BP noob looking for feeding/mite tips

Hey everyone, I just recently (after doing a lot of research on them) purchased a baby Ball from my local pet store. I had a couple of questions though that there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer to in the literature that I've come across.

#1 The store which I bought her from was saying that they feed them 1 F/T pinky every week on Thursdays (So my first feeding is coming up tomorrow). I am set up to raise feeder mice so I want to start feeding live but my question is when is it appropriate to start feeding a snake her size a full-sized mouse? Right now she is about 16" long, I'm not sure of the weight but I'll check her when I get home. She was the most active snake that I saw in the store which is one of the reasons I purchased her and she keeps up a fairly high (I believe) level of activity in her current terrarium, moving up and down the basking branch I have set up for her and going in and out of her 2 hides. Given her level of activity should I be feeding her more frequently? Maybe on a 5 day schedule?

#2 My fiancee had her out last night and she noticed just one small black mite while she was handling her on her hand. I checked the snake very thoroughly and did not see any other mites and I examined the terrarium also but didn't see any others (though I imagine there's not much chance of me finding them in that relatively large area). So should I start mite treatment on her now? I'm going to go tonight and get some of the mite dust for the cage to try and prevent them from spreading. Any other advice for me though? Should I be really worried about this?

Thanks everyone and I look forward to being a part of this community!

- Adam

1) Rule of thumb is to feed, usually weekly, a mouse/rat/whatever that is roughly the same girth of the snake, at the widest point. If she is only about the width of a pinky, then only feed a pinky, if she is about as big as a fuzzy, feed a fuzzy, etc. F/t is preferable over live, since live mice or rats can bite the snake, which can lead to some pretty serious vet bills. That said, a lot of people, myself included, feed live, just make sure you watch the feeding and mediate quickly if neccesary. If you find the mice are too aggressive, try knocking them out, or pre-killing using a CO2 chamber just before feed. Also, babies are typically more active, and it would be okay to feed on a 5 day schedule, but 7 is usually preferred. I dont know much about this, so listen to some more experienced forum members. Also, a 7 day schedule means you can handle more, which would be good for socializing you new bp. Make sure you dont overdo it though, babies cant handle quite as much.

2) Treat right away, it is best to catch it early. Prevent-a-mite is widely seen as "the savior" for snakes with mites. If you catch it quickly enough, one treatment will probably be enough.

Hope this helps.

Hey,thanks tempest I'll be sure to put those tips to good use!

No problem, and welcome.

Provent-A-Mite (PAM) is a very good way to treat the enclosure. Please read the directions carefully, removing the water bowl and not putting the PAM directly on the snake :O
It sounds like your snake is acting very stressed out and this makes sense if you just got her. It is strongly encouraged to not hold your snake for a good two weeks (except for cage/tub maintenance) to allow for her to settle in and feel secure.
As for feeding, a lot of members on this forum feed roughly 10% of the snake's weight. Do you have a weight on the snake yet? Also, do you know the age of the snake? Young snakes (maybe up to 200g) many times get fed every 5 days and then it is bumped to 7 days. But remember: This is after the 2 week break in period!!!!!
As for switching to live, this is fine but understand that your snake may never go back to F/T again~ so please make sure that raising rodents is what you want to do for the rest of your snake's life!
Let us know how this goes and if you have any further questions! :D

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Originally Posted by anendeloflorien

Hey everyone, I just recently (after doing a lot of research on them) purchased a baby Ball from my local pet store. I had a couple of questions though that there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer to in the literature that I've come across.

#1 The store which I bought her from was saying that they feed them 1 F/T pinky every week on Thursdays (So my first feeding is coming up tomorrow). I am set up to raise feeder mice so I want to start feeding live but my question is when is it appropriate to start feeding a snake her size a full-sized mouse? Right now she is about 16" long, I'm not sure of the weight but I'll check her when I get home. She was the most active snake that I saw in the store which is one of the reasons I purchased her and she keeps up a fairly high (I believe) level of activity in her current terrarium, moving up and down the basking branch I have set up for her and going in and out of her 2 hides. Given her level of activity should I be feeding her more frequently? Maybe on a 5 day schedule?

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I thought I would mention, your feeding her mice now correct? Mice pinkies are very small, and are hardly a meal. Many breeders start BP's on fuzzy mice, and work up from there.

One way to 'measure' how big of a meal is to also pay attention to her habits after being fed.

If for example, she is moving around the next day and not sitting on the hot spot digesting, then she could probably be moved up a size.

Now, if your feeding her pinky rats, soon she'll be able to eat 2, then move up to a fuzzy, then to a pup, then to a weaner.

You will be happily surprised how quickly they grow. It's sometimes a surprise to look in a see a chunky bp looking back at you! :gj:

Provent a Mite is the best thing EVER made.

Ok it's feeding night tonight. The store which I purchased her from said that they usually just feed one f/t pinky every week but I think I'll get her some f/t hoppers or pinky rat if they have them available there. So wish me luck with my first feeding. Shes seems to have settled down quite a bit the last couple of days and my gf says she has found a comfortable hide today and has been in there for most of the day. I couldn't seem to find provent-a-mite at any of the local pet stores so I've got some coming on a rush order from LLL Reps. Thanks again to everyone who's replied and helped me out with this!
Adam.

Well our first feeding last night was a dud, but I'm not really worried about it. She's probably just getting used to her new environment. I did do the whole pre-scenting the room (I hope I did anyways) by leaving the fuzzy to thaw in the room about 45 minutes prior. She actually came out of her hide to check out the mouse but didn't really do anything except just sniff around it for about 15 minutes and try to climb the tongs to get to me :). I tried not to force it in her face just held it about 4-5 inches away from where she was hanging out and gave it some shakes to try and entice her. There were a couple of times where I thought she was going to take it, she came right up around it and just sat there looking at it going "hmmmm, do I want to or not?" but just slithered away after that :(. OH well, there's always next week! Thanks again to everyone who's replied. You've been a huge help to me!

After pre-scenting and the prey was thawed, did you hike up the heat signature by blasting the prey with a blow dryer or putting it under a heat lamp or light bulb??

Hmmm, no I didn't thats a great idea though. I've never heard of doing that in my research. Like I say though I am a total noob at this :P. Should I wait til next weeks feeding time to try that out or maybe wait 5 days before attempting to feed again? That seems to be the concensus from the people that I've talked to about feeding. If they refuse one week to wait til the next scheduled feeding time to try again.

Hi,

Yeah I would wait the 5-7 days - at worst it gives her a little longer to settle in and feel hungry. :)


dr del

I'm going to assume you're talking about f/t pinky mice here (it's best to be specific as there's a lot of size difference between rats and mice).

Pet stores are infamous for feeding far too small. F/t pink mice, unless you're dealing with the world's smallest BP, have never cut it for me. That's just basically not much of a meal for a BP and likely uses up more energy to eat and digest it than they actually get from that dinky little f/t mouse pinky.

Wait 5 to 7 days and try a more appropriately sized prey item. Decide in that time whether you want to feed mice or rats and which prey you can get consistently where you live. These aren't snakes that always do well if you switch up prey type or feeding methods on them too often.

When you feed f/t you need to try and keep that prey item putting out a heat signature. Ball pythons aren't natural scavengers so something dead, cold and unmoving doesn't always read "food" to them. If you don't have hemostats or a long pair of tweezers to use to wiggle the f/t item, you may want to run out and get a pair.

Focus right now on settling the snake in, providing an appropriate home that is stable in temps and humidity (in the correct ranges), don't handle other than for basic cage maintenance and get those mites dealt with. Mites are never "just one mite" and they can put a snake off eating and be a vector for disease. Most of the stuff pet stores sell is pointless and a waste of money. Provent-A-Mite used exactly as the instructions say (it is NOT sprayed on the snake) will get rid of that mite issue for you and is well worth the money spent. Personally I'd be having a strong word with the pet store that sold you a snake with a "free" case of mites!

A pinky mouse is like.. A snack.
Now if you want to give her pinky mice, you'll need to feed them very often. Like every two or three days. If you do this you won't be able to handle her much or she'll blarf on you at some point. She's probably so stressed because of hunger and/or a new environment.

If she truely does have mites, you'll need to sanitize the cage. I agree that PAM is a good choice. If you don't have any, you have to do it the hard way.

Take everything out of the cage. Bleach the cage and dishes.
Freeze branches and hides. Let them thaw and examine them for movement. If you see anything, freeze them again, etc. Your snake won't like this, but she would benefit from a quick bath or soak. You'll need to use fresh substrate as well.

Mites are no joke. They spread disease and cause extreme discomfort to your snake. If you have continuous problems with them, you may consider a vet visit or some antidotes.

Yeah I spent about 2 hours this weekend taking care of our little "uninvited guests" cleaning and bleaching everything in the cage. I used some "mite-away" on my snake and it seemed to take care of the problem. I went by NERD after I was done to check the place out and they suggested using stuff called Black Knight II if they do come back. The guys I was talking to said that they don't use PAM as it can cause serious harm to the snake if used incorrectly but the BKII is actually safer for use and it kills 100% of the time. So if the little buggers do decide to make a repeat appearance I'll be using that stuff.
I went by the pet store that sold me her and I gave them a piece of my mind. There were 3 other BPs in the enclosure with her and they all had mites also. When I went in I was looking at them and 2/3 were doing the whole soaking in the water dish and had black mites all on their backs. I don't know how they missed that at the store but I don't believe I'll be buying any more animals from that store. I wish I had known before hand that NERD/Zoo Creatures was so close to me! I would totally have gone there for my first animal. But live and learn I guess :oops:.
So I'm gonna try feeding another F/T hopper mouse tomorrow night and we'll see how that goes down. I got some good feeding tips from the guys over at NERD so I'll be trying those out. I think now that we've taken care of the mites she'll be more apt to try and eat.
Thanks everybody!
Adam.