Baby Bp not Feeding

Hi,
I bought i baby BP about a month ago from my local reptile store. The owner told me to feed it fuzzys. To be left to defrost and then heated with a hairdryer. Well one month down the line and 4 attempts shes less than interested in these mice. I've tried splitting the brains out, putting her in a little tub with it and to no luck. However i've just read that i should prehaps be feeding her small live mice at first??
Should i try and get her a live mouse?
Shes nearly 1 and a half months old now and still hasn't eattern, i'm getting abit worried.
Could people tell me what they would do in my position.
BTW My temps, viv set-up etc is exactly what everyone uses on this site.
Cheers
Graham

If all your husbandry is right, as you indicated, you may have a snake that just doesn't want to eat f/t. It happens, and isn't a big deal. Offer a live fuzzy or hopper size mouse and see what happens. Once you get it eating on a consistant basis, you can try and wean it back to f/t should you choose to do so.

My understanding that you being in the UK makes feeding live a hot button topic over there. I read this link recently and it seems your laws both state that feeding "unnaturally" i.e. could be seen as unnatural to feed "dead" prey is wrong but in the same section that feeding live is also wrong. What a muck up!

http://www.publications.parliament.u...52/4090724.htm

Did this store sell you a BP so young it hadn't even taken it's first feedings yet or was it eating for them but hasn't eaten for you yet?

Here's a wonderful link that should give you some ideas and guidelines. Adam is a well respected member of BPNet and an experienced breeder of BP's. I know others have tried some of his ideas from this link and found great success in getting stubborn babies started.

http://www.8ballpythons.com/journal/...ingseating.htm

The snake was about 2 weeks old when i bought it and it hadn't been fed at all due to the fact it was shipped in from ghana.

I went into the shop i bought it from today to enquire about finding a live mouse and the response i got was 'No i wouldn't feed a ball python live, it could damage your snake. It would be much better to force feed it.' At which point i simply left. Far as iam concerned force feeding is still a month at least away. And yeah in the UK it seems its 'wrong' to feed live prey to your snake, for some stupid reason.

I also rang around 5 pet stores in my area and none seem to sell mice *sigh*, i'm starting to feel at a loss. :(

I've read that document by adam before and he uses live which don't seem to exsist in newcastle (despite it being a big city).

Hopefully she eats tomorrow!

I think i can point out the possible problems.First your pet store owners are money hungry pigs for letting that snake go before it even started to eat on its own :mad: .Second it being a captive hatch from ghana that was sold to you very stressed out.Third force feeding should be the very last attempt you should even try to do.Fourth the pet shop people telling you to force feed it shows they are idiots.What size enclosure do you have it in? Give it a couple days to a week then try again feeding it.Keep us posted

My viv is approx 30inches long, 15 wide and 10 high. 2 hides 1 at the cool end 1 at the warm. Warm hovers around 92, cool around 80.


Tried feeding her a hopper mouse last night, it perked her up when she saw it then she just ignored it so i put her in a little tub with it overnight..... no luck :(.

Shes noticeably thin towards her tail now, although the center of her body doesn't feel hugely thin, although its certainly no where near fat.

Shes a month and a half old now, how long can she survive without food?

And i rang 25 pet sotres yesterday and none will sell me live mice for food. And until i move into my new flat (about a month away) i can't set up my own breeding pair.

Anyone got any tips/tricks/advice on how to get some food down her?
Thanks

How about you buy a "pet" mouse. You may have to buy your "pets" from different pet shops so they don't figure out these mice really aren't for keeps but we do what we have to do. At least if you could get a few meals into her then you could at some later point move her to f/t. You might want to consider getting a fecal done on this little ghana baby too just to rule out parasites.

Brown Bag.... Baby BP's need the shelter to feel safe. So my suggestion is to get a live fuzzy, ask the pet shop to put it in a bigger brown bag, once you get it home toss you snake in there with him, close the bag, poke tiny airholes in it, put it back in his tank and just wait a little bit. Within the next couple of hours you should hear the sweet sound of of being squeezed to death. Wait another hour or so and take your BP out and put him back in his house to leave him alone for a couple days after.

I went to the shop today and bought a mouse, unfourtunatly it seems in england you have to have a special lisence or sumsuch to sell live mammalian food items and i can't find anywhere that sells them. I spent 15mins convincing the owner i was having them for pets not for food. (apprantly i don't look like the mouse type.) The mice are probably just a bit bigger than the widest part of my BP, which i know isn't desirable but its the best i can do. None of the 25 pet stores i rang have baby mice/able to get baby mice.

So just some questions.
How should i introduce the mouse to the snake?
How long should i give the snake to strike? (obv if the mouse looks like it might attack the snake its outta there.)
And i think one of the two may be pregant, she looks very plump around the belly compared with the other one, despite the fact there the same age. How long is mouse pregnancy?
Please give me any other advice about live feeding.
Thanks

Absolutely silly that you have to go through that just to get your poor snake a decent meal isn't it! If you think the one is pregnant, check out our Feeder threads....there's an FAQ and tons of good info there about mouse reproduction. You might want to keep her if she's preggie and get some future feeders out of her even if after she's weaned them you then feed the female off.

Regardless of what you do, I'd suggest feeding and watering feeder prey from a pet store prior to feeding them off. You don't want your snake faced with a half crazed, hungry, thirsty prey item and most rats/mice tend to come out of pretty overcrowded tanks in pet stores. Make sure your snake is alert and aware, evening feeds when a nocturnal snake is naturally awake are in my opinion the best time to feed live prey. Do put the prey on the opposite side of the enclosure, not dropped right in the snake's face. Keep a watchful eye but don't hover over as they may put your snake right off it's hunting instinct and more into triggering it's "ack the big human is gonna eat ME" instinct. Of course you only put in one live prey at a time.

Have a good look through our husbandry section and you should find tons of threads on safe methods for live feeding (the search function is wonderful here).

Grimmie, you may also want to consider putting your BP in an enclosure about half the size of the one you have now, and keeping the snake at an ambient temp of 82-84 degrees F without a hot spot. It's hard to accurately provide a proper thermogradient in smaller enclosures, and a lot of the time shy baby ball pythons will not eat if they're in a cage that's too big.

Make the cage more comfy & secure & give your snake a few days to get settled in & hungry.

Good luck!

K~

Thanks for your advice people, i'll feed her tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

Graham

Well i put the mouse in her viv and she totally ignored it! The only thing that happened was me getting bitten by the mouse when i removed it, as it was obviously scared half to death. I don't know what to do next, shall i just leave her for 5 days and try again? I don't know what iam doing wrong :(.

sadly i cant be of any help other than to let you know i've got a similar problem...i've got a hatchling not eating on its own... anyway thought it may ease your mind to know it's happening to other owners too... good luck with yours!!! :)

~lauren

Dude I'm sorry, about that how about breeding you own rats??? Feeding your BP the fuzzies that's what alot of people do here in the states.

As stated, get a brown paper bag. Put a pinkie or fuzzy (eyes still closed) rat (or fuzzy mouse if you cant find rats where you are) and put it and the snake in the bag. Fold the bag down and clip it closed. Put it back in the enclosure, turn off the lights and leave the room. Check back in a few hours. A rat that young cant do any damage to your snake. This is a very young, probably stressed out snake that has most likely never eaten. Odds are you are not going to get it to eat FT if it has never eaten before. Let us know how it goes!

hi,
Iam unable to obtain any live baby mice/rats where i live at all. Despite ringing every pet shop for miles around. (i think i rang 38 in the end). So iam going to buy 2 rats tommorrow and risk the wrath of my university, assuming they get down to it straight away, when can i expect baby's? She is worryingly thin now, is it worth assist feeding her a fuxxy to tied her over.
Iam sure you guys get this thread over and over again but i would really appreciate your time to reply with advice, the last thing on earth i want is to lose her :(.
Thanks
Graham

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grimmie

hi,
Iam unable to obtain any live baby mice/rats where i live at all. Despite ringing every pet shop for miles around. (i think i rang 38 in the end). So iam going to buy 2 rats tommorrow and risk the wrath of my university, assuming they get down to it straight away, when can i expect baby's? She is worryingly thin now, is it worth assist feeding her a fuxxy to tied her over.
Iam sure you guys get this thread over and over again but i would really appreciate your time to reply with advice, the last thing on earth i want is to lose her :(.
Thanks
Graham

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In my opinion, you aren't going to get babies soon enough to get the snake fed. How long have you had the snake now?

I've had her nearly 1 and a half months, though shes about 2 months old.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grimmie

I've had her nearly 1 and a half months, though shes about 2 months old.

---

I would say keep making calls. If she is really thin, its possible that an adult mouse is just too big of a meal (especially if she has never eaten).

Does she look extremely thin? Worst case if you can't get a suitable sized live rodent and she won't eat a live mouse or a FT fuzzy, you might need to assist feed her. This is a last resort if you cant get her eating whatever you can get a hold of.

As far as the paper bag trick, don't do that with a full grown mouse. It should only be used with rodents that don't have their eyes open yet.

I'm from the UK too - I've seen some pretty grim reptile stores but this one is terrible to sell a 2 week old w/c baby - there is just no need for it.


I can't really offer much advice I'm afraid, only to say I've seen a product around called "Lizard Maker" in our local store - maybe there are "mouse makers" or "rat makers" too - it is scented with these things and I guess it's to make them more acceptable to fussy eaters.

I know the store said to try fuzzies, but have you tried pinkies? Just a thought as I fed one to my hognose the other day who would normally have a mouse but had regurgitation a couple weeks before so I tried her on something small to start off again.

I really wish I could be more help but I can't think of anything. I really hope she eats for you soon.

~Sue

Hi,
Well the good news is she ate, the bad news is i had no option but to assist feed her.
Basically the story is despite ringing every pet shop/ainmal store in a 30mile (which is probably stupid since i don't drive) radius i could not find any store willing to find, let alone sell a live fuzzy to me. I even went into one pet store that kept lots of rodents and pleaded with the store owner for half an hour. he said he understood my situation and that he was sorry he couldn't sell them to me.
So i bought a Ft fuzzy today, i held her by the back of the head and VERY gently put the mouses head into her mouth, she obv didn't like it but she took it and ate.
My university rules state that iam not alllowed to keep live mammals (hence why i can get away with the snake, stupid i know) and the penalty s expulsion, which i decieded i wasn't prepared to risk in order to get rats. However when i moved into my new flat i will and hopefully i'll get her onto live food ASAP.
Thankyou to everyone for your advice, and i only hope i don't get slated for this, but i hope everyone understands iam trying my best for her.
Thanks
Graham

Glad to hear she ate. Its a last ditch effort to assist feed (very different from force feeding) and it seems that you got the job done!

Maybe now she's had a meal she might be happier to take the next one normally - at least you know something's gone down there.

Best of luck

~Sue