5 Month Old BP Wont Eat

[emolinare]

I am a new exotic pet owner and I got my first ball python on May 24th. I selected him from PetSmart because he seemed very active. I knew that ball pythons had a reputation of being picky eaters so I thought that maybe and active snake that was flicking out his tongue wouldn't cause me much trouble. The pet store employee told me to feed him twice a week since he was only 3 or 4 months old when I purchased him.

He has not eaten once since I brought him home.

I was concerned after the first few weeks of his hunger strike and now it is very apparent that he is losing weight.

I have tried everything.

I have tried feeding him frozen fuzzies and pinkies, a live hour old gerbil, I have fed him in a large box, medium box, a small box, his tank, I hve made the frozen food "dance" around the tank/box for 30 minutes, I have left the frozen mouse in there for up to 3 days, I have left the live gerbil in there for over 24 hours and I have changed his heat lamps to a higher temperature. His tank is now 90 degrees with the humidity ranging from 40%-55%.

He shows no signs of shedding.

He is a 18 inch long 5 month old.

I am at my wits end. I had heard of this spray that you are supposed to spray on frozen food to make it smell good to a reptile, but I have no idea what that is and was unable to find anything like this at a pet store.

I have been told that perhaps I should have someone force feed him, but I am reluctant to do so because if he wont eat on his own how would force feeding him tempt him to eat on his on in the future? Also, I heard it could kill the snake.

Long story short-- Help.

[Animals As Leaders]

Ok, going to need more info

First, what are you housing him in? Hides?
What are your temps, hot side, and cold side? Humidity?

Can't tell you anything until then. Pics would be nice

[dr del]

Hi,

Also run through the checklist in the caresheet.


dr del

[Stewart_Reptiles]

The more details the better (enclosure size, hide size, thermometer types, etc?)

No matter what you do, DO NOT assist or force feed, if the animal is 5 months old he obviously knows how to eat.

You mention you are new to this, and in my experience when a new owner has feeding issues, especially with a young animal that should be eating voraciously due to it’s age, it’s often husbandry related.

So the first thing to do is to look into your husbandry.

Second is to be consistent with your prey if he was fed mice, feed mice, avoid feeding gerbils (alternative preys are generally not the answer and with gerbils could become an issue)

You also need to feed the right prey size, pinkies, fuzzies are not the right size for a 5 months old BP and their small size can make it hard for a BP to recognize them as a prey.

Your best bet at this point in time would be live once he is consistent and well established than you can attempt to switch.

[emolinare]

The tank is a 20 gallon long. So it is about 30" by 12" by 12". The one side of the tank, with his hide (http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/dcor/rock-dens.htm it is the first hide on this list) is now around 90 degrees (because some one suggested that the previous temp. of 80 was too cool for him). He spends about half of his time in his hide and the other half on the other side of his tank underneath a stick a bought for him to climb on. That side of the tank has the night lamp which is around 70 degrees. Like I said before the humidity is between 40-55%. His water bowl is in the middle of the tank and it is constantly filled.

I will try to get some pictures shortly.

What do you mean "look into your husbandry"? I as a new snake owner I really need more specific advice than that.

What size food should I be feeding him? He wont touch any of it. His head is smaller than my thumb.

[RichsBallPythons]

at his age drop him to a 10 gallon tank or 15qt tub. Leave him alone for 1 week and then offer a live sm adult mouse. Stand back from the tub so your now gawking but supervising. Some are shy when being watched and will stop to see what your doing/moving.


Want to shoot for a 78-80 cool side and 88-90 warm side humidity you have is fine. Need to have 2 identical hides one on each side.

Heres and idea of a setup you can go off of.

[Reptile King]

A good rule of thumb is to feed your ball python a rodent that is no bigger than the widest part of it's body. I also recommend getting two identical hides. On for the warm side and the other for the cool side.

After your ball python has settled in for a week or so with your temps and humidity being spot on offer him/her a live mouse at night. Because ball pythons are nocturnal they are most active at night.

Good luck!

[theartofsolitude]

how are you thawing your feeds? i usually just fill a ziplock with hot water (from normal faucet, the hottest it can get) and let it thaw completely. i leave the rat/mice there for like approx 20 mins and oh, i close the zip lock just so the temp of the water would somehow hold up. i use a napkin to absorb excessive water from my feed (you dont need to dry them, i just dont like them dripping wet kinda thing). but be sure to be quick on this just so the feed wont get cold and try to estimate the possible temperature of the prey. (you will have an idea if you hold the zip lock and feel the warm water if its too hot or just right)

then what i do is i put the mice/rat in front of my snake, really close to him like prolly 1/8 of an inch and he starts flipping his tongue and tags it. i now have 2 ball pythons so far this process works every single time. and oh i bought mine from petsmart and petco.

[Reptile King]

I got my male normal ball python about a week after he hatched. I fed him his first meal. After 3 live hoppers in 3 weeks I transitioned him over to frozen thawed. He ate frozen/thawed for the next 8 months. Then all of a sudden he wouldn't touch a frozen/thawed mouse or rat for anything. He will only eat live now. It took me 2 months to figure that out. Silly python!

[rabernet]

The tank is a 20 gallon long. So it is about 30" by 12" by 12". The one side of the tank, with his hide (http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/dcor/rock-dens.htm it is the first hide on this list) is now around 90 degrees (because some one suggested that the previous temp. of 80 was too cool for him). He spends about half of his time in his hide and the other half on the other side of his tank underneath a stick a bought for him to climb on. That side of the tank has the night lamp which is around 70 degrees. Like I said before the humidity is between 40-55%. His water bowl is in the middle of the tank and it is constantly filled.

I will try to get some pictures shortly.

What do you mean "look into your husbandry"? I as a new snake owner I really need more specific advice than that.

What size food should I be feeding him? He wont touch any of it. His head is smaller than my thumb.

Husbandry is the care of the animal - everything about how you have it set-up. From the size of the enclosure (many new owners house in enclosures that are too large and overwhelming for a baby for example), to how you measure the temps (analog dial thermometers are known to be very inaccurate), where you measure the temps (is your DIGITAL thermometer mounted high in the enclosure, or at ground level where the snake spends its time), are the hides tight and snug so that your snake can feel it touching it on all sides when it's inside of it?

Those things and more are part of your husbandry. Take a look at the caresheet that dr del posted earlier in the thread and scroll down to "why won't my snake eat?" section for a list of husbandry related items that could be the root cause of why your snake isn't eating for you.