New Python at Home

Got a 2 new pythons but the female won't eat. I have had her now for about 5 days and tried for several days to feed her prekilled and F/T rats. She seems to be very skittish about everything including F/T rats. How long should it take before she will eat? The male ate a few days after he arrived. HELP!!

You should give her at least a week to acclimate and adjust to her new home, if not two. If she does not eat then, give her another 5-7 days before you try again. Trying repeatedly to feed her day after day will further stress her out and there will be less chance that she will eat for you.

In the meantime, you can make sure that you have optimal conditions for her to live in to avoid stress. Make sure your husbandry is all set so that you know your bp is comfortable. So I have some questions for you. What is the temperature in the tank? How are you heating it? What kind of tank is it? Do you have two hides for her, one on the warm side and one on the cool side? What is the humidity in the tank? Are you housing the pythons together or seperately?

Just don't panic. Ball pythons can go for a while without eating. Give her time.

Yeah, I would definately give her a week or more, to settle in and get used to her cage. As long as your setup is set up properly, things will fall into place.

Thanks for the info people, really appreciate it. I think I am more stressed than she is though.

To answer your questions:
Tank is set at 90°, heating it with 2 reflective ceramic heaters. The tank is a Vision cage 48X?X?(can't remember the exact size), but it is a pretty good size tank. I have one hiding spot in the cool side, her other is on the lip above the glass doors (she likes it up there). Humidity? Good question, buying a gauge tomorrow. No, they are living in separate cages. The male is about 1200grams, don't need her to get pregnant by him.

Any other advice would be appreciated. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Please give her at least a week before trying to feed again, preferably longer! You can turn a good eater into a food striker trying repeatedly like that. Also, when you say the cage is at 90°, you mean just on the warm side, right? She does need to thermoregulate, and those temps need to be measured accurately (if you got a thermostat with thermometer to go with your cage, that is fine) as does humidity. Welcome to the site!

I hope she is not a food striker. What are the consequences of her being a food striker?

I think I startled her this morning, she struck at the glass twice. I have Helix controller; the probe is directly under the middle heat lamp. The cool side is about 82-84°, I will find out what the humidty is today.

When I said food striker, what I meant was like going on strike against eating food, rather than striking at food. I guess with snakes that's not clear, though, is it? Anyway, the consequences of having a non-eater on your hands should be pretty apparent and generally start with stress-induced symptoms for you. ;)

I suggest you get a digital thermometer/hygrometer from Walmart. They accurately measure the temperature on both sides of the tank and measure the humidity all in one!! They're around $15, they're usually in the section with outdoor thermometers, or some people have said by the mailboxes. The stick on thermometers and hygrometers from pet stores can be inaccurate. Your humidity should be somewhere in the range of 50-60%.

Got that right, I continue losing sleep over this.

Give her several days to settle in, make sure your temps and humidity are right, and get a good night's sleep. ;)

Thanks Gen, I'll hit Walmart on the way home from work.

Congrats on the kids! WalMart is king god almighty when it comes to thermometers!

Went to Walmart last night and bought 2 digital thermometers that also check relative humidity. They cost just under $15.

Just checking to make sure I bought the right item before I put them in the cage!?

make sure they have two separate temp measurements. they should have a probe attached to measure the "outside" second temperature. if that's what you have then you have the right thing.

Sounds like the pervasive good ones ;)

I have a real problem-eater as well - his clutchmate is now surpassing and even trebling his growth - I can't stress over him anymore though, especially after having tried everything. When he gets hongry enough he'll have to eat - and in terms relative to BP's it hasn't been inordinately long.

I got the right ones then. I'll put those in the cages tonight and check the %.

I lowered the temperature 3° last night and she came down from the lip of the cage. She spent all night and this morning on the bottom of the cage. Hopefully she is getting acclimated to the new surroundings and begin eating. Tomorrow will be week since I received her and the male.

Smulkin-Nice family photos.

It has been 4 days since my last attempt at feeding her and still no luck. Going to vegas for some fun, I'll try again when I get back.

BTW, humidity in Marge's cage is 58%. The boy's cage is 67%.

Four days is not long enough to wait. Please wait a week or more before trying again. This snake is going to associate prey with stress sooner rather than later if you keep this up.

Your wish is my command!

update: she finally ate today. 2 issues though:

1. Had to feed her 2 large/jumbo mice, I am starting slow in order to get her upto speed, medium rats. It took her a while to get the first one down, approx. 8-9 minutes. The 2nd took no longer than 4 minutes, probably 3 and she gulped it down. Remember, she was extremely stressed because of the lengthy shipping time and lost a lot of weight over the last 2.5 weeks.
2. Had to feed her live mice. I have tried everything from F/T, pre-kill, large and small rats, and finally live mice. The 1st mouse did not last more than 3 minutes in the tank. For the 2nd, I knocked it out, grabbed it with my tongs, and put it in her face. The mouse woke up at the wrong time, in face of a hungry BP. OUCH!!

Hopefully she will regain her lost weight and add more girth for a late breeding season.

Hehe thanks ;)

My problem eater took his rat like a good boy yesterday - had me worried a while since he's just not in keeping with the growth curve all the others are on. They DO stress us out more than they themselves are stressed i sometimes think.

Sometimes that can happen; my Ball wouldn't take anything except live gerbils when I first got her, and now she's happy as a clam on f/t small rats. When you move up to rats I'd highly suggest scenting a f/t rat with a p/k or f/t mouse, it may make the switch easier and be much safer than trying to feed live rats.