Freshly Shed...

My wonderful het hypo girl just shed today so I decided to snap some pics. She is the ONLY one of my ball pythons that is eating at the moment....probably because she is from Maryland ;) Today, she weighed in at 464 grams after her perfect shed and poop. And right after her picture session, she downed 3 small adult mice (about 16-17 grams each). Now if I can just get the others to eat :frustrate

http://www.danielhillreptiles.com/co...rigg121205.JPG

http://www.danielhillreptiles.com/co...g121205(2).JPG

The first pic is without flash and the second one is with flash.

The first pic is really cute :D

Wow! :eek: She's getting big!! All of my babies are still eating real well, but I have one female who is such a picky little witch. So I feel your pain. Do you sit and try talking them into eating? C'mon now you know you want this yummy little rodent. It's good for you. All your friends are doing it! ;) (she's driven me insane :psychotic )

Yep...she is getting big. She is always looking for more food and I could easily feed her 5-6 small mice a sitting if I wanted....but I don't want a fat baby and she is growing just fine with 3 small mice a week.

Nope, I have never tried talking with them to get them to eat....maybe I should ;)

Odin just started refusing meals last week...so I have a few tricks to try to get him back eating ;) And I have just given up on Thor and Sif....they will eat when the decide they want to...all I can do is offer. Sif was such a monster feeder....but once she hit 1200 grams......everything went downhill. Thor just has one thing on his mind right now....and it ain't food :devilish:

that het hypo girl looks great! and seems to be growing nicely. i've had a couple of girls this year that got up to a little more than 1000 grams and then started to become "picky" they snapped out of it a couple months later.


vaughn

wow shes really cute. my male hasnt eaten for 2 months and 14 days. thats only one snake and im stressed out, i cant imagine how you feel. lol, and i think zulu has the same thing on his mind as Thor!

Actually, I am not stressed about their refusal to eat...the 'winter fast' has been one of those things that I have read about since I got into bps and now I am getting to experience it...I have tried all the tricks and learned alot.....so just another experience under my belt.....and to tell you the truth it has been kinda nice not having to go buy extra mice because I don't have enough and my supply in the freezer is steadily growing ;) Like I said, they will eat when they want to eat...no point in me stressing out over something like a few skipped meals...after all, I love caring for reptiles because they relieve stress....so they should not create more of it by causing me to worry, right? :)

Oh she's gorgeous Daniel! Amazing the difference a flash makes though in color!

We have a few fasting here too. Only Brannagh and Malachi ate last week but then I swear Big Mz B would eat if hell froze over and Malachi probably got a talking to about being a good eater before Adam shipped him here LOL. The rest are being picky but I'm not fretting either. They are all in top shape, other than Saoirse but she's at 900 grams so a big gain for her prior to this fast (I'm going to worry about that girl till she's back to her proper weight though, I just can't help it LOL).

Like you I figure they'll eat when they are good and ready to and since we've gone back to live feeds it's no big deal to just pop the lucky rat back into the feeder tub till next week.


~~Jo~~

Daniel1983 you feed 3 mice a week to your bp? Is that a lot? I've been only feeding 1 time a week. Am I starving my bp?


:confused:

Sorry to hijack your thread, Daniel, but on the topic of fasting - Kashmire is headed into his third week of fasting (glad I'm not the only one). His temps and humidity are spot on. I "thought" I read somewhere that you should reduce the handling sessions when fasting to reduce stress. Have any of you experiencing fasts been cutting back on handling sessions? I'm trying not to handle Kashmire at all. Just wondered about the rest of you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lurch

Daniel1983 you feed 3 mice a week to your bp? Is that a lot? I've been only feeding 1 time a week. Am I starving my bp?

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It depends on how big your BP is... and no, you're probably not starving it. I've heard that big adult females can eat 1 adult mouse a week, and still be fine.

That being said, I feed all my babies 2 small mice a week when they get to +/- 200g, and then 3 mice a week at +/- 400g, then 1 small rat at 600g or so. I'll stick with small rats until I'm ready for breeding at which point, I'll start packin on the weight for my girls in the summer with 2 smalls a piece until the cooling period. (DISCLAIMER - This is not THE way, just MY way)

Oh... and to get back on topic... nice shots Daniel. I like the one without the flash!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Sorry to hijack your thread, Daniel, but on the topic of fasting - Kashmire is headed into his third week of fasting (glad I'm not the only one). His temps and humidity are spot on. I "thought" I read somewhere that you should reduce the handling sessions when fasting to reduce stress. Have any of you experiencing fasts been cutting back on handling sessions? I'm trying not to handle Kashmire at all. Just wondered about the rest of you.

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No problem, Robin ;)

IMO...There are two types of fasting.....fasting because of the stress of breeding season and fasting because of stress due to other factors.

If a ball python is fasting because of breeding season, there may not really be anything that you can do to get them back eating....you just have to wait it out. For my two older bps, I have tried all the tricks....old male sheds left in the females enclosure, jacking up the humidity and temps, increased daylight, etc....

For my younger bp (Odin), I believe that he is not eating because of stress from other factors. I removed some of his paper balls a few weeks ago (but he ate that week) and have been handling him as often as my other bps. I think something that I did stressed him out, so I have a different set of tricks to try......add more paper balls, reduce handling, etc.....

If someone disagrees please let me know.....this is just the way it is from my experience so far ;)

She looks great Daniel! ... All of her sisters and cousins and her mom and dad are still eating like gang busters! ... As a matter of fact, everyone is still slamming food like crazy here.

For everyone with winter fasts, check your humidity (inside and outside of the cages, they know) and try slightly smaller food items ... remember, the temps and humidity inside the cage might be "dead on", but fresh cooler dryer air from the room is always circulating into the cage which they can "feel".

-adam

Beauties!


Our male BPs have skipped a few at this point. The females, bloods and other snakes are pounding right along whomp whomp whomp - dunno whats up with the boys - their enclosures are adjacent to the girls - same temp/humidity. Maybe they are just trying to shed a couple of grams to the bp chicks will think they are uberhawt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

She looks great Daniel! ... All of her sisters and cousins and her mom and dad are still eating like gang busters! ... As a matter of fact, everyone is still slamming food like crazy here.

For everyone with winter fasts, check your humidity (inside and outside of the cages, they know) and try slightly smaller food items ... remember, the temps and humidity inside the cage might be "dead on", but fresh cooler dryer air from the room is always circulating into the cage which they can "feel".

-adam

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Thanks! And I already have you covered with both the inside and outside humidity. I have been misting and have a humidifier in the closet....the humidifier has only been in there for a week and a half though...so maybe they just need some time ;)

Nice snakes hope mine turn out that nice

Beautiful! There's nothing like a cute BP peeking around their coils, it makes me all melty... Can't wait to get our own :)

Thanks everyone....as far as the fasting goes....two of them are off the list for now...I left a p/k mouse in with Odin overnight and it was gone this morning...and Thor ate a p/k mouse overnight also...now if I can just get the other lady to eat ;)

Hooray! Too bad it wasn't your girl you got to eat. Doesn't she know she's gotta get ready for making some adorable babies?! ;) LOL! Glad to hear you've got a couple back in the groove. :D

Beautiful snake, Daniel!!!