Feeding Issues

[JMoriarty]

I have a problem. 2 of my 3 balls have gone on feeding strikes. They both used to be good eaters. Then, my male pastel would only eat if you dropped the mouse and left the room. Now, neither of them are wanting to eat. Both eat live, unfortunately. I don't know what to do. The pastel is getting thin. He's only at 335g and he is I think a sept 13 baby.

They are kept in tubs. The warm side, with the uth, fluctuates between 89-91. The cool side is between 75-80. The humidity has been a constant battle. I need to put more holes in. It's sitting at about 80% right now. They're on ReptiBark right now. I've tried aspen, ecoearth, and an ecoearth aspen blend. I think I like the reptibark best.

I'm just at a lost right now on what to do for them. Any advise is much appreciated.

[Poilkjmnb20]

How many hides do you have in each of their homes? And don't be too worried about weight unless there is significant visible weight loss. Humidity needs to come down (I now realized you already addressed that whoops!) and the cool side should probably not dip below 78 if possible. And NEVER leave a live feeder in the tank with your snakes unsupervised. Back away from the tank if needed, but never leave it out of sight with your snake.

The final answer is probably just because it's mating season! Ball Pythons really have a tendency to go off feed during the mating season. Good luck!

[Alize-LowRod]

I just got a new little girl ball python pied from a breeder on Thursday, He fed her live medium mice, and shipped her to me from WI (i live in IN).
Any way. I tried to give her a frozen/thawed and warmed up (with water in a bag to keep it dry) rat pup since she is a little smaller then my little boy I got about 2 months ago who is about a month older and eating frozen rat fuzzies with out any issues, when he started on live rat pups from the breeder I got him from.
Just wondering if she could be just trying to get used to the new home set up or may be still a little scared from her shipment, did I warm the food up to much or too little, or am I just freaking out for no reason on her refusing the frozen for now. I just would rather her be on frozen like my other Ball Pythons (I have 3 counting her, the oldest is about 11y old and is my fiance) I feel safer if they have frozen.
I did however get her to take a live rat pup after 2 days of trying with frozen with no luck. With the frozen, she would smell them (tong going like crazy) and get into the striking position but would never take them no mater what, even tried to lightly rub her body with them as I wiggled it on the end of the tongs, but she still would not take it like how my little boy dues.
Any pointers and insight would help on getting her to eat frozen.
I have been helping my fiance care for his older ball python for over 3 years now, and I fell in love with the pieds so got me a boy and girl now of my own. I don't know everything about them yet, but know plenty to care for them and just would like to get as much info as I can so I am a good Ball Python Mommy.

(we also have lots of other pets, as well as 4 human kids)

Thanks for the help in advance.

[CptJack]

You are trying to change from both live to frozen and rice to mats at one go. You have had her less than a week, she was shipped and she is a baby.

IMO, yeah - you ultimately want her on frozen/thawed rats. Great!

I'm not an expert but that's expecting a whole lot of change REALLY fast.

A-) Let her settle - seriously. Leave her alone - no feeding attempts, no handling, no nothing, for a week.
B-) Give her a meal or two that she is used to so you know that she has something in her and is growing, and that her refusal isn't husbandry related.
C-) Get her onto frozen/thawed.
D-) Get her onto rats.

The last two could be combined, but leaving her alone and making sure she is feeding for you and there's not something off in how you are keeping her (temps, hides, whatever) that is putting her off her food and knowing that she WILL eat and is just being picky about food preferences are pretty vital.


Dangit, mobile cut your post off-sorry. I saw that she ate a live pup. Keep offering the FT, don't freak out if it takes a little while to switch and offer live if she continues to be really stubborn. Patience, persistence, willingness to feed live to keep her healthy if it comes to that. Watch her weight.

[Alize-LowRod]

Yeah she took the live after I tried the frozen 2 dif days. 3rd day gave her live just to see if she would take it, to rule out that she was not hungry. and she did take it after I offered it the 2nd time within 4hrs.
I have only held her 1x since I got her and that was to get her out of her bag they shipped her in, knowing that I am not to hold her at least the first week I have her to let her settle.
My two pieds (4m and 3m --- She is the 3m) have 2 hiding spots in their 55gal tanks. One in the hotter area of the tank and one in the cooler part of the tank. along with water bole in the cooler part. I keep their 55gal tanks between 88-91 in the hot spot, and between 75 and 80 on the cool side. Humidity is normally between 56-60%.
I will just keep working with her on the frozen/rats a little at a time, could also be that she is not used to the tongs, I had one of my other buddies tell me, so may have to first get her used to them holding her food...
I think part of it was just me freeking out since the guy I got her from in WI said he last fed her about 12 days before, and I am used to feeding my other two ever 7 to 8 days tops. (Darn Mommy gene -lol) even tho I know they can go about a month when that little before you have to start to worry.
At least she has something in her belly till I next feed her in a little less then 7 days.

[JMoriarty]

It's hard to maintain an ambient temp of 78 with uth. They're in the warmest room in the house (my bedroom), but I live in an apartment, so it's not like I can keep them in their own room, ya know? At the time I was leaving the feeder in there with him, I didn't know that they wouldn't defend themselves. I don't do this now. Also, at the time, he was in an aquarium. Now he's in a tub. The things I've learned from being here amaze me. When I had balls growing up, I just went off what they told me at the petstore. You would think that they would have some sort of regulation on the information that you're told there. Everything they told me was wrong!

Anyways, the female isn't visibly underweight but she's only a few months old, so that's what worries me with her. With the male, he's definitely looking lean. He's got an obvious "tee pee" shape to him. I'll have to look back at my records, but they've both dropped weight. Sigh... darn finicky eaters... They'll be the death of me lol.