i did something stupid....very stupid

ok 3 days ago reeses did not feed for me. i decided to feed him 2 days later which rex322 has already informed me was a dumb move. 3 days ago he acted like he was just a lil afraid of the rat so i took it out and threw it away. yesterday i put another one in the tank he start flinching and hissing. like he was seriously scared of the rat. so i left in there for an hour on the opposite side of the tank that he was on to see if he would go for it and he wouldn't even leave his hide. so i once again took the rat out and threw it away. so next sunday i will try again. by the way before anyone asks i have perfect temps of 90-95 on the hot side and 82-86 on the cool side and humidity is at 57%. please if anyone has any suggestions then please tell me. i have heard of pythons going off feed by ignoring the rat but being afraid of it is something i have never heard of.

Brian

try something smaller it might help trigger his feeding response

I would just wait a week or so. Maybe wait until you see him coiled inside his hide, with his head poked out? I usually just stop feeding my snakes who do not want to eat, until they exhibit this behavior. it worked for Goblin; he was off feed for a few months, and he would remain either coiled up in his hide completely, or he would cruise around the cage at night (and ignore any food I put in there.) One night I finally saw him iin his hide with his nose poked out. I thawed a rat, and he grabbed it from my hands before I could think!
Of course, this is all asuuming he is not losing weight. How long has your BP been off feed?

You may also try and feed him at night.. When he's cruising his cage... I don't think he's affraid of it. He just may not be ready to feed yet..

ok he didn't eat for me while he was in shed and he didn't eat after his shed so that would make it about 2 weeks. and yes he does seem a lil bit less girthier than usual.

and i say he seems afraid of it because when i put it by him he was like flinching ALOT and he started hissing at me which he never does. oh yeah and i fed him at 11:14 pm last night.

Whats his age and weight?

he is 10 months old i have no idea how much he weighs but i only know that he is 25 inches long.

He's been off food for how long now?

for 2 weeks.

Wow... I have a 10 month old that hasn't eaten in 2 months... They tend to do this now and then. LOL

just wait him out, try once a week or twice a month. do you pre- scent the air or room with a rodent smell? sometimes this helps to wake everyone up and get them in feed mode! just leave the rats in there for 15-20 min. to really stink it up! lol


vaughn

i would wait 2weeks then try it

I think that your best bet would be to try at your next feeding a smaller food item, since he seems scared of the rat maybe he is not ready to eat something that big? But either way i agree with cutting down the food size and seeing if that helps.

the thing is he has been eating the same size rat since january so i mean why would all of a sudden would he be frightened of it? but i have decided to leave him alone completely till next week and if i see any of his usual signs of being hungry(cruising in the day time, sliding up against the glass) i will feed him but if i see no signs i will wait another week so then he will be nice and hungry and just can't refuse a nice warm rat....hopefully lol. thank you guys for all your help :)

Brian

I tell ya, one of the greatest ideas that i got was from my boy Adam. I adopted my own twist to it but i'll be darned if it doesn't work like a charm! I first allow the rat to thaw out in the room with Hissy's tank. This scents the air as Vaughn put it. Then, I put the rat on top of the screen hole of my AP cage & I take a blow dryer & rain the blow dryer down on the rat blowing the smell of the rat into the cage. This drives Hissy WILD! Now your humidity readings will take a sharp drop initially but once the warm, dry air is taken out of the equation, the humidity will bounce right back up. But, the warm, rat scented air was just what i needed to get Hissy off of a fast that lasted five months!

A ball python not eating for 2 weeks can hardly be considered going "off-feed." Younger (yearling or less) bps that eat small rats regularly, in my own experience, tend to go through short periods of time where they aren't hungry. I'm not sure of the exact reason for this, but my best reasoning tells me that it is primarily due to the fact that rats are just 'thicker' than mice or other smaller prey items and rats tend to "fill them up" more than the latter.

For example, I recieved a 5-6 m/o ball python that was already eating small rats. Fat little guy for sure. Since I've had him, he'll willingly and enthusiastically take a small rat once a week for 3 weeks or so. Then, the 4th week, he'll have no interest in eating. Sometime within the next couple of weeks, he has a bowel movement and his overall girth appears to be smaller. At this point, he resumes his normal feeding schedule. I know everyone has a unique experience with their snakes, but this is just a patter that I have noticed with mine.

If your conditions are right, they will eat when they are ready....so don't freak out over 2 weeks....