I'm starting to hate feeding night...

Tonight was feeding night for me, I feed on a 6 day schedule because consistency doesn't work well for me. I had 8 out of 9 snakes eat... my pastel yb has decided her fast isn't over yet... :rage: I'm tempted to just skip her for a week to see if that helps...

Anyways, she wouldn't eat and I had two snakes pop out of their tubs as soon as I opened them. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get bit soon opening tubs on feeding night. It's great that they love to eat, never going to compain about that, but my spider was half out of his tub before I could even grab the rat. :rolleyes:

Also, I'm sure it was a horrible idea, but I offered the refused rat pup to the lemon pastel I got in this morning. I figure it was okay because it was going from my establish collection to QT not the other way around. I was just going to toss it if she refused, but surprisingly ate it which I'm going to take as a great sign that she's a good eater. :)

I'm going to try live next I feed my pastel yb and see if that works, I know my normal will easily eat live if she won't eat it. :P

I feel you pain. I had my male normal go on a hunger strike. He will only eat small prey items. I am now feeding him live weaned rats. They are a bit on the small side for him but I am just glad that he is eating rats again. Perhaps you can try a live weaned rat and take it from there.

First: GLOVES. Put on a pair of gardening gloves before you open the tubs.

Second: If they're driving you bonkers, start feeding every other week. That's fair. If they're hungry, they'll eat. Otherwise, they'll make you crazzzzzzy.


...I'm out of town, so my poor husband had to feed my snakes. Most of the adults didn't eat---it seemed like they were confused about eating in the tubs, rather than being moved from the tank to a cardboard box. And Winston, my tiny pied male, who has to do the heavy lifting next fall, kept acting like he was interested in both mice and rats, but wouldn't touch either. Finally my husband gave up and went to put Winston back in his tank: and Winston BIT HIM.

I'm going to have to offer my husband hazard pay!

How much do you guys try before giving up and taking the rat out? I've been waiting for one of mine to eat for 6 months now I'm getting to the point of 'here, take a whiff of the rat.. Oh you're not checking him out? Alright on to the next guy'. But then there are people who spend 2 hours a week begging theirs to eat..

You guys are fretting over nothing.

Why did you get into bps if you're not willing to deal with the hunger strikes? I have a female pastel that hasn't eaten since last July and she just gave me 5 eggs... we think they have to be huge and fat to breed. Wrong. They know what's best for them and if they have eaten, they will again.

I have an Ornate monitor who happily takes care of anything refused, lol.

Chris

the longest I had one go was my het albino girl at 7 months and then boom she was back to an eating machine. she went from 640 to 1500 in about 5 months. she was pounding down rats like there was no tomorrow.

Is your pastel yb an adult? My adults are just starting since the strike in december. The younger ones are tanks unstoppable. It is just the way they are. I don't worry too much I try to get 30 meals a year that's it. If one whom is always the first out and last stopping he sometimes gets a extra tidbit here and there when he is eating to try to get that last few meals in. If they don't show much interest that is it on to the next. Weigh them that is the best indicator of health if they are not dropping much weight there is no problem.

Side question has your local temps outside weather been cool at night lately ? We have been having rainy day after rainy day here and mine whom in other years would have been eating regularly by now are still off, curious if there might be some relation to temps and weather.

If your feeding FT leave it in with her. Or leave a rat pup in with her for a few hours, it can't hurt her and that will give her time to eat if she just needs time. We have a few like that. If you up in the room or the lights in ect... They won't eat. Leave a pup overnight and the next morning it's gone .

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Originally Posted by mumps

You guys are fretting over nothing.

Why did you get into bps if you're not willing to deal with the hunger strikes? I have a female pastel that hasn't eaten since last July and she just gave me 5 eggs... we think they have to be huge and fat to breed. Wrong. They know what's best for them and if they have eaten, they will again.

I have an Ornate monitor who happily takes care of anything refused, lol.

Chris

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I have been dealing with this for a while now. Cut me a little slack please. I am new to this business of bp's not eating. I am learning to cope with it.

Ball Pythons not eating is one of the things that drives keepers nuts. It can be frustrating for both old and new keepers alike. So with all that said here is my only nugget of wisdom. Keep offering food, try different foods mice, rats, live, f/t. Try offering at midnight try a different day. Your willingness to keep working will pay off.. I have a mojave and a het pied that only ate ASF's for years.. they bred and poof now they are rat machines. go figure..

chin up and keep plugging away, we all go through it..