I'm sure you all see this a lot... fasting ball

Good advice frankykeno, I also concur that your temperatures and humidity are a bit low. this can cause a ball not to eat. Especially a male. Also I agree large rats are too much for most Ball Pythons. The Noatural food in the wild for them is Praomys natalensis and they do not in the wild get bigger than a small rat.
So while it is obvoiusly not your current; problem it may have been the origonal problem.
If the temeperature does not change the eating habit. This may sound funny but put him in a pillow case and take him for a ride for the day. Just get him out of the cage, Out of the house and take him with you wherever you go for a day... When you bring him home out him in his cage . And feed him late that evening..I cant tell you why it works but often it does.
If not give me a call I can run over all of the other 100"s of things to try with you... Just too many to type out.. It is time to get concerned after 11 months.
Michael Cole
Ballroom Pythons South

I have a two year old female who is the most stubborn eater ever. She went off feed for a few months before i started getting worried she was only about 600 grams, so i moved her from a 32 qt tub into a 15 qt tub gave her a week to settle in and oh snap she took right of the rip. She is now about 900 grams and eating every second week. Still picky but she eats for me. So my advice is to move her into a smaller enclosure and make sure your temps/humidity are up to par(like everyone else said). Good luck.

Funny you should mention that Michael. We have one adult female that went on a fast. No reason we could determine, nothing would interest her enough to eat it. We did do what is normally expected...no handling. After months of fasting and this crazy snake ignoring prey but happily slithering up my arm every time I opened her tub, I started bringing her out of her enclosure a lot. Bingo...she starts eating again! Makes no sense other than she was a pet snake prior to our adopting her and was used to being handled frequently. I guess there's always that snake that slithers to the beat of a different drummer. :)

Ok so this is what I did today, I put him in his satin pillow case ( he has his very own for transport, super thin and well worn so it has plenty of air flow) and sat him in the passenger seat while I went through all my errands. I took him out to go into the pet store for a digital themometer/hydrometer and since it of course was my last stop of 5 different places they were the ones that had the exact one I was looking for at a reasonable price ($20+tax). I got lots of comments on how beautiful he was and how strong and plump he looked from the resident snake lover that works there. She was amazed that HE was the one that hadn't eaten in a year. I will try and post pics of him however my digi cam broke so we'll see what I can do. Other than that he rode home around my neck and soaked u p the sunshine and just seemed to be happy as a clam and calm as can be the whole day. When I got home I held him a bit longer because when I opened up his tank he got the death grip on my wrist and refused to go back into it. I then had my fiance hold him a bit and then he went RIGHT in his tank with no problems... my fiance was the one to put him in. Tonight I will be trying to feed him the pinky mouse IF I can find one in sonoma county :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by PunkerGirl1107

Tonight I will be trying to feed him the pinky mouse IF I can find one in sonoma county :rolleyes:

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I think you should try F/T adult mouse if he was eating rats before. The pinkie might be too small. Or did someone else recommend the pinkie. If so, I'm sure they know more than me.

Ok before you try assist feeding there are a couple of things that you can try.

First things first and this is advice for anybody that has a ball that might fast. The amount of time isn't as important as the amount of weight they have lost. Balls when over fed will fast to help their body catch up. Keeping proper weights and weighing on a schedule helps you determine when you should intervene. Always try to weight after a poop and before a feed. Example a 1500 gram snake that fasts for say 6 months and only looses 100-200 grams no biggie. A 1500 gram snake that fasts for 2 months and looses 100-200 grams red flag. So please keep records every month or every week when ever.

Now there are things that you can try, braining, leaving a P/K item over night, put him in a smaller almost cramped enclosure, putting the snake and a P/K item in a snake bag over night. Leaving a live pinkie rat or rat pup over night.

Force feeding is a last resort.

Taking your snake out driving around all day doing errands is certainly not going to help the situation. They are not dogs. Ball pythons are very affected by high stress, and that would have been very stressful. I would not try feeding it tonight, chances are it won't eat after that.

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Originally Posted by Lorgakor

Taking your snake out driving around all day doing errands is certainly not going to help the situation. They are not dogs. Ball pythons are very affected by high stress, and that would have been very stressful. I would not try feeding it tonight, chances are it won't eat after that.

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I'm going to have to whole heartily disagree. I have gotten more than one snake I've the years to come back on food by taking them for a car ride. In fact I had a het pied male that for almost a year had to be driven around in order to get him to eat. Would I recommend it being done "all day" no but for an hour or two is a pretty good time.


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Edit - Just noticed this was from years ago...