Non-eating Baby

Hola peeps.

I have a 2013 female lesser bee who has eaten in the past, but not for me. I got her as a gift three months ago from a friend and she ate while there in Florida but now here in California, she won't. She ate a f/t pup when left with it overnight from what I've been told.

Repeating this feeding method has gotten me nowhere. Temps and humidity are within ideal range. Three weeks ago I moved her from a 28 qt tub to a six, hoping she would feel more secure and willing to eat. No change insofar.

She's been offered both pups and mice. The only feeding response I've gotten from her was on an adult mouse and she quickly let that go and proceeded to ignore it.

I worry now because she is a still a little bugger and doesn't have the reserves to not be eating in this manner. Any assistance or advice would be awesome. Thanks guys.
http://i.imgur.com/kGbsiH0.jpg

Even moving her to a new tub may have caused slight stress. So id say give her 1-2 more weeks max before changing feeding habbits.

If after that time it doesnt work, Try offering her ASF mice. If you can find a breeder they are a good way to break snake fast's (live/frozen) If loosing weight as you said faster then shes gaining id go with live. after few solid feedings switch to frozen ASF, once thats been accomplished, then go back to Rat weans/smalls.

Are you feeding live or f/t?

I have a similar problem. I got my new Spider female (8 months old) 2 weeks ago from a breeder and he said she was eating small live rats every week, however, she has not eaten a week before the delivery to ensure no digestion problems occur during the transport. I set her up in her enclosure and let her without touching, feeding, etc. for about 6 days. After that I tried feeding f/t as I could not get a live rat. She did not take it, she did not even notice it, smell it, go near it. I decided to give her another week to settle down and this time I bought a live small rat, (the size she was used to eating before). I put it in her tank and again, she did not care about the rat, this time she seemed afraid of it. :(

When I got her she was 300 grams, after 2 weeks she is now 290 grams.

My set up: two hides, water bowl, cool side temp 25-27°C, ambient temp 28-29°C, hot side up to 32°C, humidity 50-57% depends also on the weather.
Her behavior: during the day resting in the warm hide or on the branch hidden in the artificial plant; during the night she is very active (trying to find a way out???)

I already own a ball python and I know that they need a time to settle down, however, my first ball python never refused a food for me, not even when I got him.

Any advice from you guys?

For the OP, are you warming up the frozen-thawed mouse enough. I pulled 2 small rats out last night for mine and placed them in the fridge last night for todays feeding. I will get home and put them in hot tap water while I prep their feeding cage. I have even toyed with the use of hand warmers which I may try tonight. Either way also make sure you are feeding gradually. If they are not eating, then start smaller and work your way up.

metalsmoker I think you need to try F/T WEAN. If you use the 10% body weight thing for now you should be roughly at Wean rats at the highest. You may even want to try a large pup just to get it eating.

Sorry for the wait and TY for the suggestions, peeps. I feed f/t, thawed slowly in warm water and then use hot water to warm them up.

I have never had a problem with this method before and have transitioned live feeders to f/t and mouse feeders to rats successfully.

According to the breeder, she's taken f/t from almost the get go and my friend who bought her got a f/t rat pup down her with no problems. Since moving her to a 6 qt tub a month ago, she seems a bit calmer but still isn't feeding. Her reaction to offered prey seems to be a fear one, even from small pups and weans. She has struck at a mouse in the past but as of today, showed no interest other than fear.

I left a f/t mouse in her tub today to see if she needs peace, quiet, and darkness to eat. Still hoping for the best here.

I am reluctant to try live only because of her fear response and prey aggression. I don't have a feeder rat breeder nearby so my options are the local chain pet store for mice.

I am having a similar issue. I just get a fear/aggression response whenever I introduce any type of prey. My sterling just strikes at everything as soon as I put in a food item! I haven't figured out what to do yet :( my next try will be an ASF. If you figure anything out let me know. I will do the same for you.

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Finally broke down and bought live feeder mice. Frozen mice were the only thing this baby has struck at in the past, so I though it would be a no brainer with live.

Turns out no. The live mouse that was smaller than the frozen I offered produced a fear response. The snake tracked it for a few minutes, then tried to flee out of the tub. I removed the mouse and am now housing it. I plan to offer her it again on Friday.

Any suggestions or comments would be very helpful in this rather frustrating situation.

Do you have a hide?

Are you feeding in its enclosure?



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Yes she has a hide and yes she is in her enclosure. Throughout this process I've tried to disturb her as little as possible. She has taken food in her tub both at her original breeder and with the person who bought her for me.

to give update on my situation. After 5 weeks my new female finally ate, however, she did not attack the rat. She merely smelled it, so I left it in her cage and after about 20 mins she started eating it right away. I did not mind cause I was happy she ate. However, this week, she refused again. I do not know what I am doing wrong.

Just to let you guys know, if any of you had similar situation and solved it.

Where are you at in socal? Maybe someone can give you a hand ...

Where abouts is she located. Is there alot of foot traffic where she is? might suggest moving her to a quieter place. Also with other species that were problematic eaters (and sick in many cases during rescues) I found that allowing the warmed rodent to linger in the room a while near the tank can promote a pretty strong feeding response given enough time. Rather than have it in their faces right away.

Usually in my experience, and not just with Ball Pythons. Showing interest, or striking but not actually eating. Is a security issue. Can we see her setup / hides ect? Might be able to brainstorm something together.

Good Luck!

Well she is in my room, in the corner and most of the time nobody enters except me and I spend a lot of time just on my pc so high traffic or disturbance should not be so much issue, should it?. If I have time I'll post some pictures here, but she has 99% the same setting as my male ball and he is doing perfect (refused his food maybe 1 time since I got him). I cleaned her enclosure completely yesterday and will try feeding her again on Sunday. I also tried pre-scenting the room, feeding late at night when she is active, covering the enclosure so that no light is getting inside and nothing helped. I don't want to feed her in separate enclosure because she is very shy and this would put much stress on her. I don't know if she is just so picky or if I am doing something wrong. I think the illness is out of question here cause when I weighted her she has not lost any weight, when examining body I have not noticed anything out of ordinary.

Thank you guys for your concern and help.

Sounds like everything is in order without seeing pictures. As a baby the appetite should be there. I know you don't like the idea of feeding in another tub, but in my experience with other snakes, this is sometimes what it takes. They can be funny like that. Might be worth a shot

Sorry for such a late reply. Anyway, after posting my previous reply, she ate like five days after. However, then she refused again twice and has not eaten since. She has only eaten twice since she has been with me (going to be 2 months on August 1). I am really getting desperate.

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Originally Posted by metalsmoker

Sorry for such a late reply. Anyway, after posting my previous reply, she ate like five days after. However, then she refused again twice and has not eaten since. She has only eaten twice since she has been with me (going to be 2 months on August 1). I am really getting desperate.

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This isn't exactly the same thing because my Albino is older (3 years). I got him mid March to very early April. His previous owner never had a problem feeding F/T. I tried everything for months. He'd never eat no matter what I tried. Temps and humidity were perfect. Everything was perfect I thought. I was heating with heat pads (I have a few other BPs... including two other problem feeders who I'll get to after). I had a Herpstat running the heat pads because I'm kind of in between building a rack and other stuff. Right now I'm using the poor man rack system (stacking tubs) :-) .

It was bothering me using the heat pads, but I didn't want to run heat tape on the container below. I came up with taking the backing from a dresser or tv stand or something (that thin cheap back that you nail on to budget furniture) and putting the heat tape on that. I wired everything perfectly so there are three rows of heat tape on three of those janky boards. I then attached them to the Herpstat and temps were perfect according to my temp gun.

(Sorry this is so long btw :-/ ).

So I've been running this little system for about a week. I have some great feeders and I have three that never eat. The albino just ignores it and happily slithers over it and around it (and I swear he smiles at me :-) ). A newer acquired Lesser just looks scared at feeding time. Last is a Spider, who came with the lesser. She can be either scared or indifferent.... another thing about her.... I was told she only eats live.

So to wrap this up, the first time feeding since my janked up heating contraption... (just 2 days ago)... Here's how it went. The Albino looks at the dangling rat for a second and then punches the thing with it's whole body, mouth first :-) . The rest was typical of a good eater. The Lesser looked at it for about 30 seconds, and then boom! Second successful feeding. I'm hoping for the Spider, but I don't feed live so F/T attempt once again.... Bam! Three for three!

The moral of this long message is first, don't give up... and second, are you sure the are getting a good regular heat (set properly) with a reliable heat source? I think my stupid mistake was using heat pads. I now think they weren't providing a regular enough heat for the picky ones (the rest were champion eaters). Take a good look at your heating methods and look at all the parts involved.

I hope that might help a bit. Good luck!

Try to feed the snake at night and in completely dark surroundings without bothering. You should offer f/t or pre-killed rat only.
This method perfectly works for my shy sub adult champagne girl. Some balls like to eat only at night when it's dark in silence.
Good luck~

Already tried, and did not work :-/ thanks, however, for your comment :-)

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Originally Posted by Creepy Alien

This isn't exactly the same thing because my Albino is older (3 years). I got him mid March to very early April. His previous owner never had a problem feeding F/T. I tried everything for months. He'd never eat no matter what I tried. Temps and humidity were perfect. Everything was perfect I thought. I was heating with heat pads (I have a few other BPs... including two other problem feeders who I'll get to after). I had a Herpstat running the heat pads because I'm kind of in between building a rack and other stuff. Right now I'm using the poor man rack system (stacking tubs) :-) .

It was bothering me using the heat pads, but I didn't want to run heat tape on the container below. I came up with taking the backing from a dresser or tv stand or something (that thin cheap back that you nail on to budget furniture) and putting the heat tape on that. I wired everything perfectly so there are three rows of heat tape on three of those janky boards. I then attached them to the Herpstat and temps were perfect according to my temp gun.

(Sorry this is so long btw :-/ ).

So I've been running this little system for about a week. I have some great feeders and I have three that never eat. The albino just ignores it and happily slithers over it and around it (and I swear he smiles at me :-) ). A newer acquired Lesser just looks scared at feeding time. Last is a Spider, who came with the lesser. She can be either scared or indifferent.... another thing about her.... I was told she only eats live.

So to wrap this up, the first time feeding since my janked up heating contraption... (just 2 days ago)... Here's how it went. The Albino looks at the dangling rat for a second and then punches the thing with it's whole body, mouth first :-) . The rest was typical of a good eater. The Lesser looked at it for about 30 seconds, and then boom! Second successful feeding. I'm hoping for the Spider, but I don't feed live so F/T attempt once again.... Bam! Three for three!

The moral of this long message is first, don't give up... and second, are you sure the are getting a good regular heat (set properly) with a reliable heat source? I think my stupid mistake was using heat pads. I now think they weren't providing a regular enough heat for the picky ones (the rest were champion eaters). Take a good look at your heating methods and look at all the parts involved.

I hope that might help a bit. Good luck!

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Well I have the same set up as for my other BP, and he is thriving. The temps on both sides are as should be. I also check them with the temp gun on a regular basis. I am running out of ideas, but I see that it is important to never give up ;)

Guys here is a little update on my situation. My girl ate on Saturday, however, without constricting. She missed the rat for the first time and then refused to attack him again, so I left it there and after some time she started eating. I was glad she ate, however, I am disappointed that she did not constrict. This is only 3rd time she has eaten since she has been with me (it's been over 2 months now and it seems like eating 3 times over more than 2 months is just so little food). :(

eh, sometimes they do that. at least she's eating a bit, I was in your boat for three months after Izzy arrived to me.

Try enticing her with live ASFs if you want to see her eat again.

Or stop worrying about constricting. And stop watching her. She may be bothered. By it. I have a bumblebee who WILL not strike a rat off tongs. And is too shy for live. I just have to stop a rat in and move to the next. In morning it is usually gone

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Originally Posted by metalsmoker

Guys here is a little update on my situation. My girl ate on Saturday, however, without constricting. She missed the rat for the first time and then refused to attack him again, so I left it there and after some time she started eating. I was glad she ate, however, I am disappointed that she did not constrict. This is only 3rd time she has eaten since she has been with me (it's been over 2 months now and it seems like eating 3 times over more than 2 months is just so little food). :(

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Oh don't worry/get discouraged friend. It will be okay. I know how you feel though. When I got my second snake Bubo a year ago it took him at least 2 months to start eating anything and he was only 160g I was so worried about him but now he's a big boy and is happily chowing down and getting fatter by the week. Just give it time and your snake will become a great eater for you. They just get in weird ruts where they just don't want to eat. I have one doing it now but she's kinda a jerk lol pretty as can be though..but anyway try and keep you head up and keep us updated [emoji4]

How big is she and how big is the prey that you are feeding?

Also can you give us some details on you husbandry, everything from enclosure size to hide to temps etc.

Well I don't know her length, but she weighs something over 310 grams. As for her enclosure, her cold side is 28°C (82,4°F), her hot spot is 33°C (91,4°F), as for the ambient temp it varies between 29-30°C (82,4-86°F). The humidity in her enclosure is usually around 54% (65-70% during shedding). I feed her small rats which are approximately as big as her width. I have already tried feeding live (as the breeder I got her from told me she was on small live rats), feeding in separate enclosure, leaving the rat overnight but nothing helped.
As for her enclosure, she has two hides (one on cold and one on hot side), water bowl, cypress mulch as a substrate, infrared lamp to keep the cold side and ambient temps up, as it tends to get colder sometimes where I live. In addition, she has some artificial plants to feel safer, the tank is covered from three sides. She is in my room, however, there is not much disturbance since I live here alone.
I thought of moving her to the tub, but cannot afford to rebuild my room for rack system right now :(

I tried feeding her yesterday as she was two days after shedding and she approached it a bit, smelled it but did not strike and after a while lost interest. She is not losing her weight (still on 310 grams) but not gaining either and she shed perfectly.

i once had an albino of about the same size as your problem feeder.......after 3 months of fruitless efforts trying to trick it into eating an assortment of rodent species, size, and color, i asked for help in this forum and got all the usual advice (which i have already tried prior to asking)...what solved my problem was moving the snakes and rats in the same room. i did not do this for the purpose of improving her feeding response but rather to control the super high summer temp which was decimating my rat colony. within a few days of smelling the rat aroma 24/7, my hunger striking albino made a complete trun around and has been a regular eater ever since. only negative effect of this arrangement is my previous champion eaters turned into outright monsters....they are in hunt mode 24/7, and i have to be very careful to avoid getting tagged.....

The last few times I have had to use a blow dryer to warm up the rat real good..otherwise one of mine would just smell it then go back in his hide.

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Originally Posted by BrandyL1193

The last few times I have had to use a blow dryer to warm up the rat real good..otherwise one of mine would just smell it then go back in his hide.

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I also tried heating it up more than I usually do with the blow dryer but did not help either. But thanks anyway :)

Hey guys, so today was another week after the previous feeding. And guess what? She DID NOT take it again :-( I put it in hot tap water and then also heated it with the blow drier. She came near the rat, smelled it but then went back to her hide. I left it there for like 2 hours and she did not even notice.
In addition to this, my male ball also stopped eating (it's been five weeks now, he is 1,5 years old) and suddenly looks for a way out of his enclosure. This is something he didn't do before. He was mostly in his hides and he ate perfectly. Nothing changed in his enclosure.

So now I got two non eating balls and I am getting really desperate. Not so much afraid of the male cause he is older, but female only ate 3 times in the last 3 months :-/