Not eating, doing it wrong?

I bought a baby ball python from Petsmart Monday. She seems healthy, they gave me her feeding chart, and she seems to have adjusted well to her new home. She sleeps during the day, lounges mostly at night. Her tongue flicks alot, so she seems to be exploring.
I took her out of her tank and put her in a feeding cage I had bought, left her alone and covered for about an hour to let her settle down. It was at 82 degrees. I thawed a fuzzy in hot water till it was warm, and wriggled it in front of her. Tried on and off for an hour, and she refused to eat. What am I doing wrong?

Well first off I would suggest that you feed her in her cage. this increases your chances of a successful feeding and lowers your chances of getting bit... and no feeding in the cage will not make her aggressive.

Can you give us some details on her cage? what type, size, how it is heated, what you are using to measure temperatures, and what your current temperatures/humidity are.

Check out these 2 threads. Most pet stores don't have employees that know anything about reptiles and usually give out bad/false information. These 2 threads have almost everything a beginner needs to know in them:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...04#post1845904

Welcome to the site!

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Originally Posted by Sissys-mom

I bought a baby ball python from Petsmart Monday. She seems healthy, they gave me her feeding chart, and she seems to have adjusted well to her new home. She sleeps during the day, lounges mostly at night. Her tongue flicks alot, so she seems to be exploring.
I took her out of her tank and put her in a feeding cage I had bought, left her alone and covered for about an hour to let her settle down. It was at 82 degrees. I thawed a fuzzy in hot water till it was warm, and wriggled it in front of her. Tried on and off for an hour, and she refused to eat. What am I doing wrong?

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Congrats on your new ball, when feeding your ball do not put her into another cage this will cause stress on your ball "cage aggression" is a myth and is not true most of the time, and you should let your ball settle in 1 week before handling,feeding.

What is your set up how are you heating the cage? do you have a thermostat?
do you have a hydrometer? thermometer? (digital)?

Hot spot should be around 88-92
Humidity should be 50-60% and around 70-75% when about to shed.

I have her in a 10 gallon aquarium with a water dish on the cool side (80-82 degrees depending on the time of day) and a hide log a little closer to the warm spot than middle. I also have a limb that auctions to the back of the cage a bit closer to the cool side. I have a lamp on the warm side, but it hasn't been running any warmer than 84 degrees, so I added an uth this morning to try to raise the hot spot temp a bit.
The humidity has been about a constant 41. I have a digital thermo/hygro on the warm side and a digital thermo on the cool side.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sissys-mom

I have her in a 10 gallon aquarium with a water dish on the cool side (80-82 degrees depending on the time of day) and a hide log a little closer to the warm spot than middle. I also have a limb that auctions to the back of the cage a bit closer to the cool side. I have a lamp on the warm side, but it hasn't been running any warmer than 84 degrees, so I added an uth this morning to try to raise the hot spot temp a bit.
The humidity has been about a constant 41. I have a digital thermo/hygro on the warm side and a digital thermo on the cool side.

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You need the humidity bumped up to 50/60% you can do this by misting, also ditch the log hide they are not very good, you need something with one entrance and one exit... it needs to be a snug fit so your ball can feel secure.

The warm side needs to be around 88-90F
cool side is fine.

I would wait for someone else to post about the heating, i would recommend a UTH with a thermostat.


Can you post a pic of your set up?

Ok I see 2 potentially big issues.

Your Bp probably isn't eating because the hot side temperature isn't high enough. It really needs to be 90 degrees.

Is the UTH being regulated by a thermostat? Do you have a digital thermometer with a probe? If so is the probe on the floor of the cage directly over the UTH?

Both of my thermometers are digital with a probe. I don't have a regulator for the pad yet, I'm going to get one this afternoon. The probe is set substrate level. Should I move it to the bottom of the tank? Also, how do you hook up a regulator? I don't see a place for it on the pad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sissys-mom

I have her in a 10 gallon aquarium with a water dish on the cool side (80-82 degrees depending on the time of day) and a hide log a little closer to the warm spot than middle. I also have a limb that auctions to the back of the cage a bit closer to the cool side. I have a lamp on the warm side, but it hasn't been running any warmer than 84 degrees, so I added an uth this morning to try to raise the hot spot temp a bit.
The humidity has been about a constant 41. I have a digital thermo/hygro on the warm side and a digital thermo on the cool side.

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Make sure you get a thermostat to regulate that UTH. There are a few to choose from like THIS HYDROFARM ON/OFF type that works pretty good or some people use a type of dimmer switch from Home Depot/Lowes. I used to use those Hydrofarms on our tank and it was great. The humidity is low and should be around 50-60%. You could probably go to dollar tree and get a medium sized bowl, cut a hole in it, then use a lighter to melt those edges to make them smooth, and turn it upside down to use as a hide so your BP feels more secure. Warm side should be 90. Once you get everything good to go, then you let your BP settle for a few days and try to feed it in it's enclosure. Also try THIS TRICK with the top of the tank and you will see a BIG improvement to the humidity. Also, make sure you have a least three sides of the tank covered so it can hold in some heat and keep the ambient temps right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sissys-mom

Both of my thermometers are digital with a probe. I don't have a regulator for the pad yet, I'm going to get one this afternoon. The probe is set substrate level. Should I move it to the bottom of the tank? Also, how do you hook up a regulator? I don't see a place for it on the pad.

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I have my thermometer probe under substrate over the uth.

and the hydrometer in the middle of the cage

and you need to get a thermostat ASAP!

The UTH will plug into the thermostat (regulator) it will have a temperature probe that measures the temperature of the UTH and varies the amount of power going to it to keep it at the desired temperature.

Stay way from the junk thermostats sold in pet stores... they are overprices and break quickly. Here are 2 good thermostats:

Budget: http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

High quality: http://spyderrobotics.com/

When using a UTh you need to know how hot the bottom of the cage is... unregulated they can get hot enough to seriously burn or even kill your snake. obviously the bottom of the cage is going to be the hottest part so that is what you want to measure to ensure that you know how hot the hottest part of the cage is. (you don't ever want it to get over 95 degrees)

Thank you all for your help! I got the regulator today and hooked it up, and put the lamp in the middle to get some even heating to keep the overall temp to about 80. It's a double dome so it disperses heat rather than making a concentrated heat spot. Also put her a half coconut, and a closed in log in her tank, she likes the log but I don't know about the coconut yet. She has yet to try out her new heat spot, but I think I finally got the temperatures where they need to be. Next step: fix the screen top to keep in humidity.

Congratulations on your new snake. And a big well done for seeking information on how to care for her the best you can. We see a lot of people here who ask for help then refuse to make any changes. It's nice that you are willing to make adjustments as needed. When she's had a little time to settle after the changes, we'd love to see pictures of your new snake.

Gale

Gale, I'd love to post one, but I cant figure out how. I post from my phone, as well as take pictures on it. I had taken some pictures of her in her old set up as well as her new one with the adjustments, but I'm uploadingly challenged lol. I'm going to try the duct tape and plastic wrap trick when I get home, I'm just nervous about it cause I'm not certain everything is going to stay where I have it currently set up. Oh well, I can always get a new screen top pretty cheap if I need to change something. But when she gets bigger, I'm definitely going for a plastic enclosure! :)

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Originally Posted by Sissys-mom

Gale, I'd love to post one, but I cant figure out how. I post from my phone, as well as take pictures on it. I had taken some pictures of her in her old set up as well as her new one with the adjustments, but I'm uploadingly challenged lol. I'm going to try the duct tape and plastic wrap trick when I get home, I'm just nervous about it cause I'm not certain everything is going to stay where I have it currently set up. Oh well, I can always get a new screen top pretty cheap if I need to change something. But when she gets bigger, I'm definitely going for a plastic enclosure! :)

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I always post from my phone as well. I upload my photos off my phone onto Photobucket.com, then I copy the IMG code from photobucket and paste it into a thread on here. I hope this helps :)

Also, congratulations on your new snake. You can even go with a tub enclosure now. It is definitely cheaper and easier in the long run! With tubs, it is A LOT easier keeping temps and humidity where they need to be :gj:

Thanks so much for everyone's help, I did the tinfoil trick and it greatly helped the temperature stabilize, but not the humidity. Thinking of an ultrasonic fogger.. She's starting to show RI signs, so I need to figure something out fast. A good misting barely holds an hour before dropping back down to 41.

Took her to the vet, and thankfully she's healthy. Maybe I need a bigger tank.. Can't think of anything else for the humidity except a mister or a fogger..

The heat lamps are probably bringing your humidity down. I wouldn't jump to a fogger or waterfall just yet. The humidity doesn't need to be THAT high. And 40% humidity shouldn't cause an RI. Maybe a bad shed, but probably not an RI.

I bought a mini rock waterfall from Walmart tonight. Put it in the cool area so she would still have a clear basking spot on the warm side. We'll see in the morning if it helps. Hopefully with the tinfoil covering more than half the top it will, with the drinking bowl already in there. If this doesn't work, I'm thinking of changing the substrate to phagnum moss. I use aspen right now.

Please don't use sphagnum moss as a substrate. There are other ways other than waterfalls and moss that can increase your humidity. That being said, 40% is not that low. Now perhaps moss might be good in a humid hide if you can't manage to get the humidity over 20% or something..

She ate! By George, she ate!! I was doing it wrong. At the pet store they'd just leave the mice in the cage, I was scaring her with the zombie dance. Um.. 1 fuzzie mouse should be enough for a 14", right? I was planning on feeding her 1 twice a week, rather than the 2-4 they were feeding a session at the store.

You need to get a scale and get a weight on her. Feeding once a week, an appropriate sized prey, would be best. Just feed her a prey item that is the same size as her widest point. I wouldn't feed her twice a week, they need a few days to digest. Also, don't handle her for about 48 hours after she has eaten, to avoid regurgitation . I would not use moss for substrate. Too much moisture and they can get scale rot. Honestly, the best thing for humidity, is a tub enclosure. I also post from my phone and had a hard time with pictures at first. There is an app called Tapatalk that I use and post from, it is super easier to post a picture with tapatalk. There is a little camera icon when you are posting, you touch it and it takes you right to your photo gallery on your phone and just uploads them. Congrats on getting your girl to eat!

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

Awesome, I love this app. Well, here's a pic of my baby girl. I'd get one for you with her feeding bump, but alas, she's hiding and digesting.

http://img.tapatalk.com/44699e6d-f0a5-90a0.jpg

I no longer have the half log. I have an enclosed log she loves and a coconut hut.