Feeding problems

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Originally Posted by Megz

Yah yet again didnt eat it :S live one today hope that works cause I won't know what to do with it if it doesn't

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I'm interested to see if he takes the live, keep us posted
Good luck :)

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Now again she's not eating wtf. This is so dumb. She just ate and she is roaming like she is hungry and yet still won't that's so random

I'd check your husbandry. If she just ate and is still roaming, I'd say there's something else that's not to her taste about her setup. How recently did she eat?

Sent from my warm hide

Okay so last time she ate was September 23rd. I fed her a frozen and she took it. she was fine and 5 days later began the roaming again. She i went to feed her on sunday using the same preparation method as last time and nothing. I went to feed her on the monday and nothing. She is roaming climbing up the sides of the tank and burrowing all that jazz. I have a cold and hot side both with identical hides. The temps are perfect 87 hot and 77 cold ... it varies depending on when i have the lights on room temp etc. What i dont understand is how she ate fine last week and now she won't. I prepared it the exact same way. Any thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Megz

Okay so last time she ate was September 23rd. I fed her a frozen and she took it. she was fine and 5 days later began the roaming again. She i went to feed her on sunday using the same preparation method as last time and nothing. I went to feed her on the monday and nothing. She is roaming climbing up the sides of the tank and burrowing all that jazz. I have a cold and hot side both with identical hides. The temps are perfect 87 hot and 77 cold ... it varies depending on when i have the lights on room temp etc. What i dont understand is how she ate fine last week and now she won't. I prepared it the exact same way. Any thoughts?

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Your temps are still too low. I keep my hotspot at 92, cool side around 80. Perhaps her hunger overcame the cool temps, or maybe you had a spell of warmer days that gave her the proper temps. I can't remember, but what heat sources are you using? And what type of thermometer and thermostat?


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yah but she has been staying on the cool side a lot lately and even now she roams like really climbing and burrowing and digging sorta thing. i just dont understand

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Originally Posted by Megz

yah but she has been staying on the cool side a lot lately and even now she roams like really climbing and burrowing and digging sorta thing. i just dont understand

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What type of thermometers are you using and where are they placed?



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i use the digital hygrometer/thermoeter by zoo med i think. one in the warm hide and one in the cool hide

Maybe try what others have suggested and bump the heat up a little bit, wait a week and try to feed again.

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Originally Posted by Megz

i use the digital hygrometer/thermoeter by zoo med i think. one in the warm hide and one in the cool hide

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Your temps may be skewed by placing them inside the hides. Do you by chance have a temp gun? Or know what the ambient temps are?


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ill definitely try bumping up the temps the amibient temp changes with my room temps and the heat lights. i will try waiting a week last time she went a month though :S as well as her roaming she keeps falling time to time and i worry about her

The most interesting thing just happened. I bumped up temps. and zapped the rat with the hairdryer and when i went to offer it she came right out and went into strike mode and then just didnt care. i moved it slightly (i didnt touch her with it) but when i did for some reason she moved back really quickly like when she is scared. I moved it to where she could see it and then she did it again and moved away from it fast and then went quickly into her house. Could she be afraid of it for some reason? What i dont understand though is that she ate last week so why would she be afraid? As well All night she was up climbing up the sides and burrowing (as i said in the previous post) so she is clearly hungry but i just thought that was nuts. I put the rat in the warm hide as suggested and she didnt seem to care. She spent her whole night in the cold side (she was freezing this morning) so maybe she is afraid of it?

What happened to waiting a week? Trying too often can stress them out more. Bump up the temps, let her go for a week keeping the temps up.

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i had left it overnight and last time she ate i had done the same zapped it in the morning and she ate it so i thought i'd give it a quick try and as i said she came out fast and ready for it and then just didnt care. but i'm definitely waiting a week. Also if they fall over and hit stuff or just hit the ground their okay right? like i feel like shes getting hurt

Gotcha! How often is she falling over? Does it seem like she's weak?

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Gotcha? kudos if u did :P I'm not sure how often it is but i see her fall over. last night she fell and then didnt move and i went to check and she was okay, i think, she started moving and then did it all over. she doesnt seem weak a little sketchy maybe more jittery i guess is the word not sure how to describe it

Has she ever eaten anything besides mice? At this point I might try a live rat crawler, since they have a different scent than mice and she might be more inclined to take live if F/T freaks her out. If she takes it, you can ease into F/T before sizing her up.


Sent from my cool hide

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Originally Posted by Archimedes

Has she ever eaten anything besides mice? At this point I might try a live rat crawler, since they have a different scent than mice and she might be more inclined to take live if F/T freaks her out. If she takes it, you can ease into F/T before sizing her up.


Sent from my cool hide

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She has only ever eaten frozen rats except the one time i fed her a gerbil when she didn't eat for a long time and i got worried. Also she ate frozen last week though son i don't understand where the fear would come from, any thoughts on that? The other thought i had was i know the rule no larger then girth but could it be that if she sees them as too small she wont take it? she is 943 and i feed her small rats and i read some forums, on here, saying go by one tenth the weight of the snake in relation to the food. So is it possible she sees it as too small and doesn't want to bother? The only concern i have is that the other ones may be too big

Being a lil bigger won't hurt... it should leave a small lump in her stomach.
For some reason, be it temp of prey, size of prey she is not recognizing it as food
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yah and thats what i dont understand how does that change na week along with being scared of it? the problem with the bigger ones is i dont want to kill her like they are big u know not that much bigger then her girth but they are bigger. but the small rats i feed dont leave a lump persay but she was just eating them so i just dont get it :confusd:

You can't get anything in between?

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Wait until the next scheduled feeding and try again. It seems like you are trying to introduce food to often. Slow down and take some of the advice these guys/gals have given and wait it out. If your snake is not loosing weight or becoming ill, i think it will be fine. Have you checked your animal for any type of illness/mites? I don't even own a snake yet, but i do spend about 8 hrs a day researching these forums and reading every little bit of information i can about constrictors. I know you mentioned that you bumped the temps up, but i don't remember you saying if you had a thermostat or not, or if you had a temp gun to double check your numbers?

From the picture, I believe she has a hydrofarm. But I definitely think the temps need to be double checked with a gun

yah i'm waiting a week just thought i'd do the last try cause it worked last week when she ate. I havn't checked for illness/mites but i can tell she doesnt have either cause she acts normal... outside the food thing although for bp's i know its normal for fussiness. i'll wait the week and try the small prey again or do u think i should just try the bigger one? temps are good 90 hot 80 cold and 88 and 77 at night. food prep i did the dethaw, heat up with hot water, zap with hairdryer, place inside hot hide. Thats the prep I have done. last week it seemed to work nut not now should i use the same prep or try something else?

I'd go for the bigger prey item.

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I have a bumblebee female that's really really REALLY picky as well. When I get her rats I have the pet store rub shavings from different types of rodents all over them and leave a lil bit in the box with the rat. This usually picks her interest back up and she starts feeding again :)
Gotta love picky BPs

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Originally Posted by vankmen.

I have a bumblebee female that's really really REALLY picky as well. When I get her rats I have the pet store rub shavings from different types of rodents all over them and leave a lil bit in the box with the rat. This usually picks her interest back up and she starts feeding again :)
Gotta love picky BPs

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well i want to try the frozen next week but otherwise i'll get to the pet store :) yah bp's keep it interesting. I am a little worried about my girl cause she climbs all over the place trying to get out (she does thing whenever she's hungry; not sure does this happen to u?) anyways so i worry shes gonna get hurt :(

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Originally Posted by Megz

well i want to try the frozen next week but otherwise i'll get to the pet store :) yah bp's keep it interesting. I am a little worried about my girl cause she climbs all over the place trying to get out (she does thing whenever she's hungry; not sure does this happen to u?) anyways so i worry shes gonna get hurt :(

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This could also be that she can't find a place to settle in (stressed out).

It's also October. All my snakes except the spider and the bumblebee went through a fast during this time when they hit about a year old. The Yellowbelly went on a 3 month fast which got me psyched! I didn't change anything, continued to offer prey as usual without any changes until he ate. They went on fast again in January (Florida winter) when the humidity dropped. Had to swap substrates to cypress to up the humidity.

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Originally Posted by anatess

This could also be that she can't find a place to settle in (stressed out).

It's also October. All my snakes except the spider and the bumblebee went through a fast during this time when they hit about a year old. The Yellowbelly went on a 3 month fast which got me psyched! I didn't change anything, continued to offer prey as usual without any changes until he ate. They went on fast again in January (Florida winter) when the humidity dropped. Had to swap substrates to cypress to up the humidity.

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Thanks :) I'm hoping this is what that is :D

Not sure if this is of relevance but maybe. I have noticed that she is spending 80% of the time in the cold hide. My temperatures are exactly those i explained above and humidity at a good level. The hides are exactly the same. I don't know if that has anything to do with it but it does seem a little odd because she use to love her warm hide.

How did you double check the temps?

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Do you have a temp gun? I use that to determine exactly what the surface temp is where my BP is sitting.

130 posts? Come on guys...



Ball pythons are finicky eaters. They will not always eat - that is OK. If it's not taking F/T, try live. If you're unwilling to feed live and it starts losing weight while refusing F/T, get a different species of snake.

Geez what's your problem. People have experiences and opinions and different methods. So I ask for opinions and get them and appreciate it so much. If u don't like the fact that there are 130 posts then pick a different forum or thread. Like seriously who cares. If people didn't care they don't have to post what's it to u. I know they are finiky eaters I know this stuff happens I'm merely asking if there are any methods to help and curious as to why it's so stunted. Maybe I was doing something wrong maybe something or maybe not I'm asking to see if anyone else has had this as well. And let me just shout out to all the people who have helped me and taken the time to share there knowledge and methods. Thank you all very much. So calm down if I want to post on a thread I started then let me. If people want to respond let them. It's none of your concern.

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Originally Posted by Crazymonkee

How did you double check the temps?

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Yah I used a temp gun. I am waiting the week as suggested so Monday ill offer frozen once more. If she doesn't take it should I wait another week to get a live one or just get it that day? As well in response to my offering of the medium rats Roxy is 957 and the one rat is 140 so it does seem too big it is a bit bigger then her girth so do u still think I should offer the medium Monday or go with the smaller one again

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Originally Posted by Megz

Yah I used a temp gun. I am waiting the week as suggested so Monday ill offer frozen once more. If she doesn't take it should I wait another week to get a live one or just get it that day? As well in response to my offering of the medium rats Roxy is 957 and the one rat is 140 so it does seem too big it is a bit bigger then her girth so do u still think I should offer the medium Monday or go with the smaller one again

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I'd wait a week between each attempt. 140 should be fine, but I'm not sure if she'd take a large meal with her eating habits... For comparison, my 980 gram ball took a 180 gram asf last week no problem.

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Originally Posted by MootWorm

I'd wait a week between each attempt. 140 should be fine, but I'm not sure if she'd take a large meal with her eating habits... For comparison, my 980 gram ball took a 180 gram asf last week no problem.

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Oh okay that's good to know. Well I thought of offering the bigger prey this time because maybe she will see it more as food u know. Not sure if it matters but maybe she sees no point in the smaller rats

If she's refusing the smaller ones I'd try the larger.
The last time I tried a f/t with Lex and she didn't take it I got a live the next day and she was more than willing to eat it... I was actually stunned with how quick she struck and coiled.


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So the medium rat did the trick. Maybe it was the week wait or the fact that it was bigger but she is chowing down:)

Well hopefully things will smooth out for both of you now that you found something she likes.

Awesome :)

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yet again three weeks go by and each time i offer she charges up to it in strike mode looks at it all ready to strike stops waits a bit and then backs away. I wait an extra week for each refusal. She is clearly hungry just not eating. I just don't get it craziness with these stubborn little ball pythons
:rolleye2:

I didn't read through the whole thread, so this was probably asked...

Are you feeding live or frozen? I saw at one point you were trying frozen, but not sure what you are doing the last few times.

This may seem like a dumb question but... are all the rats you're offering the same color?

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I am feeding frozen rats yes. She was eating fine before and now its been 3 weeks and she went from 1085grams (since she last ate) to now 1038grams (since she refused). Im worried because she spends all her time on the cold side and she goes to strike but doesn't its weird. And yes they are different colours some white and some black. but she has eaten one of each before so i thought she liked both colours as well i didn't think it mattered in a way. Although i do know sometimes they are picky that way. My process is I defrost, heat it with really warm water and zap the brain with a hair dryer and offer it

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Originally Posted by Megz

I am feeding frozen rats yes. She was eating fine before and now its been 3 weeks and she went from 1085grams (since she last ate) to now 1038grams (since she refused). Im worried because she spends all her time on the cold side and she goes to strike but doesn't its weird. And yes they are different colours some white and some black. but she has eaten one of each before so i thought she liked both colours as well i didn't think it mattered in a way. Although i do know sometimes they are picky that way. My process is I defrost, heat it with really warm water and zap the brain with a hair dryer and offer it

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Try a live rat.

EDIT:
Also, what size rat is it (grams)? What time of day are you feeding? I have one finicky eater who will only eat after I turn off all the lights and go to bed.

yah I'm gonna have to at this point I think waiting anymore is dangerous considering her weight loss

Agreed... I would most definitely go with live

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