about to make the dreadful switch :tears:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

...
Fearing the worst outcome, when the best outcome is your more likely outcome seems exhausting to me.

---

Kudos Robin; I totally agree :)

What I mean is that I dont leave the prey unnatended for long time but my one girl will not eat if being watched. I put the kibble since the mouse will chew on it rather than bounce around in the cage which tends to freak this girl out. If it is sitting still chewing then she comes up to it slowly and strikes. I can see her from the front of the rack but i have to do just that put the mouse in her bin and just put her bin nack in the rack, within a couple hours she will get the mouse. This is the only snake I leave a mouse with unnatended for longer yhan 5 mins, As her feeding responce gets better I will no longer have the need to do this. She is getting better with each feeding.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

Fearing the worst outcome, when the best outcome is your more likely outcome seems exhausting to me.

---

And very counter-productive. I mean, with that kind of thinking, he might as well not buy the snake, because he could be bitten and it might hurt. O_o

We just want you to be responsible, hon. Nothing more, nothing less, and we're giving you our life experiences. YES! Snakes have been attacked, but not because of anything the snake did, but because the owner was IRRESPONSIBLE. That's the kicker. As long as YOU are responsible, feeding live is wonderful.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnM_Man

how can u condone feedin in the tank ??... if u have loose substrate u run the risk of impaction

---

How in the world do they survive in the wild? :O

Feeding strike over !!!!! :p

I've experienced exactly the same thing with mine. He's a 15 months old and I've fed him rats since he was a month old. Up until 2 months ago he gradually refused to eat frozen rats in the very same way as you described.
I even tried a frozen mouse and a pre killed mouse and he will just sniff around and leave. Otherwise he seems perfectly healthy and comes out around the cage every night. His set up is great and temps/hum are perfect.
So at this point I guess I'll wait because as picky as he's become, I have a feeling that if he eats live mice once he'll bever go back to frozen. For that reason as much as I like balls I hate them too. I can feed my boas live and frozen anytime and they'll never ever refuse and be picky. Good luck and keep us posted. :(

well all i did was change the way i prep her meal ... i used to just grab a mouse outta the freezer put it in a bowl with some warm water until it thawed out then warm it up with some hot water... this time i was careful not to touch the mouse at all put it in a plastic bag n thawed it out and warmed it up with water ... still not a snap n wrap response but she actually constricted it this time and gobbled it down so im a lil bit happier... so hopefully shes eats next week ... maybe ill try two mice

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by drugaria

I've experienced exactly the same thing with mine. He's a 15 months old and I've fed him rats since he was a month old. Up until 2 months ago he gradually refused to eat frozen rats in the very same way as you described.
I even tried a frozen mouse and a pre killed mouse and he will just sniff around and leave. Otherwise he seems perfectly healthy and comes out around the cage every night. His set up is great and temps/hum are perfect.
So at this point I guess I'll wait because as picky as he's become, I have a feeling that if he eats live mice once he'll bever go back to frozen. For that reason as much as I like balls I hate them too. I can feed my boas live and frozen anytime and they'll never ever refuse and be picky. Good luck and keep us posted. :(

---

I agree BP's are deffinately my fav's but even when ppl are doing everything to the T their eating habits still drive me nuts at times. But I have learned to never touch the F/T with my bare hands. I had one BP back in the day during his rat pup stage would not touch anything (live/PK/FT) if it did not have black on it. If anything was solid white ya forget it!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iCandiBallPythons

I agree BP's are deffinately my fav's but even when ppl are doing everything to the T their eating habits still drive me nuts at times. But I have learned to never touch the F/T with my bare hands. I had one BP back in the day during his rat pup stage would not touch anything (live/PK/FT) if it did not have black on it. If anything was solid white ya forget it!

---

I never touch roddents with my bare hands and still ball python's feeding habbits suck. I've tryed everything from having roddents with perfect body temperature to dry and wet roddents, blowing them with hairdryer prescenting the room etc and nothing helps . This guy's are just a pain. I wish I never started with a ball python, but i've had it for so long I can't just get rid of it.

Anyhow I decided to try live and since the little s. has never seen a live rodend in his life it was a bit confused but stroke with lightning speed within a minute and then I fed him another live mouse .
So now thereis no going back , but at least he's eating and the mice are free.
So I guess I'm stuck with breeding mice... Good luck to you all !

Ok no offense to anyone but ball pythons go off feed right? They can decide not to eat and that's normal to a certain extent right? Is three weeks a long time for them to stop eating?

My snake decided to refuse a meal (adult f/t mouse) on 12/18. So what I did was try again on 12/23. Same thing I do every time. Thawed the mouse in the room, heated the mouse to around 100 degrees. Heated the head up in some hot water for a minute. dried the head with a paper towel, presented the mouse in the snakes enclosure, wiggled it about till my arm got tired, waited 10 minutes, heated again presented the tasty mouse, she refused. Now she has totally ruined Christmas at this point. I didn't let on though, I just acted like it was any other day. So then, get this I am at my wits end on 12/28 so I do the exact same thing I did the...hold on....15 times before she decided to refuse and this time...she refused again. So now I am actually angry and nervous. So I head back to my old stand by...the web...and I go to www.ball-pythons.net and I read up on all the people freaking out like me and I remember that its normal. Ok so this is where the story gets good. On 1/2, I do the same thing I do every time, I don't change a thing. This time she comes out of her hide. Strikes, constricts for a few minutes, drags her mouse back into her hide and I am assuming eats it. I went to bed and in the morning the mouse was not there. So either one of the cats found a way to get in and out with out leaving any signs or else she ate it. Actually that was a joke, I weighed her on 1/4 and she is definitely one mouse heavier. Not going to lie I thought about trying to feed live, but then I listened to all the great posts and said you know what, I keep really good records, she gets fed every 5 days and weighed two days after/two days before a meal and based on my math she lost a little weight and a bunch of potential weight. No big deal. Now we are back on schedule and we will stay that way until she decides otherwise which could be at any moment and I am ok with that.

Long post I know but my moral is maybe we should not be switching things up every time we offer prey. This breed is easily stressed and anorexic at the drop of a hat. That being said its your snake, I only know what you shared with us, good luck to you and your snake.