Finally Past "The Wall"

[meowmeowkazoo]

My spider girl, Charlotte, has certainly tried my patience over the years.

I've had her since she was a hatchling, and she has always been a picky eater. She's only ever eaten mice, and only live ones. For a while I got her to take rats, but then she stopped eating altogether.

And of course near the 1000 gram mark, she hit "the wall" that female ball pythons often hit where they start refusing food. She refused for months, and then would only accept mice. At her new size, the cost of mice was adding up, and when I bred them myself the stink was horrific. My only other option was to drive 45 minutes away to a man who gave them to me for free. Which was great, but he fed them on what looked like sugar cereal (fruit loops?), so they weren't the healthiest mice around.

I was finally able to get a breeding trio of african soft fur rats, which Charlotte readily accepted as a substitute to the mice. However, she would only eat hoppers, and the adults seemed to intimidate her.

It got to the point where I put her up for sale, because I was so frustrated, especially when my other ball pythons were such good eaters. I had tried so many things. A hide, multiple hides, no hides, different subtrates, etc.

Finally, as I was observing her failing to strike and kill yet another live meal, a thought occurred to me. Her wobble is only really noticeable when she is hunting, and she seemed very...insecure. Sometimes she would strike and miss, and if the prey happened to get too close she would recoil and hide. Even when she did manage to kill something, she was very awkward in the way she would try to eat it. I wondered if having more space to maneuver and hunt would help her feel more secure.

So I bought a 70 quart bin (she was in a 41 quart), and prepped it for her. Gave her a few days to settle down, and then offered an ADULT soft fur rat. Just to see what would happen. She poked her head out of her hide, and within seconds she had struck and coiled around it. It was like witnessing a miracle. Suddenly she was a confident hunter and all of the shyness and clumsiness was gone.

She has eaten three adult soft furs this week alone. She has missed a strike once or twice, but immediately corrects and catches her prey. She has turned into a ravenous beast, and I may actually have to purchase some more adult soft furs from an outside source before she gobbles up everything I have.

[1nstinct]

im so glad everything worked out for you! my albino hit the 700gram wall

[Salamander Rising]

My spider girl, Charlotte, has certainly tried my patience over the years.

I've had her since she was a hatchling, and she has always been a picky eater. She's only ever eaten mice, and only live ones. For a while I got her to take rats, but then she stopped eating altogether.

And of course near the 1000 gram mark, she hit "the wall" that female ball pythons often hit where they start refusing food. She refused for months, and then would only accept mice. At her new size, the cost of mice was adding up, and when I bred them myself the stink was horrific. My only other option was to drive 45 minutes away to a man who gave them to me for free. Which was great, but he fed them on what looked like sugar cereal (fruit loops?), so they weren't the healthiest mice around.

I was finally able to get a breeding trio of african soft fur rats, which Charlotte readily accepted as a substitute to the mice. However, she would only eat hoppers, and the adults seemed to intimidate her.

It got to the point where I put her up for sale, because I was so frustrated, especially when my other ball pythons were such good eaters. I had tried so many things. A hide, multiple hides, no hides, different subtrates, etc.

Finally, as I was observing her failing to strike and kill yet another live meal, a thought occurred to me. Her wobble is only really noticeable when she is hunting, and she seemed very...insecure. Sometimes she would strike and miss, and if the prey happened to get too close she would recoil and hide. Even when she did manage to kill something, she was very awkward in the way she would try to eat it. I wondered if having more space to maneuver and hunt would help her feel more secure.

So I bought a 70 quart bin (she was in a 41 quart), and prepped it for her. Gave her a few days to settle down, and then offered an ADULT soft fur rat. Just to see what would happen. She poked her head out of her hide, and within seconds she had struck and coiled around it. It was like witnessing a miracle. Suddenly she was a confident hunter and all of the shyness and clumsiness was gone.

She has eaten three adult soft furs this week alone. She has missed a strike once or twice, but immediately corrects and catches her prey. She has turned into a ravenous beast, and I may actually have to purchase some more adult soft furs from an outside source before she gobbles up everything I have.

Oh, how I feel your pain.

My Bee and Fire boys refuse anything but live.
The live has to be medium [and no larger] male white mice and they stop eating if I dare take them out of their vivariums and put them tubs.
The Fire ended up evicting another snake because I had to totally recreate his original environment, exactly as it was when he first came here.
[thankfully, I never throw anything away]
The Bee tolerates aspen or newspaper but the Fire must have his repticarpet or he goes into anorectic recluse mode.

My Pastel girl zoomed past the 500 gr wall and never looked back.
She'll eat on any day that ends in a "y".
The YB who's about the same age was a good feeder but she's been snooty since she passed 500gr and only eats sometimes.
[but seems to be still putting on weight...go figger]

Feeding day is frequently maddening.

[angllady2]

Feeding day is frequently maddening.

Welcome to the wonderful world of ball pythons.

I have dedicated mousers, dedicated ratters, dedicated ASFers, and a few garbage disposals. I never know who is going to eat what. This week 7 eat mice, 5 eat rats, 10 take ASF. Next time, 12 take mice, no one eats a rat, 3 eat ASF and the rest refuse. The time after everyone takes an ASF but one, and she's holding out for a hamster. Then we hit the wonderful week when 3 snakes eat, and everyone else want's nothing to do with any of it.

Gale

[Andybill]

Crossing my fingers that the most feeding pains I have are just my 2 mouser dudes who I hope to convert to rats soon.... All of my girls eat like hogs! Even my new enchi girl who fed immediately only 2 days after I got her! Yay! I am especially hopeful that my pastel girl (900g) continues to eat like a pig in hopes of breeding her this coming fall....

[Mike41793]

Well not to be "that guy" but 6 out of 7 of my balls eat f/t. (Still working on getting my pastel girl to f/t but she takes live rats regularly). I dont even have to wiggle the f/t rodents for any of them. I just plop it in the tub and they come get it. Also both the new girls i brought home a few weeks ago took f/t for me the very first time i offered and they were eating live at the breeders house. Either im uber lucky or ive got some sorta magic touch lol...

Glad to hear you figured out what works for your girl and glad to hear shes eating again. 99.9999% of the time its that the cage is too big and stressing them out. Go figure yours would be the one in a million that prefers a huge tub lmao!

[eatgoodfood]

I feel your pain, I have two picky eaters (both pastels) and one that either eats like a pig for a couple months, then not at all for a couple months. My female pastel, who is around 1kg has not eaten in a few months, I have always had problems getting her to feed, next attempt will be on ASF's. The pastel male, well he went off feed when I had him in a terrarium... I have since moved him into a new rack, so hopefully he starts eating again soon.

[Salamander Rising]

Welcome to the wonderful world of ball pythons.

I have dedicated mousers, dedicated ratters, dedicated ASFers, and a few garbage disposals. I never know who is going to eat what. This week 7 eat mice, 5 eat rats, 10 take ASF. Next time, 12 take mice, no one eats a rat, 3 eat ASF and the rest refuse. The time after everyone takes an ASF but one, and she's holding out for a hamster. Then we hit the wonderful week when 3 snakes eat, and everyone else want's nothing to do with any of it.

Gale

LOL!

Poor Gale....

[I hope you have a Boa....wonderful garbage disposals]

[DooLittle]

I have two garbage disposals. My bee, and my boa. Neither of have them has missed a single meal, eat in shed and all. My bee needs to be weighed, but a couple weeks ago was at 800. Most of the rest of the gang eats fairly regular, except my CL mojave. Just when I think I have him figured out and he has eaten that way a few weeks in a row, he decides not to eat for a week or two, so who knows. Such is life with ball pythons.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

[Salamander Rising]

I have two garbage disposals. My bee, and my boa. Neither of have them has missed a single meal, eat in shed and all. My bee needs to be weighed, but a couple weeks ago was at 800. Most of the rest of the gang eats fairly regular, except my CL mojave. Just when I think I have him figured out and he has eaten that way a few weeks in a row, he decides not to eat for a week or two, so who knows. Such is life with ball pythons.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

My best trash can is my Dumerils.
There's nothing she won't eat.

One of my live mice dropped dead and I hated to waste it and even though it's far too small prey for her, she just sort of happily sucked it in.

She always gets the small rats that the others don't feel like eating, too.
If the BPs haven't eaten them within a few hours, I toss them to her.

On feeding night, even though she's had her own mega-rat, she'll wait with her face against her sliding window for hours, hoping somebody is feeling too picky to eat.