baby wont eat, help!

About two weeks ago i bought a 10 day old baby ball, and it wont it eat! It seems uninterested in the live pinkies, maybe even scared of them. What are your suggestions to help the process along?


I have her in a 10gallon aquarium with a hide on both sides, a water dish, an under side heater, and paper towels as substrate.

edit: after a quick search through the forums, it is said that a pinky is too small of a meal. Everybody I've talked to in person has told me the first meal needs to be a pinky so there aren't any big issues... what's up?

Dead hopper to small adult mouse no bigger than the widest point on the snake, Get a brown paper bag place mouse and snake in bag close and leave it be for awhile, this trick has worked for me every time I have a tough eater. Also until you snake its limit handling to the bare min. Good luck.

First off, welcome to the site. Glad to have you here. :)

Next thing, I don't know who you have been talking to, but a pinky mouse is much too small for the first meal of a baby ball. Usually live small adult mice or rat pups are the preferred meal.

Since you got the snake 2 weeks ago, have you handled it at all? How are you measuring your temperatures(94-95 warm side, 83-84 cool side) and humidity(50-60%)? How many hides do you have(should be at least 2, one on each side) and what type are they? A good hide can be made out of a ceramic pot bottom, the ones that sit under the ceramic planters and catch water. You can knock a small hole in one side with a hammer, and *voila* Snake hide. A good solution for accurately measuring your temps and humidity would be a digital thermometer/hygrometer combo unit. These can be found in the outdoor thermometer/air conditioning section at WalMart for $15. They are a must when keeping these snakes as they are very particular about temperature fluctuations and tend to go off feed if they feel as if they won't have enough warmth to digest a meal. Our care sheet and our DIY info sheets will help sort some things out.

Another thing, how many times have you offered food to the snake? Has it had its first shed yet? If it is only 10-days old, the pet store probably sold it to you non-eating, and it is going to be a tough time trying to get the little booger to eat. If you are handling the snake, please don't. This only exacerbates the "not eating" problem and stresses the snake out more. Try leaving the snake completely alone for a week to a week and a half, in a quiet, dark place with very little to no foot traffic. Make sure the temps and humidity are correct, and fill the water bowl when needed. After the 1.5 weeks, try offering the snake a live small adult mouse. Don't try to move the snake to a separate feeding container. Just feed in the cage and leave the hides where they are, so the snake will feel secure when it goes to eat.

Hope these suggestions help you out a little. Just remember, get the temps and humidity where they need to be, and leave the snake alone. Hopefully we can help you get him/her to eat for you. :)

Ditto what Becky said .... and since this is the time of year that CH babies pour in from Africa (10 bucks says this one ain't CB) I'd also suggest finding a good local reptile vet and introducing yourself :D

-adam

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

First off, welcome to the site. Glad to have you here. :)

Next thing, I don't know who you have been talking to, but a pinky mouse is much too small for the first meal of a baby ball. Usually live small adult mice or rat pups are the preferred meal.

Since you got the snake 2 weeks ago, have you handled it at all? How are you measuring your temperatures(94-95 warm side, 83-84 cool side) and humidity(50-60%)? How many hides do you have(should be at least 2, one on each side) and what type are they? A good hide can be made out of a ceramic pot bottom, the ones that sit under the ceramic planters and catch water. You can knock a small hole in one side with a hammer, and *voila* Snake hide. A good solution for accurately measuring your temps and humidity would be a digital thermometer/hygrometer combo unit. These can be found in the outdoor thermometer/air conditioning section at WalMart for $15. They are a must when keeping these snakes as they are very particular about temperature fluctuations and tend to go off feed if they feel as if they won't have enough warmth to digest a meal. Our care sheet and our DIY info sheets will help sort some things out.

Another thing, how many times have you offered food to the snake? Has it had its first shed yet? If it is only 10-days old, the pet store probably sold it to you non-eating, and it is going to be a tough time trying to get the little booger to eat. If you are handling the snake, please don't. This only exacerbates the "not eating" problem and stresses the snake out more. Try leaving the snake completely alone for a week to a week and a half, in a quiet, dark place with very little to no foot traffic. Make sure the temps and humidity are correct, and fill the water bowl when needed. After the 1.5 weeks, try offering the snake a live small adult mouse. Don't try to move the snake to a separate feeding container. Just feed in the cage and leave the hides where they are, so the snake will feel secure when it goes to eat.

Hope these suggestions help you out a little. Just remember, get the temps and humidity where they need to be, and leave the snake alone. Hopefully we can help you get him/her to eat for you. :)

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I use a little thermometer from tempgun.com to monitor the temps, the high side being around 90*F at the moment, and the low around 77*F. When I bought it, it had already shed, that was about 2 weeks ago, and at that time it was about 10 days old. I have little plastic plant hides right now, but am getting ceramic ones tomorrow. The room is dark, but not pitch black, and it gets practically no traffic. I bought her at a recent Tampa show, from John Berry Reptiles (johnberryreptiles.com) I called and talked to him earlier this week, and he said not to get too worried for another week or so about this situation, but I wanted more opinions.

With the thermometer/hygrometer combo unit, do you place this inside the cage? I also heard it was better to put the hole in the ceramic pot piece on the top? Her plastic hides she has now seem to light, and she pushes them around while exploring. I guess tomorrow I could also pick up a small live adult mouse. How do you suggest feeding the mouse, with the least amount of danger to the snake?

Sorry for all these questions, but my corn snake was never this much trouble!

edit: I don't handle it. Only have handled it to move it into the cage.

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Originally Posted by jdapython

I bought her at a recent Tampa show, from John Berry Reptiles (johnberryreptiles.com) I called and talked to him earlier this week, and he said not to get too worried for another week or so about this situation, but I wanted more opinions.

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How funny! That is EXACTLY where I went to get mine... and yep... I bought mine from John Berry as well (and my neighbor got one too... gave us a deal; 2 for $80). Oh the irony...

I got my neighbors to eat her first pinky with no problems last tuesday, however I wasn't so lucky with mine. I had to umm... persuade her to eat last night and she finally did take down a pinky. She's looking much better now and is out roaming the cage again.

If you're local and need some help with anything let me know. Two heads are better than one. :P

P.S. Check out my thread... "Say Cheese!" in the pictures section. :)

I live two hours away from tampa... anyways, I'll get new hides tomorrow, and I guess a hopper/small adult. Thanks for the kind thought though, Isshinharu. The baby I got was the only one that had shed already, glad to hear yours is doing alright.

Edit: How did you "persuade" your snake?

Edit2: I was also thinking about putting a 75watt lamp on at timer also, but I've gotta figure out how to get it all together with the small 10gallon.

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Originally Posted by jdapython

I live two hours away from tampa... anyways, I'll get new hides tomorrow, and I guess a hopper/small adult. Thanks for the kind thought though, Isshinharu. The baby I got was the only one that had shed already, glad to hear yours is doing alright.

Edit: How did you "persuade" your snake?

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Ahh... I think I know which one you got. If you're who I think you are, I was standing next to you. You got the one with the nice bright yellow pattern on it... and said 'I'll get that one if he's not going to'. Haha. I was tossing it up between that one and the one I was holding. Anyway...:)

I tried several things to persuade her; left the pinky in the cage for a while; confined her with it in one of those gallon ice cream tubs... neither worked though. Finally I ended up holding her and grabbed the pinky with some forceps, held it in front of her and she finally opened her mouth long enough for me to put it in... and when I did... ooooo boy... she was good to go; did all the rest on her own.

yea that was me :) I hope I don't have to resort to doing that with her though...

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Originally Posted by jdapython

Edit2: I was also thinking about putting a 75watt lamp on at timer also, but I've gotta figure out how to get it all together with the small 10gallon.

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What I did is I got an infrared heat lamp (75 watt) and bought a lamp dimmer from home depot for $10. I put that on the dimmer switch and used that to set my ambient temp. Then I got one of those under tank heaters from petco and put that on a seperate dimmer on the warm side of the tank. I set the dimmer to wherever I get about 85-90 ambient temp on the warm side, and the dimmer for the UTH I set so that it'll give her a belly heat of about 90-92. This probably isn't the best setup, but it works until I get a proportional thermostat. Just waiting for the right kind. Until then... I'll monitor the temp's and humidity with the acurite thermo/hygrometer and the temp gun.

It's a small world, ain't it? :)

That's wonderful that you aren't handling him/her. Also wonderful that you have a temp gun and the snake is secluded in a fairly dark room. Awesome stuff. :-D And yes, the thermometer unit goes on the cool side of the enclosure(on the floor) and the probe goes around to the warm side and sits under the hide. I prefer using those ceramic ones because they are heavy and dark. I've had to use plastic for now because mine is at an awkward stage and I can't seem to find anything suitable that is ceramic that she can fit in.

Here's a pic of what my enclosure looks like. I have two digi combo units, one on the warm side and one on the cool side. Measures the ambient temps, surface temps and relative humidity for each side. Guess I'm kind of picky ;)
Here ya go:
http://img132.echo.cx/img132/5325/pict00033xs.th.jpg

http://img132.echo.cx/img132/7557/pict00021nv.th.jpg

About the 75watt, I think it will absolutely fry the snake in a 10-gallon. Also, belly temps on the warm side should be a good 94-95. Temps should never go below 80 anywhere in the enclosure. 77 degrees on the cool side is a little too cool, especially for a non-eating baby, and it just asks for trouble. Bump it up to about 82-84 and you should be good to go. Those lamp dimmers help out alot and are easy to wire. You can ask Matt, aka justcage, for help on wiring, and when you are ready, there are a few people on this site that sell thermostats.

Anywho, I think that about rounds everything off. Try that sm. adult mouse and you can even darken the room and watch from a distance. That should help lessen the stress of eating. Try a younger mouse, and I doubt the snake will have any problems since the mouse will have no clue ;)

Good luck!

those are the EXACT hides i have in there right now, she pushes them around all over. I'm off to get all the stuff right now, thanks for the suggestions!

Edit: man, sure getting tired of these edits, but a quick once-over of her cage, and there were these little ball things, and a ring dried into the napkins. is this fecal matter or what? i'll post pictures in a few.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdapython

those are the EXACT hides i have in there right now, she pushes them around all over. I'm off to get all the stuff right now, thanks for the suggestions!

Edit: man, sure getting tired of these edits, but a quick once-over of her cage, and there were these little ball things, and a ring dried into the napkins. is this fecal matter or what? i'll post pictures in a few.

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???

Yep, looks like a slight amount of fecal material. Normal bowel movements look like cat poo with the addition of small white balls, called urates. These are a snakes form of urine, except dehydrated. Sometimes snakes will pass the liquid form of urine as well. With the next bowel movement, I would take a small portion(teaspoon) to the vet and have them perform a direct smear AND a flotation. Sometimes they can find parasites in the direct smear that normally won't show in up a float (ie: Giardia). If the price seems outrageous, find someone else. Any normal trained vet tech can perform a fecal and tell you how to treat the animal.

Glad everything is going well. :)

just got back from lowes, got some clay/ceramic overflows that i'm gonna make into hides, a dimmer, and a temp/humidity gauge. Now I'm off to get food, oh boy...

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Originally Posted by jdapython

just got back from lowes, got some clay/ceramic overflows that i'm gonna make into hides, a dimmer, and a temp/humidity gauge. Now I'm off to get food, oh boy...

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Change isn't automatic with ball pythons ... once you change things for the better it still may take a couple of weeks for your snake to become comfortable enough to start eating. It could happen overnight, but you certainly shouldn't expect it.

-adam

I can't believe this nonsense! The first petstore I tried has hours from 9a.m.-3p.m. on mondays, which makes no sense to me at all. So I went to the other pet store in town and they had a sign up saying "sorry for the inconvenience but we closed at 3 today".

so Adam_Wysocki, should I leave the new hides out for awhile?

I'd go ahead and put the new hides in, after you clean and bake them in the oven to kill any nasties. I think what Adam meant is that the snake may still take awhile to get used to its new surroundings again, and it may be 2 weeks or more before it is comfortable enough to eat. I wouldn't worry about buying a mouse now. Try waiting another week after getting everything set up and running, and then try to feed. If no success in a week, wait another week and try again. These guys do take patience on our part :)

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

I'd go ahead and put the new hides in, after you clean and bake them in the oven to kill any nasties. I think what Adam meant is that the snake may still take awhile to get used to its new surroundings again, and it may be 2 weeks or more before it is comfortable enough to eat. I wouldn't worry about buying a mouse now. Try waiting another week after getting everything set up and running, and then try to feed. If no success in a week, wait another week and try again. These guys do take patience on our part :)

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just so we're clear here, the snake has never eaten, and hatched around the first of this month, are you sure i should wait a week?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

I think what Adam meant is that the snake may still take awhile to get used to its new surroundings again, and it may be 2 weeks or more before it is comfortable enough to eat. I wouldn't worry about buying a mouse now. Try waiting another week after getting everything set up and running, and then try to feed. If no success in a week, wait another week and try again. These guys do take patience on our part :)

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Exactly .... they almost never work on your schedule, they have thier own ;)

-adam

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Originally Posted by jdapython

just so we're clear here, the snake has never eaten, and hatched around the first of this month, are you sure i should wait a week?

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Yes, if it's a healthy snake that did a good job absorbing it's yolk you have another 5 or 6 weeks give or take before you should even think about being concerned.

-adam

okay, just that it was lookng a little skinny, then the whole little ball thing i found today had me scarred.

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Originally Posted by jdapython

okay, just that it was lookng a little skinny, then the whole little ball thing i found today had me scarred.

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Well obviously if you have concerns about your animals health based on it's appearance, a trip to a qualified reptile veterinarian is absolutely the best course of action. No one on an internet forum can tell you if your snake is healthy or not (even with pictures), people here can only give advice and suggestions.

-adam

I'm looking into it now.

geesh Beck I read a thread about eating and there ya are looking at poop pics!!!! LOL. Is this what happens to us new owners and will Mike and I become poop fixated when Punkin finally arrives?

Seriously it's super to have all you here to help us new folks but Adam's point is well taken as far as "diagnosing" online. Thanks for that reminder Adam that in the end a good vet is a must. Having said that....please check my thread with another pic of Punkin....have a question about length, wieght and how to help your snake put on weight (new nic...Joanna of the Million Questions! LOL)

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Well obviously if you have concerns about your animals health based on it's appearance, a trip to a qualified reptile veterinarian is absolutely the best course of action. No one on an internet forum can tell you if your snake is healthy or not (even with pictures), people here can only give advice and suggestions.

-adam

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I'm not sure if you saw the thread I started in the pics section. http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=23528
I would venture to guess it looks as thin as mine did in those pics since they came from the same clutch.

I would try to get it to eat or take it to the vet if you're too uncomfortable with it. Either way... I would take it to the vet anyway. I'll be taking mine Sat morning just for a checkup.

yea, she looks about like that. if she doesn't eat her mouse tonight i'm gonna be making a vet appointment sooner then i'd like...

Nope! She just coiled up and looked at it? Still seems like she's afraid of the food. When ever the mouse would graze her she'd hiss at it, but nothing more. Should I put in a hide with a hole in the top, and use a mouse that can't really climb in there in a few days?

Could it be too big for her? Like, maybe intimidating her? I started on f/t pinky's, and my neigbors struck at it both times I've helped feed her.

I would wait another week, and try later at night when it is dark in the room. A mouse that is still crawling around might do the trick if the bigger one is still giving her the heebie jeebies :) Then, if she keeps that one down, you can feed her/him again 5 days later. Another week won't hurt, and will give her some extra time to get comfy in her new home. Wish you lived closer, I have some extra clay pot bottoms that are nice and small that would work great for your baby. I found them at Michael's(the craft store) if that is any help to you. You can either knock a hole in the side or enlarge the hole in the middle. Mine don't have a middle hole, so I went the side-entrance route.

i don't think so, it's pretty small and its eyes are open. you used tongs with yours and your neighbors though right? mine was even intimidated by live pinkys. I'd like to raise the humidity in the cage some, any suggestions?




p.s. my mom says we have to keep this mouse now.. :+\

SI, i'd talk to you on AIM, but you aren't on!

I wouldn't use tongs with a live mouse. There's no need to. Also, you are much less likely to get a baby feeding with a f/t food item, from what I've heard, pretty impossible. The baby that Isshinaru's friend has was assist-fed with a f/t pinky, and hopefully it won't have to be assisted again. If it is a live pinky or fuzzy, you can leave it in the snake's cage for a few hours, turn off the lights, even go as far as to cover the snake's cage with a dark sheet or towel and leave the room.

If that mouse is just a pinky or fuzzy, then I doubt it will live long enough to make a pet out of.

There are several things you can do to raise the humidity. Covering the lid with Con-Tac paper and making a hole for the lamp, with small triangles cut out at the corners for air flow. Some people use a wet towel, but that just harbors way too much bacteria for me. See how air gets filtered through the towel, the bacteria float down with the water droplets in the water, and is breathed by your snake. It also lands on the ground, where the bacteria can grow and multiply. Ick! You can use Saran-Wrap or even Glad Press N' Seal. A piece of plexiglass put over the screen with small holes drilled in it for airflow works well also.

Anywho, just try not to feed for at least 5 days. Repeatedly trying will just stress the snake out. Try the suggestion above and see if it works for you. :)

PS: I'm on now, ask away :)

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Originally Posted by jdapython

i don't think so, it's pretty small and its eyes are open. you used tongs with yours and your neighbors though right? mine was even intimidated by live pinkys. I'd like to raise the humidity in the cage some, any suggestions?

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Correct. Once I got it in her mouth, she kinda sat there and was like... "uhh... ok", but after about 30 seconds she started to take it down.

As far as the humidity... I put a humid hide in the tank along with the other 2... one on cool side, one on hot side, humid hid in between.
What I did was got an old butter container took the lid off, and cut out part of the lip of the container (about a 2 - 3 inch diameter)... dampened some paper towels (not wet) put them in the container with lid on it... and place it in the tank with the lid down. This will give her a solitary place to get ambient moisture when she wants, and some of the moisture will also spread to the rest of the tank I would imagine. Hope that helps.

Duh, Becky. Didn't EVEN think about a humid hide and I've used one for months... brain farted...

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Duh, Becky. Didn't EVEN think about a humid hide and I've used one for months... brain farted...

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See... you've taught me well. :P

I guess I'm just not comfortable covering up the screen lid for fear of things getting stagnant. Plus then it will get hotter in the tank and I'd have to re-adjust the dimmers which is just something extra that could stress her out. I might cover it up eventually though... but for now... I just want her to get fully acclimated. :)