ball python wont eat

[armison89]

my female adult ball python hasnt eatin since july. she seems to be losing muscle mass. i got her from a friend who got her at the hamburg reptile expo. she wouldnt eat for him or me. i dont know what to do.

[KatStoverReptiles]

I have read that gerbils are like chocolate to balls. Perhaps try changing her prey up to see if you can't entice her with something new?

[thedarkwolf25]

Are you feeding her live or F/T? If F/T you could try live and see if she takes that. Also how old is she and can you give us some info on your setup? Things like temps/humidity/size/substrate. All that info can help find out why she might not be eating.

And as Poundhound2 said Gerbils (or scenting a rat with gerbil bedding) can help get a picky BP to eat.

[armison89]

ivetried rats mice and gerbils all live even left them over night but she sleeps with them when i do. she in a 46 qt tub abt 80% humidity pine shaving right now i had her on paper towel b4. the temp is 65-70 cool side and 85 hot spot. shes in my bed room and has been 4 a month. i thought it might be the scent of the male near by but she still wont eat. idk how old she is all i know is the guy from hamburg said she laid 8 eggs last year. shes abt 40" and 1500 grams she was 1600 grams 2 months ago. she shed for the first time in 4 months last week.

[TheWinWizard]

Too cold raise the temps. 80 cool side, 90 hot side.

[thedarkwolf25]

ivetried rats mice and gerbils all live even left them over night but she sleeps with them when i do. she in a 46 qt tub abt 80% humidity pine shaving right now i had her on paper towel b4. the temp is 65-70 cool side and 85 hot spot. shes in my bed room and has been 4 a month. i thought it might be the scent of the male near by but she still wont eat. idk how old she is all i know is the guy from hamburg said she laid 8 eggs last year. shes abt 40" and 1500 grams she was 1600 grams 2 months ago. she shed for the first time in 4 months last week.

Those temps are a bit too low, you want 88-94 on the hot side with around 79-80 on the cool side. Also that humidity is a bit too high unless she is in shed or breeding, that can come down to around 50-60%. Since she has bred before it could be that she is fasting due to the fact that it's breeding season, however I have never bred BPs and I may be wrong about that.

At any rate raise those temps a bit, and btw DON'T leave live prey in the tank with her unsupervised, EVER! If one of those rats gets a good bite it can do serious damage or even kill her. If you're going to do live prey make sure you can watch her while the prey is in there. As for feeding IF she isn't fasting due to breeding season (since you said she is near a male this is the likely cause I think) you can try to scent the prey with vanilla extract. I saw this recently on SnakeBytesTV and it worked well. Keep us posted on how she does.

[BroknBusted]

The OP stated she is also kept in pine shavings. Am I wrong or is pine a HUGE no no for BP's ?

[Freakie_frog]

How big and old is this animal.. Sometime moving them to a smaller tub helps with their need for security and will encourage them to eat..

[Sammy412]

Yeah, pine shavings are a no=no. Go back to paper towels or newspaper.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I have read that gerbils are like chocolate to balls. Perhaps try changing her prey up to see if you can't entice her with something new?

Offering an alternative prey especially such as gerbils is rarely the right answer, especially when the prey is expensive, not always easy to find, capable of inflicting more damage than a rat or mouse, and hard (almost impossible) to switch back from, forcing the owner to maintain their animal on an expensive prey which make rehoming (should it happen) almost impossible.

In most cases is related to husbandry?

To the OP

Given she is an adult she can go of food for months the key here in your case is to correct a few thing to see if it can help her resume feeding a little faster.

First I would put her in a 32 quarts tub the more secure the better.

Second I would address those temps, they are nowhere near where they should be, cool side should not fall under 75 either, ideally you want to maintain temps of 78/82 on the cool side and 88/92 on the warm side.

I would also recommend no handling until the animal eats for you.

Now those changes are necessary however she might still not resume feeding right away since they often stop eating during breeding season as well, however you need to make sure your husbandry is optimal.

It's not uncommon for adult to stop eating after a change of environment (they are more likely to do so than younger individuals)

Adults can fast for a long time and still hardly loose any weight, if she does lose a lot of weight (and you need to monitor her weight) than something else might be going on and a fecal would be highly recommended.