guinea pigs?

has anyone ever feed one of these to there ball pythons. do they like them. Are the aggressive towards snakes. if ball pythons don't eat them. what type of snake does.

also will adult balls eat rabbits. anyone ever try this. would baby rabbits be to big?

Ball pythons tend to be imprint feeders ... which means, once they get something that they like, they may refuse all other food items ... since mice and rats are usually much cheaper than other rodents, experimenting with uncommon food types could turn out to be a long, expensive ordeal.

-adam

well just wondering if anyone has ever tried it. I am sure in the wild balls eat anything they come accross.

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Originally Posted by DylanG

well just wondering if anyone has ever tried it. I am sure in the wild balls eat anything they come accross.

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In the wild, they have a pretty wide ranging diet when they are young, but as they mature it becomes more consistent.

Over the last 25 years I've fed ball pythons a wide range of prey items, they are pretty adaptable ... but again, once they get something that they really like, forget about it! ... LOL

-adam

This story happens all too often: A parent brings back an adult guinea pig that their children have lost interest in. The pet store (that also happens to specialize in reptiles) gladly accept it.....so......I've seen boas eat a lot of guinea pigs...never a ball though.

Guinea pigs aren't available to Ball Pythons in their natural habitat. Not to mention guinea pigs can bring you more if you sell them to someone as a pet.

Not to mention that I'm not a fan of feeding guinea pigs anyway... I'll stick to mice, rats and rabbits.

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Originally Posted by Entropy

Guinea pigs aren't available to Ball Pythons in their natural habitat ... I'll stick to mice, rats and rabbits.

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Domestic mice, rats, and rabbits aren't generally available to ball pythons in their natural habitat either. The prey items that they most frequently consume in West Africa typically cannot be commonly found in the United States at least ... not sure about other countries.

-adam

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

This story happens all too often: A parent brings back an adult guinea pig that their children have lost interest in. The pet store (that also happens to specialize in reptiles) gladly accept it.....so......I've seen boas eat a lot of guinea pigs...never a ball though.

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Poor guinea pigs ;__;....seems like that would be a very expensive diet too if you were buying them from a pet shop or something...=P

Mice are like mosquitos. You can find them basically in any country you go to.

BP's come from Africa and if you think mice and gerbils don't live and breed in the wild in africe you have to do a little more reading about this great Earth we live on!
I'm pretty sure they have rabbits in the wild in Africe as well! How could you not... they even have them in Australia and even in, and around the North Pole! Same idea as mice, they are eveywhere...and if a wild ball sees a littel rabbit go by, I'm sure he/she wouldnt have any trouble having a go at it!

But I totally would stick with feeding your pet ball mice and rats for now!

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Originally Posted by Jonny2184

Mice are like mosquitos. You can find them basically in any country you go to.

BP's come from Africa and if you think mice and gerbils don't live and breed in the wild in africe you have to do a little more reading about this great Earth we live on!
I'm pretty sure they have rabbits in the wild in Africe as well! How could you not... they even have them in Australia and even in, and around the North Pole! Same idea as mice, they are eveywhere...and if a wild ball sees a littel rabbit go by, I'm sure he/she wouldnt have any trouble having a go at it!

But I totally would stick with feeding your pet ball mice and rats for now!

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The mice, gerbils, and rabbits that are native to West Africa are not the same species of mice, gerbils, and rabbits that are common to the pet trade.

I've spoken with people that have actually traveled to Africa and collected wild ball pythons, so I'm quite sure that I know what I'm talking about.

Thank you for attempting to correct me though ... I always enjoy that. ;)

-adam

Let's get specific here what do they eat in the wild , let's here the name's of the different species of animal's that are being eaten in the wild.

Yes, I do realize that our mice, rats and rabbits aren't available to them in their natural habitat either however the original poster wasn't asking about any of them he asked about guinea pigs. I know a few people who breed gerbils simply as feeders though...more trouble then it's worth in my opinion.

Actually the original poster did ask about rabbits. (That’s me) has anyone ever tried to feed a rabbit to his or her ball?

I overlooked the question about rabbits. I apologize. I don't think that a ball could successfully take anything other then a small rabbit if that.

i was on a website(forget which one) and it said a guy fed a baby rabbit to his ball python "just because it was easter". the moral of the story was that if you try something new, baby rabbits for example, your ball python may not want mice or rats any more and that it's best to stick to ONE prey animal that is easy, cheap, and convenient for you. or else you could be losing a pretty penny over the 20 plus year life of your ball python because "you wanted to try something new". stick with rats and mice;)

Hey Adam, don't BPs mainly eat Jerboas in the wild?

http://www.alsirhan.com/ImagSCreen/Jerboa_sc4.jpg

I friend of mine told me don't ever feed your BP a guinea pig. The reason he gave was because apprently guinea pigs are the filet mignon of the rodent world and rats are like hamburger helper.


He has a Burm. Someone had a guinea pig they were getting rid of and he took it because when you have something with an appite that large you don't turn down free meals. So, he fed his Burm the guinea pig and apprently he liked it so much he refused any other prey items for MONTHS.

This was several years ago though, now his burm is like 17' long and 200lbs and eats anything the moves. It is one scary beasty. Beautiful, but much more then I'd ever want to handle.

Lira

We did start a non-feeding WC adult female eating by enticing her with a hopper gerbil but then backed it up with a weanling black rat as soon as she took the hopper down. She didn't imprint on the gerbil thank goodness but we were aware of the risk of that and had accepted that if that was all she would eat (gerbils) we would assume that cost ($8.99 per gerbil) if that's what it took to get her to eat in captivity.

Since rats and mice are so easy to obtain or breed yourself I wouldn't mess around too much with a ball python when they are known to be imprint eaters more so than say a columbian boa.

I'm with Adam on the "don't mess with what works" theory of feeding.


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by emilio

Let's get specific here what do they eat in the wild , let's here the name's of the different species of animal's that are being eaten in the wild.

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Ok, lets ...

Turdus sp.
Psittacus erithacus
Cristicola galactodes
Dendropicos sp.
Nectarinia sp.
Ploceus sp.
Crocidura poensis
Cricetomys gambianus
Praomys tullbergi
Lemniscomys striatus
Protoxerus stangeri
Plecotus sp.
Epomophorus sp.
Megaloglossus woermanni
Galagoides demidoff

This is a partial list ... I didn't feel like typing the whole thing. :P

-adam

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Originally Posted by jglass38

Hey Adam, don't BPs mainly eat Jerboas in the wild?

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Nope, the field study I have doesn't note a single ball python with a jerboa in it's digestive system.

They have a pretty wide ranging diet in the wild, but the giant gambian rat seems to be a primary staple for adults.

-adam

Turdus sp , is it a small black bird that migrates from europe that's what i got from my search

It's a dove.

-adam

To answer the original ? no and I would never try either. I would feel terrible feeding a rabbit , and that's not what they eat anyway. Rat's or mice only ,prefer rats

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Ok, lets ...

Turdus sp.
Psittacus erithacus
Cristicola galactodes
Dendropicos sp.
Nectarinia sp.
Ploceus sp.
Crocidura poensis
Cricetomys gambianus
Praomys tullbergi
Lemniscomys striatus
Protoxerus stangeri
Plecotus sp.
Epomophorus sp.
Megaloglossus woermanni
Galagoides demidoff

This is a partial list ... I didn't feel like typing the whole thing. :P

-adam

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:confused: (too bad there's not a scratches head smilie! LOL) I got some reading to do, apparently. Anyone have a Latin dictionary? (at least I assume that's Latin!) LOL :reading:

when i got anubis a week(a little more than a week) ago i was told that she has not eaten in a month. she has small scars from where she was bitten from rats. i tried to feed her and now she is scared to death of rats.(she hid in the other corner when she saw it) so what i'm saying is it is your choice i really dont care if i spend $20 more a week as long as my girl eats! if guinea pigs are filet mignon thats what i'm trying next
kittycat

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Originally Posted by kittycat1478

when i got anubis a week(a little more than a week) ago i was told that she has not eaten in a month. she has small scars from where she was bitten from rats. i tried to feed her and now she is scared to death of rats.(she hid in the other corner when she saw it) so what i'm saying is it is your choice i really dont care if i spend $20 more a week as long as my girl eats! if guinea pigs are filet mignon thats what i'm trying next
kittycat

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Have you tried feeding mice? Not saying you can't give it a guinea pig but, that would get pretty expensive.

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Originally Posted by kittycat1478

when i got anubis a week(a little more than a week) ago i was told that she has not eaten in a month. she has small scars from where she was bitten from rats. i tried to feed her and now she is scared to death of rats.(she hid in the other corner when she saw it) so what i'm saying is it is your choice i really dont care if i spend $20 more a week as long as my girl eats! if guinea pigs are filet mignon thats what i'm trying next
kittycat

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I don't know how old Anubis is, but if she's an adult, I would give her longer to acclimate before offering her food. I suspect her fear isn't the rat, but rather a matter of not being totally acclimated.

Both the adults that I obtained from a local pet store (owner surrenders) I let acclimate for three weeks minimum before I attempted to offer food. After the three week acclimation period - I offered a small live rat to both, and both of them never missed a meal after that.

Give her more time to settle in, then try again before you go the guinea pig route.