BP not eating!!!!!

ok, my snake has gone off feed, and im really frusterated, its been 2 weeks, im skipping next week and am going to feed her the following week. :angered: :angered: :angered: OR SHOULD I WASTE A RAT NEXT WEEK TOO?

How old is your snake ?

Maybe skip two weeks.....

i've had her since july 31st she's maybe around 2 feet and the fatest part of her body is maybe a little bigger or just as big as a 50 cent peice.

You mean a quater ?

Thats really thin.

no i mean a 50 cent peice, and its not thing she is actually pretty fat, i said 50 cent peice, i dont know how you can misinterperet that unless you dont know what a fifty cent peice is.

At about 2 feet and the girth of a 50-cent piece, it's not going to hurt her to miss another meal or two. I'd try feeding her at about the two week point and if she refuses, wait another 2 weeks.

DCshark, first, lets take a series of deep, calming breaths. I know how you feel. Kitty is now at 5 weeks and I keep coming to the edge of freaking out. I would do what Marla says and try not to worry too much. I am going to try tonight to feed Kitty. Hopefully he will eat.

DC,

My male albino (he is about 3 months old) just went 4 weeks not eating. I feed live rats normally. He ignored every attempt. He would kill, but make no attempt at actually eating. I tried FT and PK....no luck. I even went with a live gerbil and PK gerbil (same gerbil). No luck. Then I tried a live mouse and he ate it right up. In fact he ate twice last week (tuesday and friday), both small live mice. Then yesterday (Mondays are my feed days) he ate his normally scheduled live rat.

Sometimes you have to shake things up a bit and try different feeders and different methods to stimulate feeding.

Be careful Shrap ... Ball pythons can be "imprint feeders" ... once they take a particular liking to something they want that and only that from then on .... Gerbils can get costly and aren't the most prolific breeders in the world.

-adam

Adam,

Yeah I know, but when a 2 and a half month old snake has not eaten in a month it is time for drastic measures. He was getting really soft and his skin was begining to get saggy. 3 meals in 8 days took care of that problem though. I was not even going to feed him yeaterday but he was cruising his tank big time while I was feeding the others and he gobbled the rat pup right up.

But thank you none the less. Your help and opinions are always appreciated and respected.

Thanks Shrap .... Ya know what really works well too, just letting the mouse or rat run around in some gerbil or hamster bedding for 24 hours. I almost never have to actually feed the gerbils out, I just keep them to make lots of nice smelly bedding to help with the imports.

One more thing to try if he gets fussy again (I recommend this one a lot and it usually works), turn up the heat a few degrees. A warm ball python is almost always a hungry ball python! .... Albinos are soooo cool, keep us updated on how he's doing!

-adam

My yearling hasn't had a meal since before halloween, but granted she had eaten 3 medium sized rats in october. Her last rat was very large and left her somewhat bloated and passed with a really sloppy urate discharge, and her appetite has been gone since then. I'm not sure if her going off feed is seasonal or related to the large meal. Any takers? BTW she is about 3.5 ft long and weighs about 2.1 lbs after she had stopped eating and passed her last few meals.

Mine didn't eat for a little less than two months, he is about 16-20 inches, and he just ate the other day. so don't worry about 2 weeks :) Try differnt things. I had to handle mine a lot, becuase he used to be too scared of me, that he wouldn't eat. Now he is calm with me, and ate :)

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

My yearling hasn't had a meal since before halloween, but granted she had eaten 3 medium sized rats in october. Her last rat was very large and left her somewhat bloated and passed with a really sloppy urate discharge, and her appetite has been gone since then. I'm not sure if her going off feed is seasonal or related to the large meal. Any takers? BTW she is about 3.5 ft long and weighs about 2.1 lbs after she had stopped eating and passed her last few meals.

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wow ... medium rats for a yearling?

Really hard to say .... Could be seasonal (yearling females shouldn't really be off feed) or could be from feeding large meals. The large meal actually could have caused some internal bruising (any type of sloppy discharge is not a good thing) that has put her appetite on the shelf for a while.

Ball pythons do not really need large food items. If you prefer that they eat every week, smaller meals are fine. Big meals have the potential to lead to big problems.

Even my big monster 5 foot+ females only eat small rats. And they never miss a meal!

-adam

I am thinking thats what it may have been, but who knows really. Funny, she weighs more now than she did before she went off feed...water weight I'm guessing because I see her drink a lot but no urates or anything and she's still growing, just thinning out a little, which is still ok. When she does get back on feed I'm only going to feed her small rats as well.

Just found a cool lbs to grams converter.......she is about 990 grams. So as far as the internal bruising thing, will her appetite just come back or what? Although she doesn't look emaciated in ANY way right now, even after 8 weeks, it still worries me that she has already gone off feed.

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

So as far as the internal bruising thing, will her appetite just come back or what?

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If she is bruised internally, she should be fine after she heals. Kinda like a stomach ache that lasts for a month or two.

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

Although she doesn't look emaciated in ANY way right now, even after 8 weeks, it still worries me that she has already gone off feed.

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A 990 gram yearling can go 8 MONTHS without eating and be fine. Relax, and feed smaller meals in the future.

-adam

Thanks for the info Adam...I mean as much as I'd have liked to see her keep up her previously voracious appetite that got her up to almost 1000 grams in a year, I guess she's just being a ball python.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

I mean as much as I'd have liked to see her keep up her previously voracious appetite that got her up to almost 1000 grams in a year, I guess she's just being a ball python.

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You can keep doing what you're doing, but just don't expect her to eat every week. Personally, I would rather have consistent eaters than bingers.

CB hatcling ball pythons are usually great eaters that are capable of putting on a lot of weight very quickly. Instinctively, the idea is that they want to get big quick to avoid being picked up by a bird or other predator. But, once they are big, you'll typically see a drastic change in their appetite as they become "secure" with their size.

Slow and steady wins the race!

-adam