Tired of Eating Problems

Tricks tried include braining, setting the frozen mouse in front of cage to thaw, scenting with gerbil bedding, dipping in stock, leaving out overnight in front of hide and paper bag. He will look at the food and even touch it, but won't strike. He looks at me (I feed at night) and will begin to climb to my hand. I heat the mouse in hot water so its not cold. Fundamentally, there's too much noise in the house. He will not eat. He's in as quiet a place as I can find. I don't see the answer.

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Originally Posted by titanoboa

We just don't know a lot about these animals. They are not well-suited to captivity.

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We know a lot about them. They are extremely well suited to captivity. They've been a staple of the pet trade for 20 years and will continue to be for another 20. I would urge you to spend some time here looking into various techniques for getting the animal to eat. It needs security and it needs the prey to be recognized as food. Why is this so frustrating to you? You've spent the same amount of time and money each week by offering whether it eats or refuses. If you're concerned about the time or money, you probably shouldn't have any pets at all. A dog or a cat takes daily attention to be fed and watered and cleaned up after. Ball pythons are one of the lowest maintenance pets out there.

Can you describe your process of thawing, prepping the snake for feeding, and the offering itself? How many different techniques have you tried and what are they? I have one snake that doesn't eat F/T and a few others are spotty - when they refuse I don't worry about it. It sounds like the setup is in an aquarium - with 4 kids and a noisy household the first question would be where is the tank located and have you considered moving it to a low traffic area and covering the sides and back of the tank to give it more privacy?

Try putting a blanket around 3 sides of the tank (I use duct tape to get it to stay, and a towel over hald the top and front to create a window in front. I have a cat crazy dog and a 2 yr old that bangs on my girls enclosure all the time. My house is NOT quiet let me tell you. Also try feeding after your kiddos are in bed and its quiet. It might work. Don't be discouraged. There are a lot of people on here that are willing and able to help you. Also try warming the rodent up with a blast from your blow drier. I wish you every luck with the little guy. They can be stinkers.

You are giving up to easily. You have not tried everything yet and you do not seem to have the patience. I had a big male normal ball python in the past that would go off feed at this time of the year and would not eat again until April. I got so upset at first and I had even thought about rehoming him. What I did was triple check my husbandry and reevaluated everything I was doing. It turned out that I was not even doing anything wrong it was just this particular snake would go off feed every year at the same exact time. I did end up rehoming this beautiful boy last year but not because of him going on feeding strikes. I had to move and I could not take this snake with me. Let me tell you something, I MISS that boy so much now because once I got the past the issue of him not wanting to feed, I discovered a very sweet snake that I could not have ever imagined not having in my life. If you feel you cannot handle your snake and his feeding issues then please do rehome the animal.

I have a picky male. He'll only take the rodent if it's held in tongs and shuffled around about 6-8 inches away from him. Sometimes he'll coil it then forget about it and I have to offer again before he'll actually coil and eat.

It can be frustrating when I'm doing a late feed and just want to get to bed, but it's just his personality. My other girls eat just find without me having to do any fancy tricks.

Personally if the snake isn't sick I don't see a problem with handling the snake a bit, even if it's on a feeding strike, provided its environment, etc are alright.

My living room isn't quiet. As long as people aren't running past multiple times a day or yelling in the room/banging on things it's probably not that big of a deal.

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Originally Posted by titanoboa

frozen mouse

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Have you tried rats?

'Zombie Dance' where you hold the prey in tongs and wiggle it? 90% of ball pythons won't strike or eat inanimate objects - it's your job to animate it if you're feeding F/T.

I think the ideal place would have been in the closet of my guest room, which was not used at the time. Unfortunately, my in-laws came to stay and they didn't want it in their room (a cultural thing). It's in my son's room, who is a snorer. I appreciate the advice. I prep by putting the frozen mouse in a hot bowl of water in front of the cage. I wait till the boys are asleep, then run some hot water over the plastic bag to heat it up. I offer usually by holding the tail with the forceps, but have also grabbed it by the back of the neck. He recognizes it, will even come up to it, then turns away. Funny thing, he will stretch his neck out toward my hand, kind of saying I know you're there. But who really knows what is going through his mind. I think it will only eat if near starvation. I will cover the sides and feed a larger prey animal in hopes one big meal will stave off hunger. It can survive on one big meal for a couple of weeks. This is still a 20 inch juvenile.

My picky male wont eat anything that's wet. If he strikes and takes it into the water bowl he'll let go and ignore it. I quickly switched to using a cheap hair dryer to warm the rats before feeding.

I really don't think that the snoring is a problem. I'd be more concerned about things like banging, running, jumping, or constant foot traffic. Anything that's going to send a lot of vibration through the ground.

As long as the environment is alright, and the equipment you're using is giving accurate readouts (note that a lot of petstore equipment is low-quality and can be notoriously inaccurate, especially the hygrometers), and even then they're pretty resilient, then this is just something your snake will snap out of. It's just very frustrating.

It's a rough experience, especially for your first snake. It's nowhere near as bad as having something bitey though, which can also happen (less frequently with balls than others, mind you)...

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Originally Posted by titanoboa

I offer usually by holding the tail with the forceps, but have also grabbed it by the back of the neck. He recognizes it, will even come up to it, then turns away. Funny thing, he will stretch his neck out toward my hand, kind of saying I know you're there.

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If he doesn't take it in 15 or 20 seconds, just drop it in front of his hide and close up for the night. There's a good chance it might be gone in the morning.

Every snake is different. They all like different things as well. It will get very frustrating. None of my snakes will eat Frozen/Thawed rats. My spider ball python will not eat live or prekilled. I have found that the only way she will eat consistantly is to get a live rat kill it when I am ready to feed and put it in the tank and leave her alone for about an hour in the dark. I come back in after the hour and the rat is gone. My male Het albino is similar he wants fresh killed he just is not as pickey about me leaving the room or the lights. My big normal will stop eating for about 2-3 months at a time just because. All of the others have great feeding responses. Keep working with the snake and trying different things and figure out what it likes.