Gunna Start going crazy! Help?!

Ok so most of you know my little Girl Freyja has not eaten in about 25 days now. She is also developing some weird brown spot under her chin.

For the eating situation. I have tried feeding her ever suitable size Frozen Thawed to no success. I then moved her to a smaller tub and she still wouldnt take a F/T. So I got her a Live Rat Pinky. Put it in with her last night and put a piece of cardboard in front of the tub to make it pitch black. I wake up this morning and the rat is still alive. She weighs 45 grams!!!! She was at 57 grams when I got her. She is drinking and urinating just fine. Her tubs temps are all perfect dead on. Humidity and everything else is perfect too. She neeeeds to eat! I have even made my hands smell like rat and held her to try to get some kind of feeding response out of her and she wont even bite me lol.

Now for the brown spot situation. I have already posted about it and got very little help. But she has a brown spot under her chin that I have no idea to what it is. She also has lifting scales in random spots and even one of her belly scales is raising and turning brown.

These are the only pictures I can get :

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...achnids/f4.png
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...achnids/f5.png
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...achnids/f2.png
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...achnids/f6.png

They are crappy shots but I have tried to get decent ones but I cant.

I am seriously going crazy worrying about her.

I have betadine now but I was told I should hold off on putting betadine on the brown spots till she eats. I dont know what to do.... Help....

I think people told you this before... have you been to the vet yet?

I'd also would have tried a live hopper mouse over a rat pinkie. Rat pinkies don't move much, and they don't really stimulate their curiosity instincts like hoppers do. As for the spot, I've got nothing. If it's gotten worse than you've seen it I'd see a vet.

No.

No I havent. I didnt think it was serious enough to go to a vet over.

[

Well, it seems to be pretty serious. Go to the vet. The issue could be related to her not eating in which case you want to fix it as fast as possible.

Well another update :

She still has not eaten. I have tried a mouse pinky and still wont take it. I would try a live mouse hopper like LGrey said but they are way to big for her. I have been recommended to try braining a f/t or a F/K anyone think that will work? Also I would try ASF but I cant get any in the town I am in.

As for the brown spots I got the betadine and have been applying twice daily for the last 3 days. If things dont start looking better by monday I will make an appointment with the vet.

I had a pair of difficult hatchlings. Let me see.... Have you tried putting her and a live rat pinkie in a small brown paper bag like a lunch bag? Fold the bag shut, staple it once, and leave her overnight. Also try putting her in a very small tub like a butter tub overnight with her food. The idea is she cannot get away from the prey item. I think sometimes they eat more from aggravation than hunger. And despite how huge a mouse hopper seems compared to her, trust me she can eat one.

Some people have success dipping the prey in chicken broth or tuna broth before leaving it overnight. You can also try scenting the prey with gerbil or hamster bedding if you can get some.

None of these things worked for me. I ended up having to force feed both hatchlings. One eventually caught on and did fantastic. One never did catch on, and you can guess the end result of not eating.

I wish you and your baby all the best. Just keep trying, in a solid 98% of cases, the baby will eventually eat on it's own.

Gale

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LGray23

I'd also would have tried a live hopper mouse over a rat pinkie. Rat pinkies don't move much, and they don't really stimulate their curiosity instincts like hoppers do. As for the spot, I've got nothing. If it's gotten worse than you've seen it I'd see a vet.

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X2

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Thanks angllady2,

I have tried the leaving her in a small container trick with no results. I will try the chicken broth trick. Now is that with a live or f/t?

I might have to force feed her sooner then later but the thing that ticks me off is that I bought her at a reptile expo and I have contacted the person I bought it from and they said she was eating F/K no problem. I dont know why she wont take a live.

She has also dropped another 2 grams. now down to 43 grams.

Wrong focus here IMO.

1) 25 days is not long at all for BP to not eat.

2) V-E-T ASAP

ok so another update!

Good news :

The brown is clearing up well! Its almost all gone. The daily betadine treatment is working perfect!!!!

Bad news :

Still has not eaten. Offered her a live mouse hopper and she had no interest in it at all. So tomorrow I am going to do an assist feeding and hope she takes!!

Wish me luck everyone.

And yes if a couple assist feedings dont work I will take her to the VET. I am just holding off because I would rather try to figure it out on my own right now then pay out the arse for a exotic vet here in town.

How old/heavy is your ball python?
about the eating situation I can offer some personal-experience advice .. my first ball python pretty much never refused food .. when she reached about 1kg in weight she suddenly decided to take an 8 MONTH period off feed .. I never tried assist feeding her or whatever, after 8 months she started feeding again and is feeding normaly yet again .. in those 8 months of non feeding she lost about 130g .. so as long as your python isn't loosing weight rapidly you should not worry about it not feeding (of course it depends on how old and heavy the python is .. which brings me to the previous question .. how old / heavy is your python)?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sasT

How old/heavy is your ball python?
about the eating situation I can offer some personal-experience advice .. my first ball python pretty much never refused food .. when she reached about 1kg in weight she suddenly decided to take an 8 MONTH period off feed .. I never tried assist feeding her or whatever, after 8 months she started feeding again and is feeding normaly yet again .. in those 8 months of non feeding she lost about 130g .. so as long as your python isn't loosing weight rapidly you should not worry about it not feeding (of course it depends on how old and heavy the python is .. which brings me to the previous question .. how old / heavy is your python)?

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Exact thing happened to me. At about 1,000g she just decided she had enough! I had this happen to a friend as well. That snake is still a picky eater to this day. Fortunately, my snake broke her fast a few months ago and has been eating every week since. What got her to break the fast was bringing home a breeding trio of ASFs :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sasT

How old/heavy is your ball python?
about the eating situation I can offer some personal-experience advice .. my first ball python pretty much never refused food .. when she reached about 1kg in weight she suddenly decided to take an 8 MONTH period off feed .. I never tried assist feeding her or whatever, after 8 months she started feeding again and is feeding normaly yet again .. in those 8 months of non feeding she lost about 130g .. so as long as your python isn't loosing weight rapidly you should not worry about it not feeding (of course it depends on how old and heavy the python is .. which brings me to the previous question .. how old / heavy is your python)?

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45 grams-ish. She is just a tiny thing. I would say less then 4 months old. Maybe younger.

Could you perhaps snap a picture of her tub setup?

I assume you aren't handling her at all except for cage maintenance?

At this point I might consider an assist feed. I have never needed to assist feed so I can't really help you out on that one, perhaps someone else can chime in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

Could you perhaps snap a picture of her tub setup?

I assume you aren't handling her at all except for cage maintenance?

At this point I might consider an assist feed. I have never needed to assist feed so I can't really help you out on that one, perhaps someone else can chime in.

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I had no choice but to assist feed my Fire male.
After a 90+ day fast, he was losing weight and looked 'triangular' and flabby.

He was never a good eater to start with and is much smaller than he should be at his age.

[he was a "bargain price!" and if I knew then what I know now...]

I gave him 3 F/T very small mice, with great difficulty and finally, he ate on his own and is back to his usual finicky but vicious killer self.

The local herp guy said that sometimes, they'll get so fed up with having a mouse stuffed down their throat that they start to eat on their own.

Apparently it worked, even if that's not the actual science/psychology behind it.

If you assist/force feed, be VERY careful doing it.

45 grams? that is lighter than a hatchling .. assist feed asap .. don't wait any longer or it will be too late
about assist feeding - I had to do it twice on my lemonblast male when he was about 3 months old (he wouldn't eat anything on his own, no matter what I tried) .. now he is 1 year old and peeking 600g
anyway if you don't get food into your 45g python VERY soon .. im affraid to say .. but she will not last long
on how to assist feed -> there are many videos on youtube :)
best of luck to you

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