Ball Python won't eat

I'm sure most of you remember this thread http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-up-3-BP-today.

They have not eaten sense we got them around 3 weeks now, every time we offer food they seam interested but never take it. We tried f/t rats, f/t mice, now we were told that they eat f/t rat but now I'm thinking they were live eater. My girlfriend tried force feeding for a few mins but they didn't want to. Is there anything we can do to try and get them to eat?

If they haven't lost a significant amount of weight I don't think force feeding them is the best option as it is highly stressful for the snake.

have you tried live

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Originally Posted by JaGv

have you tried live

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No not yet don't have any live one to try with. But my girlfriend don't really want to feed live, she afraid of it hurting the snake. We should start breeding mice and rat next week so we will be picking up live one and will try then.

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Originally Posted by JaGv

have you tried live

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I have one that refuses to eat f/t. I have offered SO many times and tried all the tricks. I guess i got lucky the first time i offered f/t because he took it. After that he wouldnt go for it at all. He went without for about 4 weeks, "which isn't unusual around breeding season" so I finally put a live rat and he ate right away. In my own opinion, feeding live is not a big deal as long as you're responsible. I've been feeding him live for almost a year and never had any problems.


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Originally Posted by RobertJR

No not yet don't have any live one to try with. But my girlfriend don't really want to feed live, she afraid of it hurting the snake. We should start breeding mice and rat next week so we will be picking up live one and will try then.

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they can hurt it but if you there supervising them until the meal is gone then there shouldnt be an issue. i feed live and i hadnt had an issue the only way i see a mouse hurting the snake is when its being constricted and the meal is panicking(again none of my snakes have been hurt by their meals)

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Originally Posted by RobertJR

No not yet don't have any live one to try with. But my girlfriend don't really want to feed live, she afraid of it hurting the snake. We should start breeding mice and rat next week so we will be picking up live one and will try then.

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If you plan on feeding live, NEVER walk away and expect your bp will eat it. If the mouse/rat isn't eaten in half an hour, remove it. ALL while keeping an eye on it.

Be sure your feeders are well fed/hydrated and don't hold them by the tail while offering to your snake. Drop it in, sit back and watch.




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Also, if you notice the rat/mouse tryin to bite your bp, shove feeding tongs into the mouse/rats mouth.

I feed live, and have yet to have any problems. Just remember to never leave the live prey item with your snake, without supervision


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?gixkfs

We had a 9 foot Red Tail that ate live and one Saturday night ( that our feeding night) we drop in a rat with her and watched her strike and constricted the rat. We never left her site and we also watched the rat bite her left eye and we tried to get the rat away from her but she wouldn't let go of it. Never feed live after our Red Tail lost her left eye. Its been 3 year the last time we feed live.

EDIT: This all happen with in 5 mins of dropping the rat in.

We are just going to try and leaving them in over night with them and see if they take it. If not they will be in the trash and will get some live small mice and give that a try.

EDIT: If they were eating fancy rat and we are offering normal rat would they take it anyways? He could of lie about feeding the normal rat if we lied about the rest, we have some frozen fancy we can always try.

Also he girlfriend breed hamsters, could that be one more thing that they would have feed them and lie about?

when you feed them is there lights on.. one of my snakes wouldnt eat so i tried feeding in the dark (i tought since they can see heat it might be beter if it was dark) and it worked my snake followed the mouse and ate it

If you refuse to feed live, then be prepared to wait. A long as the bps aren't losing a lot of weight, wait out their hunger strike. 3 weeks is a very short time for them to be off food, or so I hear.

(my bp has yet to refuse a meal)


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?qjj5gf

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Originally Posted by Bobbafett

If you refuse to feed live, then be prepared to wait. A long as the bps aren't losing a lot of weight, wait out their hunger strike. 3 weeks is a very short time for them to be off food, or so I hear.

(my bp has yet to refuse a meal)


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?qjj5gf

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Its not that we refuse to feed live, just prefer not to but if it comes down to it we will feed live. We left the rats in all night and they didn't touch them. We have 3 fancy rat and we are going to try to offer them. Is there a time frame I should wait before offering again or could I just offer them right away?

First thing you DO NOT assist or force feed animals that are that size, either method are for animals that have NEVER ate, obviously those got to that size because they ate.

Second what you want to do really has no bearing on what should be done, in the event those animals were live feeders than they need to be fed live. Now if they were eating f/t they will again when ready.

Generally speaking animal that size tend to be more prone to stress when moving to new surrounding, even more so with female, leading to fast which can be short or extended.

Given the size those animals could go 6 months without food with no ill effect so 3 weeks is NOTHING

Now what you need to do is look in your husbandry (temps, enclosure size, etc), if they don't feel secure downsize the enclosure, DO NOT handle them unless it's cleaning day, try to mimic their prior environment to a T (enclosure size, temps, substrate), offer the same prey type if it was live FEED LIVE and do so in their enclosure, and most importantly BE PATIENT they know how to eat do not stress them unnecessarily by doing things such as force feeding which should never be done in the first place with animals like those.

DO NOT offer alternate prey either Hamsters are like crack to BP and again alternative prey is never the solution but only contribute to make them even more difficult.

PATIENCE and proper husbandry is KEY.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

First thing you DO NOT assist or force feed animals that are that size, either method are for animals that have NEVER ate, obviously those got to that size because they ate.

Second what you want to do really has no bearing on what should be done, in the event those animals were live feeders than they need to be fed live. Now if they were eating f/t they will again when ready.

Generally speaking animal that size tend to be more prone to stress when moving to new surrounding, even more so with female, leading to fast which can be short or extended.

Given the size those animals could go 6 months without food with no ill effect so 3 weeks is NOTHING

Now what you need to do is look in your husbandry (temps, enclosure size, etc), if they don't feel secure downsize the enclosure, DO NOT handle them unless it's cleaning day, try to mimic their prior environment to a T (enclosure size, temps, substrate), offer the same prey type if it was live FEED LIVE and do so in their enclosure, and most importantly BE PATIENT they know how to eat do not stress them unnecessarily by doing things such as force feeding which should never be done in the first place with animals like those.

DO NOT offer alternate prey either Hamsters are like crack to BP and again alternative prey is never the solution but only contribute to make them even more difficult.

PATIENCE and proper husbandry is KEY.

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She didn't try force feeding for long she tried one for 2-3 mins only to one snake. Now that we know its bad will not try again. We just googled it and saw lots a people telling other people to try and force feed, thats the only reason we tried it.

We don't really know what they eat before and what there habitat was, we meet this guy at a KFC and never saw the guys house. We were told that they ate f/t rats weekly and that they were all great eaters. But the guy lied to us pretty much about every thing else so we were just wondering if he lied about them eating f/t rats. We know that they also breed hamsters cause its under his ads on kijiji and usedottawa. So could have he feed them hamsters and just lied to us once more.

There each in a 12 qt with temps around 89-90F over the heat tape and 60-70% humidity. We only have been handling them for cleaning and feeding. (we take them out to eat) I know some people leave then in to feed them but we do it with all our snakes and never had any problems this way before.

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But the guy lied to us pretty much about every thing else so we were just wondering if he lied about them eating f/t rats.

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I would a small live rat and see like you said if he lied no telling what else he lied about.

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There each in a 12 qt with temps around 89-90F over the heat tape and 60-70% humidity.

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Do you have a cool spot?

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(we take them out to eat) I know some people leave then in to feed them but we do it with all our snakes and never had any problems this way before.

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All snakes are different and what work for some do not work for all, generally speaking the majority of people feed in the enclosure so they are likely used to that as well

Keep in mind that feeding outside the enclosure can cause enough stress to lead to refusal so it is likely only adding up to other possible issues, it's also a good way to get tagged.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

I would a small live rat and see like you said if he lied no telling what else he lied about.

Do you have a cool spot?

All snakes are different and what work for some do not work for all, generally speaking the majority of people feed in the enclosure so they are likely used to that as well

Keep in mind that feeding outside the enclosure can cause enough stress to lead to refusal so it is likely only adding up to other possible issues, it's also a good way to get tagged.

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Will wait a few days to try with a live small rat.

The cool spot in is front of the bin and it 80-82F and the snake room is 78-82F, depending if its day or night.

They seam interested in the prey, they were smelling it jerking there head like they were going to strike but after 20 secs give or take they would look away and leave. I trying switching to a smaller rat and it was the same thing. I even tried putting the prey on the bottom of the bin and moved it around and they fallowed the prey and just lost interest in them after a while.

how often have you tried to feed. try leaving your snake alone for a week or so then try to feed again. ive only had feeding problems twice i left them alone for a week and then feed them in the dark and they ate. i would say just try live maybe it will eat

We tried every Saturday thats when we feed our snakes.

my yellow belly went 2 weeks with out eating turns out he just wanted a live rat pup
being hes 1 1/2 foot long.
:snake: