you when you need it. But wait you should know a lot since you have one snake.

:colbert::colbert:

Damn boys, didnt want you to contest about my question!!

Well, I read all of your NICE answers, and now my problem is that I dont know where to start!!! ahah....

So first of all, I brang you some picture of my setup+snake!

-here is the enclosure!
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3365/photo405xo.jpg

-here is the snake himself!
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3188/photo042d.jpg

-Here is the enclosure for feeding! (with his lunch that refuse once again, guess Ill have to bring the mouse back to the petshop!! (for the second time)
(I build her a home for the time Ill be stuck with it)
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8892/photo069t.jpg

and next, some info!
The enclosure is 24x18x18, actually, with the light open, my thermo says 29.0 Celsius. Where theres a Red X is a Kleenex box, for hidding. (remember someone here told me to put a really small hidding place (ill have to change that tonight)

And the first mouse I tried was like pink/gray, now this one is 2 color, Ill try a black next time (I read that they can have color preference)

and for the enclosure size, versus snake that can be stressed, well, this snake is always in plant, in the tree, on the rock(that not get heat I didnt plugged it) in my hand he do not stay in ball, he move around, well, he REALLY did not look stressed, he look really confortable seriously, well, and thanks for all your answers bp fan! :P

ahh almost forgot, the UV neon is no more plug, because a lot of people told me that it was completely uneccessary.

Ty very much.
Max.

Glad to see you removed the UV light.

First off, do you leave all that stuff in it's feeding enclosure? Most people who I have seen that feed in separate enclosures have very very simple ones (sheet of newsprint and that is all, no water, food, block).

BPs seem to do well with tight fitting hides, heck some of them will go into a hide too small and end up with their fat butts hanging out the side, and seem perfectly content like that. So glad to hear you're switching that out.

How is your humidity doing? With the heat lamp on top and room for light to get through on top like that I am guessing it's all screen up there, meaning humidity could be an issue.

How are you heating it? What are your temps? Do you have one of those acurite hygrometer/thermometers?

I'd suggest putting 2 or 3 hides in there for it.

Some people dont like big displays because your snake probably isnt going to use it much and it will be harder to clan, but, personally, I dont see anything wrong with it so long as your snake can thermoregulate, the humidity is right, and it feels secure. The first and last can be handled by a couple hides and humidity is just one of those issues you need to figure out. Foil/plastic wrap tends to be used to keep humidity in.

Oh, and with a display tank if you want to do something cool you could put a hide up in the branch, like a little plastic birdhouse kind of thing, your snake may end up using it and it's an interesting idea. Perhaps a circle of wood with a hide on it and maybe some vines around the side so it looks like it's in the leaves and attached to the branch.

First of all, Samara's info couldn't be further from being correct so do yourself a favor an ignore everything he said...

People having been studying animals for a LONG time genius and just because its online doesn't mean it's not real information. Just because he didn't do the study himself doesn't mean anything. There are scientist with PHD's I'm sure that would back us all up here, and you would feel awful stupid. Let me ask you this. Why would an animal that is preyed on quite a bit travel the African landscape trying to get eaten? Well here are they facts...they don't! It makes sense too...They cram themselves into small spaces to stay hidden from predators only coming out to find a meal, to mate, or to find a new hiding spot. Not exploring. They don't have the proper brain to even comprehend exploring for the sake of it. The only thing there worried about is their survival. Not how big their tank is...gimme a break.

Get yourself a 10 gallon tank, and put some background around it. I use black paper. Gives it a more secure feel I think. Aquariums can leave snakes feeling exposed which causes them to stop feeding.
Thermostat
UTH-under the tank heater
thermometer with probe/normal thermometer (ambient temps)
Cypress Mulch
Small Hide

That tank isn't the best for a BP to be honest. There beautiful enclosures for certain species but not ball's. Especially this size. Maybe use when hes a bit bigger? Also tubs work great! Cheap and easy to clean.

Id personally use the feeding tub for his main tub for now till he eats and grows out of it.

The other one is fine for an adult male. But for that lil guy its shown to be too much for him and will result in a lot of refusals.

Hi,

Just to say guys we need to dial back the name calling aspect of this - it's ok to disagree with one another about the husbandry but we need to stay the right side of the T.O.S while doing so.


dr del