Assist Feeding?

My grandparents are letting me keep my snake (:w00t:), but he hasn't eaten since last November.

We are picking up a frozen medium sized rat today, but I have two questions that need to be answered.

1. How do you safely assist feed?
2. What is the best way to thaw?

They temperature are all correct (90* in the warm side of the tank, and about 80-85* in the cool side). He stopped wandering, he shed a few weeks ago, and pooped last week.

Assist feeding is done best with prekilled rodent.

Also you want to use smaller prey items not a medium rat. Try a small pre killed rat.


But if the snake is large enough to take a small or medium then i would not assist feed at all right now. Try a live small rat and see how that goes.

usually assist feed is for hatchlings who dont want to eat on their own.

Also if he didnt eat since November how did he poop just recently. thats a 6-7 month gap and dont sound right.

First if that snake is eating Med. rat's there is no need to assist feed that animal..I've got a male spider that has been off food since last OCT.. He ate before he started breeding he'll eat again..you might try a live prey item.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

Assist feeding is done best with prekilled rodent.

Also you want to use smaller prey items not a medium rat. Try a small pre killed rat.


But if the snake is large enough to take a small or medium then i would not assist feed at all right now. Try a live small rat and see how that goes.

usually assist feed is for hatchlings who dont want to eat on their own.

Also if he didnt eat since November how did he poop just recently. thats a 6-7 month gap and dont sound right.

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Usually every few weeks there is a white/yellow clump in his cage. Isn't that poop?

Also, we have tried live large mice, he wasn't interested.

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Originally Posted by Sadistic Serpent

Usually every few weeks there is a white/yellow clump in his cage. Isn't that poop?

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No thats pee/Urates which is normal if the snake is drinking water regularly

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

No thats pee/Urates which is normal if the snake is drinking water regularly

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Yeah, he drinks water regularly. What does the actual "poo" look like then?

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Originally Posted by Sadistic Serpent

Yeah, he drinks water regularly. What does the actual "poo" look like then?

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Cat poop.. trust me a turd looks like a turd no matter what animal it comes out of..

That is great news! I am so glad you get to keep him!!

In my opinion, if a snake has shown that it can eat on its own it doesn't need to be assist fed. Especially an adult snake. They can go well over a year without eating. Don't sweat it.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Cat poop.. trust me a turd looks like a turd no matter what animal it comes out of..

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From a ball python big enough to eat a medium rat, it looks more like St Bernard poop. ^_^

~!*Update*!~

Thanks for the help everyone! The ball python in question is about five feet long, around 1,600 grams, and is about as thick as when you put your hands in a circle. He is a very big boy :P

We are going to Jack's Aquarium and Pets later tonight to pick one one small live rat to try out. Hopefully he'll eat tonight. I'll keep everyone posted on if he eats or not, which I hope he does!

Dude, that monster could go without eating for a year. And he could eat at least a medium rat, I bet.

It's best to offer a smaller prey item to a snake that's been off-feed. I find my breeders respond best to a hopper or small rat when they've been off-feed for the season.
I also re-start them on live, and they switch back to FT without a hitch after that.

DO NOT ASSIST FEED THAT SNAKE. assist feeding is for hatchlings that never ate. your snake will eat when it's ready to eat as long as you are offering the same food he ate before he went off feed and has no health problems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sadistic Serpent

~!*Update*!~

Thanks for the help everyone! The ball python in question is about five feet long, around 1,600 grams, and is about as thick as when you put your hands in a circle. He is a very big boy :P

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Sounds more like 2600 grams, unless you have tiny hands... Good Luck...

Good luck! That's a big male. Don't worry if he doesn't eat.

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Originally Posted by Vypyrz

Sounds more like 2600 grams, unless you have tiny hands... Good Luck...

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She is very young. Been hanging around the chat box lately, good kid!

My male pastel just ate yesterday for the first time since early Nov and by the looks of him he could have went a while longer, he never went into the "danger zone" of weight loss. Assist feeding causes ALOT of stress. Just keep trying live. Good luck.