I can't feed my BP!

Okay... I will try to give you all the info I can...

First with the food. He is fed weekly, not every two weeks... not sure where that came from. But anywho, he is usually fed an ASF once a week. When I first bought him he was fed F/T pup rats but was a horrible eater. He would skip meals, so he was growing slowly. In September he weighed 304g, I started offering him live ASFs as I breed ASFs. From that point he ate consistently once every week on live ASFs and sometimes mice. I only have three colonies of ASFs right now as two of my colonies stopped producing litters. I have two new colonies to replace them but they are still too young to produce babies. Two weeks ago was the first time he was offered a mouse in two months.

For husbandry, I use a temp gun for direct heat and for ambient temperatures, I am not sure of the brand but I believe it is exoterra???... but it is digital and has a probe. I have four of them and they besides being one or two degrees off from each other the seem to work well. Some thing with humidity. I am not sure of the brand but it is digital and cost me more then the four thermometers combined. I only have the one...

All my snakes have a hide in their tub except for my huge females. Yes, my black pewter uses the hide.

Yes, he is in one of my snake racks and each rack uses it's own herpstat, except for my two smaller ones which share a herpstat two. This is the one he is in, at the bottom. None of my other snakes are behaving this way at all... so it doesn't make sense for me to not know if there was something wrong husbandry wise.

I like the idea of switching him with another snake and see if maybe location could be wrong. Who knows... I fought with my step sister for the bottom bunk for years, maybe it's the same idea... hahaha. Okay I am joking but its worth a shot.

Have you tried switching him with another snake? I would put on a sweater and a heavy pair of gloves and fish him out, scrub the tub, and switch him with someone else. I would also offer him a second feeder. If I don't have the right size I would consider giving two of what I do have. In your case I would assume it's hunger related and def offer a second. With tongs.

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Originally Posted by ItsAllNew2Me!

At 592g he is definitely being underfed unless you are giving him two XL mice. This may be a hunger issue. He should be getting at least 59g prey item. A mouse every two weeks at the size he is, is way too little.

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This. If you go by the 10 - 15% guideline, even a 59g prey item would be on the low end, but it would be a start.

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Seems a little odd... Do you handle the snake very much, or only get him out for feeding and cleaning? I handle mine every day, but she spends 99% of her time in her hide. It just surprises me that a BP would be out of the hide that much, and on top of that, come out striking at you unless you really smelled like food, or it was just angry about something else...


As the others have said, I think I'd up the amout of food he gets each meal. Something else I'd try, which has worked for me (and makes sense to me)... Get some hand sanitizer. Anytime you are going to open his cage, user the hand sanitizer on your hands. On feeding days, only put the prey in there with long tongs. Though I haven't gotten a snake to confirm it with me 100%, my theory is that they will learn the scent of the hand sanitizer and associate it with safety, and not prey.

Besides husbandry and feeding I would suggest holding him. Both to get him more accustom to you and so you can become more comfortable with him. Use gloves if you are really don't want to be bit, but I'd almost recommend getting bit once.

He is almost certainly hungry. This sounds like pretty much every food related problem snake I've had. If possible, offer him two or more mice until your ASF's begin producing. Or if you can find them, maybe even try a small regular rat. If it is food related, it can be trying. Goodness knows in my years of rescuing, I've seen it more times than you want to know about. I hope the little guy gets easier for you to deal with.

Gale

My little girl was a beast as a baby too and would eat a weanling rat every 3 days like clockwork. The minute the cage was opened, she was out there standing up like a cobra rdy for food. My vote is you are underfeeding him. I fed my gal every 3 days until 500g. Then she got a small rat every week. now she is a 4' and easily over 1000g but my scales battery died and I haven't replaced it yet :( and she gets a small to medium rat every 2 weeks except she is on hunger strike atm and would rather explore at night than eat during the day. Anyways, try feeding him every 3-4 days on something about as thick as his thickest part and see if he mellows out in a week or 2.

He is hungry, feed him and don't baby about getting tagged. A bite from a snake that size would hardly bleed at all and after a few meals he would be back to being lazy. I personally would take this opportunity to feed your guy a rat weanling -->get him off the mice all together he is to big for that. ASF are okay for picky eaters but rats are the way to go with ball pythons. All my snakes and their babies have never been offered anything but rats.

I have a very aggressive feeder, he never strikes except on feeding day. At 550g he was eating ft rats between 55 &75g every 5-6 days, now he is 900 g and eats a small rat every 7 days. He just loves to eat. I handle him 2 or 3 days a week so he knows that, just because i open his viv there isn't always food. You can always get a pair of bite gloves to start handling him, i have a pair but never use them on him, cause he is really a sweetie, he just really loves his meals.