What next?

I am concerned about my 09 mojave female. I got her in February and she weighed 180 grams. She has never eaten live and has never seemed to settle down. She has refused live every time, and she usually refuses f/t. She has only eaten for me 4 times and is now 233 grams, so at least she is growing. The only times she accepted food was when I placed a f/t mouse on her body in her hide at midnight, although she has refused her last 2 meals. I cant seem to get her interested in eating!! What gives? Should I worry?

Well are you offering once a week?

If you keep trying too often, it does much worse than good. 2 Months is not that long and like you said; it has been eating. :)

First i wonder what ur husbandry is like?

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

First i wonder what ur husbandry is like?

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I have her set up in a 10 gallon aquarium with the temps between 75 (cool side) and 85 (warm side). She gets fresh water every 2 days and I only offer food on Saturday nights. It is a similar setup that the rest of my ball pythons share in their separate enclosures. I try to handle her as little as possible to keep her stress low, although it always seems to be high.

raise the temps--I like ~94 on the warm side, 84 on the cool side. That will likely help. What are you tracking temps with?

I am also curious as to what you are using to measure temps. 85* hot side is pretty cool. I shoot for 92* right on the enclosure floor below the substrate.

What kind of prey are you feeding it? You may want to try a smaller prey. Get it to start eating regularly with the smaller stuff, then increase the size gradually. Either that or you may be feeding too large to start with.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

Do you have hides for her? If not get some and raise temps. If that doesn't work I would put her in a 16QT tub and give her a hide over the hot spot and a water dish and try in a week. If you have to get hides it may take a week for that also. I would also use aspen!! Per BG it has worked for me.

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Originally Posted by WesleyTF

raise the temps--I like ~94 on the warm side, 84 on the cool side. That will likely help. What are you tracking temps with?

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I use a simple T-Rex brand thermometer placed on the side of the tank. All of my pets have hides. I will get those temps up a little for the next week and try feeding her some smaller mice. It's always nice to get advice straight from primary sources. Thanks for your help guys!!! I take everything you all say into consideration.

http://www.petworldshop.com/pictures...ity-gauges.jpg

like these?

If so, you will want to replace them with something digital. my first thought when someone lists too low or too high temps is that they are using these gauges which can be 10-15* wrong in both directions. Not very accurate at all. So while you think your temps might be in the 80's, they could actually be in the 90's.

The best unit for single setups is the accurite digital weather station. It is sold at the home depot, walmart and lowes. I am sure if you search for accurite on this site you will find lots of pictures of what they look like and where people put them in the tank.

Step one, as everyone has started troubleshooting on, is to get your temperatures and humidity where they should be, and make sure the hides are right. Those are the three most important things to a ball python.

Step two, take a fresh fecal sample to a vet, and get a parasite check done. Internal parasites can cause snakes to be irregular, poor feeders, so ruling them out is ALWAYS a good idea when you get a new animal that doesn't eat well.

have you tried calling who you got it from to see what they were feeding it.if you havent id be doing that first then i would consider trying what they were feeding it.if still nothing after raising the temp and adding a hide box and everything else try asf (african soft furs)balls love them and they are easy to switch them off to reg rats/mice in most cases

My personal experiences with ASFs haven't been so perfect. I tried one with one of my mousers...she took it, but then refused the next time I offered one, and went back to mice. lol.