Baby ball python not eating

I know this might sound weird but my normal when it was a baby i had trouble feeding. The guy at the store told me to take some bedding home from the gerbil cage and put the mouse in the bedding for a little bit and then try feeding the mouse to the snake and it worked. I guess that gerbils smell similar to the soft fur rats that bps eat in the wild.. Also freezing a mouse does change the scent because it makes the cells expand and burst. None of my bps will touch a frozen thawed rat, they all eat fresh pre-killed rats.

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Originally Posted by Crazymonkee

Do this.

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I will :D

Hey um guys. What is assist feeding? Can I try this?

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Originally Posted by junosan

Hey um guys. What is assist feeding? Can I try this?

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Assist feeding is something you do after you've tried EVERYTHING you can think of or if your snake is loosing a significant amount of weight.

Essentially, you take a f/t rodent and use its nose to gently pry open the snakes mouth. Once the mouths open, you slide the rodent in a bit, catch the rodent on the snakes teeth and set it back down in the cage. It may take a few tries as they may spit it out, that's why you make sure the rodent is hooked on the snakes teeth. You do not shove the rodent down its throat.

there is never any need to crack open the skulls. if your humidity is right, and you are patient and don't push and stress the snake...it will eat. all of the silly experimental feeding techniques are not needed. leave the animal alone for a while, wait till evening when there is barely enough light for you to see without turning on the lights, and with tongs...dance the mouse around...when the snake notices it, slowly move it closer. a lot of you are suggesting stuff that is just not needed. they will eat. make sure your environment is correct, don't stress them, and they will eat. too many of you are making something so simple, WAY too complex. twenty plus years of dealing with so many different species has taught me well, let the snake...be the snake. match its natural habitat as much as possible, don't stress it....and it will eat. real easy.

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Originally Posted by junosan

I bought my first ball python which was a baby male pastel that weighed 122g. Ever since being in my care, he never ate. He was last fed by the previous owner on 9/5 with a live hopper. I'm guessing this baby only takes live mice because I've been trying to feed it frozen thawed hoppers and it never worked. My ball python lost 22g already and I'm getting very worried about him. I can't find live hoppers anywhere, I'm currently on the search for one but I really can't find any right now. Does petco or petsmart sell live hoppers? How can I get to make him eat a frozen thawed hopper? He hasn't ate for more than 2 weeks

My temps are normally 80f-83f and 88f-92f on the basking spot with a 50%-65% humidity. He lives in a plastic rack.

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Up your humidity to about 75-80% for 2-3 days then try again. That always does the trick for me.

What I do is let my fuzzy thaw at room temperature in a closed zip lock bag for like 30 mins,then I take a heat lap and I place the mouse about 6 inches aways from the basking light and let the thing fully thaw and get soft and nice and warm to very warm..dangle him in the tank and Kocur snatches him up within 3 seconds

hope this helps and good luck,I hope your little guy starts feeding

as for the whole humidity thing,I'd say my humidity averages 55-65/70 and the warm side Avgs 84-90. My dude eats like a beast. For humidity help I keep a large damp rag on top the screen. In the morning before I leave for work and again as soon as I walk in the door,as well as I mist the tank 2 times a day.

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Originally Posted by got_ballz

Up your humidity to about 75-80% for 2-3 days then try again. That always does the trick for me.

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How does raising the humidity help feeding?