Not sure if it belongs here, but I need some help. My Ball Python won't eat.

But it's not because she's unwilling. Cleo, my new baby Ball Python, has HORRIBLE aim when striking. She ends up hitting air or me! I soak my frozen mice in hot chicken broth, and she goes after them, but she's been unsuccessful in actually eating except once (and I unfortunately fouled that up for her). She's never eaten for me, I've had her for 4 days (and I know it's early, I just want to make sure she's healthy), she has the appetite! Just... not the aim. What can I do?... :(

Striking to eat or striking in a defensive way?
If she is striking to eat, just leave it in there for a bit and check back later.

Relax. Breathe. It's just 4 days. Don't try to feed her again for a week - you're probably stressing her out. Why don't you start by describing your husbandry?

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Originally Posted by 3skulls

Striking to eat or striking in a defensive way?
If she is striking to eat, just leave it in there for a bit and check back later.

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Striking to eat. She has missed every time except once. I mean two out of three ain't bad, but 1 out of 20?

Congrats on your new BP! Take a breath and relax. You've only had the snake for 4 days. Leave her alone for a week and then try again with the small mouse. Forget the chicken broth though, that's unnecessary and may be throwing her off. Warm the mouse up in a ziplock in warm water until completely thawed and then blast it with the hair dryer for a few minutes. But for now, don't hold her or do anything with her for at least a week! It may be that she's striking defensively because she's scared and stressed out. And in fact, that's exactly what it seems like she's doing. If she wanted to eat, she'd eat. Granted, their aim can be spotty when young, but not that bad. If she's striking at you and the air, she's scared. Leave her be.

Can you tell us about your set up to rule out any husbandry issues? Temps, humidity, hides? How are you heating the enclosure and how are you controlling that heat? Do you have thermometers? And if so, are they digital or analogue? What kind of enclosure do you have her in?

Well, I don't breed Balls but I plan to when I can afford a second. If you're referring to the acquisition of the animal, it was from a Petsmart. Yes I know it was not the best choice, but I don't have as much money as I should. :/ I asked if she was captive bred, they said yes. Apparently from a local breeder, she's been treated with medications for parasites just in case, the store does it for all of theirs. I just feel bad for her.

This was my big holiday present from my whole family, I can't afford much. Um, I have a 40 gallon breeder with Aspen bedding. A driftwood log, an Extra large soaking bowl, a plastic plant that she likes, I cut her petsmart box into a nice roomy hide she loves, she has a 40 gallon Repti-therm UTH, a 60 watt daytime bulb, and a 24-hour infrared nightlight bulb (100 watt). Oh, and she likes to bask on the cave above her UTH, and has a Zilla Thermo-Hygro digital thermometer and humidity gauge.

Oh, and her temps are always 78-92F on the hot side (high 70's at night), and 75-83F on the cool side, but sometimes like 72F at night.

Where to start..

1st. Read this - tonight. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

2. Your tank set up is almost certainly stressing her. The tank's too big. It might help to throw a bunch of newspaper balls in there, along with blacking out 3 sides of the tank.

3. Do you have a thermostat or at least a table top lamp dimmer ($10 at Home Depot) on that UTH? If not, get one asap! Those things get really hot & she will get burned!

4. How are you measuring your temps? Is it one of those analog gauges from Petco? They don't work -they're very unreliable and inaccurate. Look at Walmart for a $12 digital thermometer to measure temps & humidity. I think Accurite is brand.

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Originally Posted by swansonbb

Where to start..

1st. Read this - tonight. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

2. Your tank set up is almost certainly stressing her. The tank's too big. It might help to throw a bunch of newspaper balls in there, along with blacking out 3 sides of the tank.

3. Do you have a thermostat or at least a table top lamp dimmer ($10 at Home Depot) on that UTH? If not, get one asap! Those things get really hot & she will get burned!

4. How are you measuring your temps? Is it one of those analog gauges from Petco? They don't work -they're very unreliable and inaccurate. Look at Walmart for a $12 digital thermometer to measure temps & humidity. I think Accurite is brand.

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Hold up, hold up for a minute, I know the first thing would be to jump on the 40 gallon. However. She is very happy in it by all outward appearances, she is always exploring and playing, and she when she gets too hot, she goes to the cool side, same with the reverse. She doesn't seem to mind the large space, she's very outgoing, not timid. I do not have a thermostat, I cannot afford one until December 1st. I know very well that analog is inaccurate, I use a digital one.

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Originally Posted by Tes95

Hold up, hold up for a minute, I know the first thing would be to jump on the 40 gallon. However. She is very happy in it by all outward appearances, she is always exploring and playing, and she when she gets too hot, she goes to the cool side, same with the reverse. She doesn't seem to mind the large space, she's very outgoing, not timid. I do not have a thermostat, I cannot afford one until December 1st. I know very well that analog is inaccurate, I use a digital one.

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A happy BP is a hiding BP ;) You should turn off the heat mat until you get a thermostat later this week. Those things can get incredibly hot and need to be regulated.

A hiding BP is a happy BP.

She spends about 7 hours out of the day in her Petsmart box, though. I mean, now I feel really bad, it's my fault she's not happy... :tears:

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Originally Posted by Tes95

She is very happy in it by all outward appearances...

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How can you tell? Is she smiling?

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Originally Posted by Tes95

She spends about 7 hours out of the day in her Petsmart box, though. I mean, now I feel really bad, it's my fault she's not happy... :tears:

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Don't feel too badly, BPs are hardy little guys. Just get your husbandry sorted out as soon as you can (reference the care sheet that someone linked you already), give her a week to settle in and she'll be the happiest little guy you could find :)

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Originally Posted by swansonbb

How can you tell? Is she smiling?

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I'm.. sorry, I'll work on pulling extra hours to get the thermostats and stuff.., it's my fault.

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Originally Posted by Tes95

She spends about 7 hours out of the day in her Petsmart box, though. I mean, now I feel really bad, it's my fault she's not happy... :tears:

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No need to feel bad. After all, you came for help instead of assuming that she's just a pain. :) You can get a cheap dimmer/rheostat from somewhere like Home Depot to manage the UTH temp until you can get a decent thermostat. You will also want to get the Acurite thermometer suggested previously. Even though yours is digital, it doesn't tell you the actual temp of the glass over the UTH unless it has a probe. The other red flag that I don't think has been addressed yet is the "roomy" hide - BPs need snug-fitting hides to feel secure. You can leave her existing one, but add a few more that are tighter and will help clutter her tank for you as a bonus.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

No need to feel bad. After all, you came for help instead of assuming that she's just a pain. :) You can get a cheap dimmer/rheostat from somewhere like Home Depot to manage the UTH temp until you can get a decent thermostat. You will also want to get the Acurite thermometer suggested previously. Even though yours is digital, it doesn't tell you the actual temp of the glass over the UTH unless it has a probe. The other red flag that I don't think has been addressed yet is the "roomy" hide - BPs need snug-fitting hides to feel secure. You can leave her existing one, but add a few more that are tighter and will help clutter her tank for you as a bonus.

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It uh... it does have a sensor probe.. I trimmed the box to just her size, she really likes it.. one cave is missing a wall, but I couldn't get any better deal on black friday.

Don't be sorry. You're concerned about your animal and in the right place to find info - that's awesome and puts you way ahead of a lot of others. You're making your animal's welfare your responsibility, and that's to be commended.

Just know that there's no need to panic right now. We've all been there. Trust me. She's fine. Just leave her alone for a bit, unplug that UTH (again - a table top lamp dimmer will run you about $10) and stop trying to feed her for now.

Bps are actually pretty easy to care for - they're certainly not high maintenance animals. They will also go on long hunger strikes - just had a large female end a 6 months fast.

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Originally Posted by Tes95

It uh... it does have a sensor probe.. I trimmed the box to just her size, she really likes it.. one cave is missing a wall, but I couldn't get any better deal on black friday.

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Ok, cool. I must have misunderstood on the thermometer. :gj:

It does sound more like defensive striking then feeding, I have one that did that the first year. She really settled out after she reached 500g. You got lots of good advice, thermostat, clutter up her cage and give her a week before you try to feed or mess with her. Once you get her feeding then you can start working on handling her. They are pretty hardy little things, my first was a rescue, he was in a cage with 2 other ball pythons twice his size and a adult corn snake, 40 gallon breeder with no hides. He is now a great big adult and the sweetest snake I have ever seen.

If a hide is too big, just ball up some paper towel and put it in there :gj: Also if you are looking for a few more inexpensive hides, you can use little plastic ones for hamsters/small rodents. They run about $4 in Canada, and I'm assuming they are cheaper in the States. If your BP is small enough, an empty paper towel roll or two can also be used temporarily until you get some more permanent hides.

Thank you.. she uh, she's actually done something like a cat, I guess.. she likes brushing up against my hands when I mist her cage. I've actually held her already, and she doesn't even curl up, that tells me she's comfortable with me holding her.. I just let my body go limp and gently pick her up when she gets too far. She's the one in my profile picture and avatar. I think she might be a hybrid morph.

Not sure what you mean by a hybrid morph. What would she be a hybrid of? She looks like a cute normal to me

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Originally Posted by liv

Not sure what you mean by a hybrid morph. What would she be a hybrid of? She looks like a cute normal to me

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She has some sort of... it's weird. I think she might be a mix of chocolate, cinnamon, or pastel.

She definitely isn't a pastel, and I don't see cinny or chocolate, either. Closer-up, larger pics would help, though, once she's settled.

Based on your picture, she is a normal :gj:

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Originally Posted by Tes95

She has some sort of... it's weird. I think she might be a mix of chocolate, cinnamon, or pastel.

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The cool thing about ball python morphs is that they are mostly dominant/codominant morphs...meaning you can't have a "mix" of morphs. They are either a morph or they aren't. Your baby looks like a nice dark normal, something that would look good when bred with a cinnamon or black pastel.

Welcome to the snake owning community! This is a great place to learn a lot about ball pythons. I got my first ball python in July. I literally rescued her and got her a temp setup in less than 3 hours. At that point, I knew NOTHING about ball pythons. I had her in an aquarium with two hides, water bowl, and an unregulated UTH. But now, with similar suggestions as were made to you, my baby girl is 275g (I got her at 44g) and living in a tub system on my rack. You'll love owning a ball python and it will just be a matter of time before you find yourself with a whole herd of them.

frist congrats on the new bp. give her a week before u try again. if u bought her at a petsmart they feed the snakes in small containers that are usaully bout 6-7 inches long by bout 3-4 inches wide so get a small box. dont soak the mouse in chicken broth just put it in a siplock bag and soak it in hot water then dry it of. if it still wont eat a frozen thowed get a live mouse nock it out so that it still has its own body temp put the snake in the small box and offer it the recently nocked out mouse it should eat with no problems hopefully this works for u i know its worked for me in the past and as far as it gos with the 40 breeder its fine the cages at petsmart are uasually that size it just needs to be feed the same way they do for bout a month or two and then u can try feedin it in its normally cage again it just may take time for it to get used to eatin in its normal cages.

:welcome: !!!!

It's funny how much this site can teach you. I was almost precisely in the same shoes as you when I got my first ball python from pet smart 4 years ago.

Now, I thought I did my homework before I got my snake. I read a bunch of caresheets (the wrong ones) and went off random stuff I read on the internet. I was so excited to show off my new baby to some other snake enthusiasts, which brought me here!

Boy did I screw up. I had it all wrong!

First off, I had a tall exo-terra tank. It had little floorspace and it was almost completely covered with an unregulated UTH (under tank heater). I had a heat lamp and those crappy analog gauges stuck on at the very TOP of the cage (I still can't understand why I did this. Why I put the thermometers as far from where the snake hangs out as possible..).

Funny thing was that I spent a TON of money on this setup and had almost non to spare when I realized the mistakes I had made.

Don't worry. Everything will work out. You have gotten some great advice on this thread and I'm sure you will learn a lot from this site, if you are willing.

Yes it will take a little bit of cash to fix your mistakes, but you can do some quick fixes for under $30.

1. A light dimmer. You can find these at home depot from around $12. Its a piggy back light dimmer, or a table top dimmer. you can plug your UTH right into it and control the temperature by dimming the power. Make sure your probed thermometer is under the substrate right where the UTH is.
2. Hydrofarm thermostat. You can buy them on amazon for under $30. Its not a great thermostat, but it at least gives you a slightly more accurate way of controlling the temperature. If you can afford it now, get it now.

Please keep the UTH off in the meantime. The lamp will be more than enough until you get the thermostat.

The hides I use are all from the dollar store. Plastic bowls with holes cut out. The snakes like them because they are snug and dark. A box will work temporarily, but you will want something that you can reuse.

I could go on, but a lot of this has been said already, or will be said in the future.


Thanks for joining the site and being receptive to suggestions! Prepare to become addicted to these gorgeous babies! I've got something like 27 now. XD

A 40 gallon is ok if you SUPER clutter it. Like I almost have a hoarding problem clutter. Except it should be clean clutter not all nasty like in hoarders buried alive tv show. It must be a pain keeping humidity and temps up in that thing. My 20 gallon long is a nightmare