At My Wits End

I started getting into ball pythons about a year ago. First a normal female I bought from a breeder last spring. Started out as a great feeder and a great snake. I fell in love with the breed. Since, over the last year I've accumulated five more ball pythons of various morphs. All born in 2010. All started out great feeders as well. Three out of the six still eat w/o hesitation. Starting this winter my male and female fire, and my female normal all began to become very, very finicky eaters. My female fire hasn't eaten in over a month now, and im lucky if I can get my male fire and female normal to eat once every two or three weeks. I was planning on breeding in the future but I'm beginning to re-evaluate weather bp's are the breed for me. I've kept colubrids for about a year longer and although IMO, not as psychically attractive they never miss a meal. Im putting serious consideration into selling my six bp's and focusing on various colubrids. Am I over reacting and being inpatient? Anyone else had this experience? Opinions and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

BPs tend to go off food occasionally. I haven't had most of my BPs long, but someone of them are picky eaters. You just have to wait them out. Yeah it sucks when they don't eat because it means they aren't gaining weight, but you have to be patient. With the exception of my normal all my BPs are 2010s, and they are all rather small, my spider is the largest at 351g and one of my spotnoses is that smallest at 213.5g and she skipped her last meal. :( I don't plan on attempting to breed my 2010 until at least the winter of 2013, so I still have a ways to go and it doesn't bother me as much when they go off feed. The thing I'm learning with my BPs is that you have to be patient.

Snakes can fast for a while and still be healthy so don't worry about it too much.

Sorry to here about your feeding problems. It just seems to be part of the game with ball pythons. I have some that eat great and I have others that will only eat every other month. It drives me nuts, but that is just the way that they are. I have a few that I have to feed live to every other month just to get them to start eating again. Once they eat once they will eat f/t for the next month or two. Then for no reason they will quit eating again.

I am into my third year with BP's. I started with one normal, and now have over 60 animals, and currently have 7 clutches in the "cooker". I do a lot of things to keep my animals interested in eating, including breeding ASF's for those picky ones. Sometimes I wish I never would have tried to cater to the finicky ones, because now I have to.

They will eat when it is time. Maybe some others have seen a BP starve itself, but I have not. The exception of course is newborns, but yours are well started and will feed. This also is an off time of year for some of mine.

They will eat at their pace, offer once a week, and if they don't want it, don't fret. Of course keep tabs on their weight. If they are sick that is a whole different story, but you didn't mention anything about weasing or respiratory issues.

GL

Yeah....as far as can can tell there are absolutely no health problems with any of them. My male fire and female normal eat enough that they are still putting on some weight and my female fire has hung right around 340 gr for the past few months and hasn't lost any weight. I also have a false water cobra, a couple corns, and other various colubrids who slam food religiously. I know it makes no since to compare the feeding habits of a FWC or corn snake to those of a BP, but it always re-assures me that they are healthy when they eat. It leaves me scratching my head in frustration when my BP's will cease to eat for weeks or months at a time. I know its silly but, sometimes I feel like they're never gonna eat again. Thanks you guy's so much for your re-assurance. Im really teetering on the line of giving up on BP's and just focusing on colubrids, but for now im just gonna hang in there and keep my fingers crossed. Patience is not my best virtue so I just have to learn not to stress out when they don't eat.

Totally empathizing with your situation right now, but I will take the 6 bps off your hands if you need me to.. ;)

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Totally empathizing with your situation right now, but I will take the 6 bps off your hands if you need me to.. ;)

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Ha ha...These guy's have got me pulling my hair out so we'll see what the future holds...

Best thing to do is just watch his weight IMO. I have one which hasn't eaten at all this year and worrying me loads, but he was a sturdy 1.1kg male and lost less than 100g the whole time. He's even shed 2 weeks ago. I'm still hoping he'll eat but his weight and shed put my mind to ease greatly.

I feel for you. Also as stated, just keep an eye on their weights.
I have a female that is around 400g and she is the one that worries me the most.
She will only eat mice, and only every three to four weeks.
The good part is I can get her to eat two at a time.................................the BAD part is that she will only eat live, I have to put two mice in her tub at the same time AND (this is the part that always worries me) her tub has to go back in the rack with total darkness.
I feed all my snakes live but I dont like not being able to monitor her, if she has any type of disturbance during the time she decides to feed she will stop feeding and then its another weeks wait to try again.

If it makes you feel any better, my Het Pied girl didn't eat for 5.5 months, and FINALLY ate a couple fuzzy rats this past week, and my male het pied now hasn't eaten in about 5.5 months now as well and I'm still waiting on him. They just do that sometimes. I recommend trying a rat way smaller than regular prey size. That girl of mine is 870g and those fuzzies were only 30g each, but she ate 1 the first try and 2 the second week so maybe it just stimulates their eating response? Worth a try, let me know if it works for ya!

Welcome to the club:rage: It's what they do:rage: I have three of my big guys that have not had a meal in nine months:rage: As long as their weight is fine its fine. Again its what they do:rage:

I think they do it to drive us :rolleye2:

If they're adults, There really is no reason to worry. My first snake ever, a female BP who is my baby, stops eating EVERY year from September to April. As long as the weight loss is minimal, really, there is nothing to worry about.

If you're dealing with ball pythons, they are going to stop eating for you at some point. The only thing you can really do is make sure your husbandry is spot on and offer food. I don't even bother offering food to her from October onwards until she tells me she wants to eat again, and its like that for any adults. They will tell you when they want to eat.

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Originally Posted by village idiot

Welcome to the club:rage: It's what they do:rage: I have three of my big guys that have not had a meal in nine months:rage: As long as their weight is fine its fine. Again its what they do:rage:

I think they do it to drive us :rolleye2:

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you got that right....it freakin drives me nuts!!

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Originally Posted by cinderbird

If they're adults, There really is no reason to worry. My first snake ever, a female BP who is my baby, stops eating EVERY year from September to April. As long as the weight loss is minimal, really, there is nothing to worry about.

If you're dealing with ball pythons, they are going to stop eating for you at some point. The only thing you can really do is make sure your husbandry is spot on and offer food. I don't even bother offering food to her from October onwards until she tells me she wants to eat again, and its like that for any adults. They will tell you when they want to eat.

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Thats the main thing that worries me is that they are not adults...they're all 2010's 350gr-500gr. If they were adults I wouldn't so much mind.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

I feel for you. Also as stated, just keep an eye on their weights.
I have a female that is around 400g and she is the one that worries me the most.
She will only eat mice, and only every three to four weeks.
The good part is I can get her to eat two at a time.................................the BAD part is that she will only eat live, I have to put two mice in her tub at the same time AND (this is the part that always worries me) her tub has to go back in the rack with total darkness.
I feed all my snakes live but I dont like not being able to monitor her, if she has any type of disturbance during the time she decides to feed she will stop feeding and then its another weeks wait to try again.

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I totally have to do the same thing with a couple of mine. Basically drop a live weaned rat into there tub, shut off the lights and leave the room....I know its not recommended but its the only way I can get some of them to eat.....that is when they will eat....uhg

Patient is part of the game... and we need plenty of it.. I can understand your frustration as I'm having one now but of a different reason... but still if you are into ball python, you need a lot of patient...

I started in 2008. Bought a pair of juvenile pastels. Mind you, in my country, bp is very very expensive. I had superpastel in my future plan. Bringing them up to breeding weight is so emotional draining exercise. And I thought that was the hardest part. Wait.. trying breeding them is another headache. Constant peeping at their tub only to find that they were not interested at all... I tried everything to get them going, read everything on the net. Asking almost everyone who has earlier experience breeding to no avail... Once they interested and locking up, doesn't mean that the female will give you eggs... wait, isn't that the case with dogs and cat?

Finally, I almost give up. Sent my female pastel to a friend to try breeding her to his spider and another friend send me his lone female pastel.. I lost hope. I just put them together and just thinking next year...

Suddenly, both females laid eggs and I got my superpastels and also a bumblebee (this is not in my plan, but I keep her anyway :rolleyes:)..

So armed with "breeding experience", This year I bought a 700g male pin. I have 3 large females. 2 proven pastel breeders and 1 huge female. In october last year, the male got to nice 900g weight... so I started to breed him to the 3 females... again only to find the male had no idea what to do with the ladies :mad:

It took him 2 months to figure it out... and he becomes a porn star after that... since January this year, I've seen almost weekly lockup with the 3 females.... and what do I get now???? nothing... nada... :mad:

only a good thing that going well for me is that my 2010 female baby superpastels have touch 1000g in 10 months... and the 8 month old female bumblebee is already over 700g...

So you say you frustrated????