starving ball

On April 1st I got a female pastel back that I had given to a friend. My friend said she couldn't get Paris (the female pastel ball) to eat. When she left here she was around 1300g, When I got her back she was 771g she left about a year and a half ago. She doesn't look good. So I put her in a tub and waited until evening and since I had an extra mouse I thought I would throw it in to see what Paris would do. She NAILED it. No hesitation at all. It has been almost a week and every time I offer food she eats (I have only offered mice). How often should I offer food? I am going to keep her on mice until I get some weight on her as she is eating and I don't want to chance her going off her food. She is hungry and slams food every time I have offered it. I have over feed her a bit as I offered her a mouse on the first (not a big mouse) then one on the 3rd (again a small mouse) Yesterday was normal feeding day so I offered her another mouse (a bit bigger but big mice are hard to find here). I usually feed once a week but I can get small mice during the week as needed.

Thanks for the help. Poor girl. She eyes me every time I open her cage, like she is asking for more food.

Mice are too small at this point, if she's 770. Much much too small. She should definitely be on rats, they have a higher fat and protein content than mice anyway. Hope you get her back up to weight!

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Originally Posted by akaangela

On April 1st I got a female pastel back that I had given to a friend. My friend said she couldn't get Paris (the female pastel ball) to eat. When she left here she was around 1300g, When I got her back she was 771g she left about a year and a half ago. She doesn't look good. So I put her in a tub and waited until evening and since I had an extra mouse I thought I would throw it in to see what Paris would do. She NAILED it. No hesitation at all. It has been almost a week and every time I offer food she eats (I have only offered mice). How often should I offer food? I am going to keep her on mice until I get some weight on her as she is eating and I don't want to chance her going off her food. She is hungry and slams food every time I have offered it. I have over feed her a bit as I offered her a mouse on the first (not a big mouse) then one on the 3rd (again a small mouse) Yesterday was normal feeding day so I offered her another mouse (a bit bigger but big mice are hard to find here). I usually feed once a week but I can get small mice during the week as needed.

Thanks for the help. Poor girl. She eyes me every time I open her cage, like she is asking for more food.

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Since you're worried about her going off
food, just offer her the same amount of mice (by weight) as you would for a rat.

If she's 770, offer her 10-15% of her body weight in mice. I have two stubborn feeders who will only eat mice. I just offer them more. Like 2-3 adults.

^ agreed.

If she was off food for that long just stick to what is working and get her feeding on a regular schedule again. Many people have thriving adult mousers.

Wondering why she lost so much weight under your friends care in the first place? We're you in regular contact or aware of husbandry or feeding issues...

Thanks. I have a friend that raises mice, so I am going to get a small rat and house it in mouse bedding for a few days then offer it to her. I am worried about her, but I am also worried about offering her too much too fast. Last thing I want to do is make her sick because she hasn't eaten in almost a year. Should I feed her once a week if I can get her to eat rats and/or twice a week if she will only eat mice?

I asked her a few times how Paris was doing and she always said fine until a month ago and then admitted she hadn't eaten in 7 months and that was when someone at a pet store force fed her. :(. So it has been almost a year with only one meal. I wish I knew why she stopped eating. I am just glad she fessed up and gave her back before she died.

I work with underfed rescues often, and I generally do 10% of their body weight once a week. I think you might be ok doing something like 5% twice a week if you can only get mice.

It's amazing how much better a feeding response can be when a snake is housed in a proper cage, with the correct temps, and is generally feeling ok. :D I've had rescues that didn't really have anything wrong with them other than super skinny, usually with a stuck shed and/or mites, that the owner claimed refused to eat for months, yet I get them set up properly and get the shed off and in a week have them eating F/T with no issues whatsoever.

I'm with Sita. It sounds like your friend was not providing the proper care so the snake didn't want to it. To go a year and a half without eating to eating every time food is offered makes me think her husbandry was really off.

I would try a rat of proper weight or like suggested feed the same weight in mice. I would stick to weekly feedings.

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Originally Posted by Archimedes

Mice are too small at this point, if she's 770. Much much too small. She should definitely be on rats, they have a higher fat and protein content than mice anyway. Hope you get her back up to weight!

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I have two mousers that are a couple years old and over 1000g on nothing but mice:gj:


akaangela, at this point just feed whatever she will take. I have a male spider that goes off for 9 months to a year and has never lost that much weight. Wonder what was going on on the other end. Good luck and keep us posted.

Don't attempt to switch a snake that is having issues just feed her. I would suggest the first two meals to be light (you already are) but then start with bigger meals some will not take the second or third but will in a few days I would suggest the biggest mice you can get and feed every 5 days until she slows a bit. If she will take multiples 10% every 7 days.

i would run a few smaller meals in her for a few weeks, once it is clear things are working and it is not stressing her out i would start working the sizes up to what she should be taking over the next few feeding from there. good luck

i would stick to feeding once a week, or maybe every 5 days.

And instead of feeding more often, feed 2 or 3 mice during one feeding.

i think BPs respond better if you stick to the same feeding shedule, but increase food size/quantity. They dont respond so well to smaller meals offered more often.

I have a 2010 pied female that is 1800 grams eating mice only.

galaxy note 2

I would offer a small adult mouse twice a week for a few weeks then up it to 2 adult mice twice a week and after a few months of weight gain, then try to switch to rats.

Lots of ways to do it, no one way is right.
Just start her a little slow and work your way up to normal sized meals once or twice a week and she'll recover fine :gj:

I agree with jerry. start off smaller more often until she poops. then start taking it up. I have a female that's over 5000 grams. she ate mice until she was well over 3500 grams. if rats are better than mice. it doesn't do your snake any good if the snake doesn't eat it or eats here and there. I don't feed just one type of rodent. I feed my snakes what they do well on. and my rat eaters don't do any better than my mice eaters or the ones that eat soft furs. feed your snake what it does well on not what you want to feed it. and so far my big girls made the switch to rats on their own. one day they stop eating mice and after a few months I offer a small rat and slam. they been on rats ever since. most likely they didn't see a mouse as a good prey item probably size related. good luck I hope you get her back to a healthy weight before too long. don

I think I will stick to mice once a every 5 days or so. Thank you all for your help. I was afraid I had hurt her by over feeding her but she has kept everything down. I opened her tub to see how she was and she was looking at me like "well wheres the food" :D The hardest thing for me is waiting because she is so thin I want to feed her what she will eat and I know that is bad for her. I am sure those of you who have had skinny snakes understand that.

don't have anything more to contribute to this thread as everyone else has pretty much covered it, just thought i'd chime in because i thought it was funny my bumble bee's name is paris too. lol named her that because she's "blonde" and "ditzy" because of her wobble. she's kinda grown into the name as well being quite the diva (she's still stuck on mice).

Paris got her name because all my snakes do exactly what I ask them NOT to do. So Paris Hilton is a skinny female so I wanted my beautiful pastel to be fat :) I know weird reasoning, but there it is. Also Paris is a beautiful city so I wanted her to grow up to be as beautiful as the city. She has done the latter now just for the former :D She seems to be doing well. She hasn't had a BM yet so am holding my breath till then. She seems active enough.

On a side note my scale died so I can't weigh her :( So I have to get another one.