The Most Frustrating Female EVER

So about a year and a half ago, we purchased an '05 female pastel, who we KNEW was kind of a picky eater. We've been able to bring picky eaters around most of the time, so we decided to take the chance on her.

Well, the entire time she's been in our collection, she's pretty much stayed the same weight. Sometimes if I weigh her a little too close to her last meal, she'll spike up to about 850 grams, but she weighs 750 consistently. She *might* have weighed around 700 grams when we got her originally. So in all this time, she's gained about 50 grams.

Her food habits are specific. She will only eat an occasional live rat. She absolutely will NOT take f/t rats, and believe me, we've tried ALL the tricks, and nothing gets past this girl. She's wise to us.

I don't really have TOO much of a problem feeding live when the snake won't take anything else and I've tried my hardest to convince them, but the pet stores around here flat out suck. The "medium" rats at Petco are the 3 year old super jumbos, and I just... can't... bring myself to pay 12 bucks per rat at the other store. We'll drive out of our way to check other Petcos, but we're able to get Hazel's size maybe once every three weeks. Once every two weeks if we're lucky. I'd double up on smaller, but she will take ONE rat. I'd breed my own, but we live with the in-laws and it's been a stretch just to convince them to let us house the snakes here.

Now, of course, just because we've found the right size doesn't mean she's in the mood to eat it. So she eats what we bring home for her oh about 75% of the time. I really wouldn't even bat an eye at a four year old ball python who only wanted to eat once or twice a month - some of our biggest and strongest adults seem to put themselves on this schedule - but she's not putting on even the slightest gram!

I have aspirations of breeding her someday. I really do. She's absolutely made of muscle, not skinny in the slightest, and very strong. But she just won't see things from my point of view.

She's kept in a Matrix rack system, with flex-watt, hides, a big water bowl, with her temps and humidity all correct and measured with insta-reads. Handling is kept to an absolute minimum (just cleaning, occasional weigh-ins, and sometimes I selfishly want a picture of her). She's been vet-checked a couple of times, put through a round of metronidazole just in case, had fecals, bloodwork... Everything. We've probed her a few extra times just to make sure she's female, I can't think of anything else to DO.

Does anybody have any suggestions? Any ball pythons out there this old and picky? Words of encouragement?

Hazel:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...ove/hazel2.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...love/hazel.jpg

i have a female albino thats like this but she only eats mice :tears:

I feel your pain!!!! My spider female was the same way. I started her on ASFs and never looked back. She's so shy I don't even TRY to switch her back to rats in fear of stressing her out. Today she ways in at a hefty 1400g and has FOLLICLES!! Started introducing males to her but she just HAD to start her shed cycle, lol. She is worth the pain in my butt though. ;)

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=91027

Good luck!!

P.S. Breeding ASFs yourself is a piece of cake if there aren't any suppliers by you. I've bred mice and rats but these seem to be the easiest.

I have a 100% Het Albino female that exasperates me. I bought her late ’07 and she weighed about 500 grams. This female is now weighing about 800 grams but man it has been tough to get her there. She is a picky eater and very moody. I also have a female albino that is a pain in rear as well. She is a mouse eater on top of everything. I just think to myself that it is out of my control and try to go with the flow but I know how you feel.

You could try moving her into a smaller enclosure, feeding ASFs, or feeding mice. I prefer moving them to smaller enclosures.

Hope this helps.

I'm SO glad to know I'm not alone on this one. I know bps can be picky, but this is just BEYOND.

I got the female lesser who will only eat mice, but will eat f/t now and multiples in a feeding (FINALLY), so we're not too concerned about her, lol...


SMALLER ENCLOSURE. I did no think of that. You're probably right, I really think that might help her.

Trouble is, she hates mice, and won't even look twice at a live ASF. This girl wants rats, only rats, and only under her terms. *sigh* I've even tried putting the freshest rat bedding in her tub an hour or two before feeding, waiting for her to start hunting and attempting to get her to try a f/t rat. She'll stare at it, tongue flick real close, but never actually strikes at it. Leaving it in overnight doesn't work either. I blast these guys with a hairdryer until they're hot like lava, too. *headdesk*

Smaller enclosure and some crumpled up newspaper. Also I have one girl that will eat P/K only.

Try her on a warm F/T ASF on tongs, pref in a dark ish room
They work for all of my previously poor feeders
My first ever Morph took one tonight as her first meal
Good luck

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/...c976af5245.jpg

My pastel girl is smart too, only likes live. however we cannot have live rats here so she gets multiple mice. She is growing but of course with growth requires more mice so is definately getting pricey to feed. My male pastel has been a live feeder forever but i finally tricked him into a f/t rat last feeding. Then theres a normal girl I have been trying to get up to weight for the last year. When I bought her the previous owner had her on rabbits. Well rabbits are tough to come by, especially f/t baby ones. So I started with f/t rats but there was no interest. So tried f/t mice, still no interest. Finally got her to eat live mice after 4 months. She eats these no prob but needs to eat lots and the weight gain is slow. She was under weight when I got her. She was a skinny almost 1200g then went down to 1100 before she started eating. She is now 1400 after many many mice. She still will have nothing to do with f/t.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wh00h0069

You could try moving her into a smaller enclosure, feeding ASFs, or feeding mice. I prefer moving them to smaller enclosures.

Hope this helps.

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I agree with the 2 (bold) out of 3 mentioned above. Also I know it may sound weird, but have you considered having a fecal done? The no weight gain sounds like she could have internal parasites, if it were me, I'd check just in case.

My pickest eater is a 07 CH female. I breed my own ASFs and for the first 6 months she wouldn't even look at them, then one day out of the blue she ate one. Ever since then she has taken an ASF peferfectly (6 times in a row! A miracle!). Up until she took that ASF, she hadn't gained any weight in a year. I would keep trying the ASFs. If you get her to take one, then I bet she will turn around.

Try moving her to a smaller enclosure, giving her two hides and filling the enclosure with crumpled newspaper.

You never know!

i had the exact same situation with a female norm. of mine. since i switched to asf's she now eats two a week. no more throwing rats out for weeks at a time. i'm convinced that asf's are crack for ball pythons

I agree with Northern Regius. I vet a few random animals from my collection each year, and picky eaters are at the top of the list.

A couple of years ago, I vetted 4 of my picky and newer animals, voila--one of the 4, a newer picky albino, turned up with pinworm! The others were clear.

Internal parasites are not ALWAYS the answer to animal that miss meals, but they CAN be--so it's a very good idea to rule that out! The albino changed his ways after worming, and began taking food every time it was offered (though he still only eats live, lol). (We actually wormed the entire collection at that point, just to be on the safe side, but the other picky eaters maintained their picky ways...<lol>).

While contracting internal parasites is rare in a CBB collection, you never know when something might turn up, brought in by a rat or mouse, for example. Live rodents can carry parasites, and random chance can introduce a parasite into a feeder rodent colony. An insect that made its way into a cage and was eaten, for example...

Test 'em if you suspect anything amiss. It never hurts, and just might help.

Remember to keep cleanliness in mind, too. Don't transfer unsterilized equipment between bins/cages, wash your hands often, and NEVER re-use a rodent offered to any suspect animal. Keep new animals in quarantine for at least 90 days, and run a fecal on at least one animal from each group of newcomers from a single source--all of them if you can afford it.

whats so good about ASF's??

Thanks for all the tips, guys! I guess i'll keep trying the ASFs, but she really won't look twice at them as of yet. Live, stunned, p/k or f/t. No matter how warm. :(

She's had three fecals done so far. Two times we did the regular in-house kind at the vet's office, and we had the expensive send-away kind done as well. Far as we can tell, she's clean. Her bloodwork came back perfect, all of her organs seem to be in working order, she's just plain STUBBORN! It sounds horrible, but I almost wish it was something simple like parasites so we could just take care of it and be done with it!

I'm going to put her in a smaller tub with the crumpled newspaper. This truly sounds right up her alley, and I feel a little bit "duh" that I didn't think of it, lol!

Do you guys think that if I can convince her into ASFs that she'll eventually take f/t or p/k? I certainly wouldn't mind getting her onto ASFs as long as she'd just consistently TAKE them!

Smaller cages help most of the time. :D Good luck!

Okay, guys, I fed her in her big tub one last time (She took it, yay!) and moved her to a smaller one with all the crumpled newspaper she can handle! It looks like she's actually hunting in the evening now, so I'm going to wait a few more days until she's fully settled and give it another go! Thanks for the tips and I'll keep you posted!