BP Afraid of Rats?

[RiA MaU]

I was wondering if it's possible my BP is afraid of rats. She fed live the first months I had her simply because she was used to it. That's what she was fed with her previous owner. She ate fine for me for the first 10 months I had her, even after having to move. Come October, she stopped eating. I tried frozen in hoped that this would be a good time to switch her and I believe I've even posted about it here. I was eventually just going with the answer that she may be fasting despite being small. Well the weather is warming up already and she's still not eating. She's losing a bit of weight finally and acting active and hungry again, so I'm beginning to worry. She's never been scratched/bitten and every feeding has been tightly supervised. Her husbandry is still on point, I double check it constantly. Every time I try to feed, live or thawed, she flinches at the sight as if she was traumatized or something. The sight of a rat these days just makes her cower and flee. I'm not sure what the issue could be or if this is normal fasting behavior. Is it possible she's scared of them? Like I said, she's never been attacked. She's missed the first strike once or twice, but that's it. She always goes for food instantly when she's eating.

[redshepherd]

Just curious, how much does she weigh? How often are you offering?

When my snakes fast/refuse food, it'll almost look like they're scared of it. They don't "flee" to the other side of the enclosure or anything, but they'll flinch away and back up into their hides sometimes. When they get over their fast, they hone in and slam it again like normal. It could just be she's still fasting, if she's a sub-adult or adult size. I'd offer only once every other week during this time. Offering too often while they're fasting seems to stress them out.

[RiA MaU]

I don't have a scale, so I don't know exactly how much she weighs, I just know she's only maybe half the size of the full-growns I've seen and is getting thinner than she was 4-5 months ago. After she refused food for the first month and a half, I only offered ever two weeks. This last two attempts, I've waited a month between offers. I'm hoping that's all it is, because this is the first pet I've ever had to myself and I would hate if it were because I'm doing something wrong.

[redshepherd]

Oh darn. Maybe post a picture, and people here can evaluate whether she's thin or not? A scale is a good thing to invest in with keeping ball pythons, to keep track of weight like this.

[RiA MaU]

Yeah... I just haven't had a chance since I had to move. I found out I was pregnant literally RIGHT after I got her set up in the new place and life is heeectiiic. I know that's no excuse, LOL. This website is telling me I don't gave permission to add attachments to my posts, so I'm not sure how I would post a pic.

[Matt850]

I had a similar situation with my first BP. When I got her she was 700ish grams and the breeder had her eating live rats. I never have got her to feed on rats (dead or alive), they like to snuggle up beneath/beside her and go to sleep. After about two months I tried switching to adult mice. It worked immediately and (unfortunately) now she won't eat anything but live mice at the cost of 4-5 per week. I have tried several times to get her to switch back but without any luck. She is 1250 grams and doing great now about a year later. I am still pretty new to ball pythons but I thought I might share my experience.

[RiA MaU]

Good to know. I hope this isn't the case. I think it she continues to lose weight or if she still doesn't eat by April or so, I'll take her into a vet. We just don't have any that know snakes here, which means I'll have to make a long trip to get her looked at. I'm also worried because she'll have to be through another move in the Summer (I'm having a baby in May and need a bigger apartment/house).

[RiA MaU]

Update: It's now April and I've tried everything I can think of. I only offer once a month. I'm still trying both f/t and live to get some sort of a response. I'm attempting to feed f/t tonight, but she's not taking. She approaches the rat like she's interested and about to strike, but never actually does it. After staring it down for a while, she just slides past it and doesn't care about it anymore. The only safe thing I haven't tried yet is leaving the thawed rat in the enclosure overnight. I don't know if that will work since she's never taken a f/t rat before and I know they hunt through temperature. Will she eat it later if it cools down? Is it safe or will it grow a bunch of harmful bacteria after a couple hours? I can't find anything online about that specific approach. I can't really get her to a vet right now since we don't have one who's worked with reptiles in close proximity. Is assist (NOT force) feeding an option and if so, when? I'm really worrying now that it's spring.

[cchardwick]

Personally I'd offer once a week, not once a month. I think even with adults most people average about 10 days between feedings. You may be up against the 1000 gram wall, seems like all my ball pythons hit that size around 950 grams or so and stop eating for weeks or months at a time. Not to worry, they will start up again. You may also want to try to offer a fresh killed mouse instead of a rat, or even an ASF. Seems to get my picky snakes eating again when I change things up. Also, you should really get a scale to make sure the rodents are no bigger than 10% of the snakes body weight. I fed some over sized rodents before I had my scale and the snakes ate them but went off of food right after that. Now I'll never go above 10% and my snakes are regular eaters again.

[RiA MaU]

I plan on getting a scale, but I'm also budgeting very tightly for a newborn right now. I don't think the size is an issue, though as she ate them fine for months before she stopped eating. I'm only offering monthly because I read to do so while they're fasting like this (she hasn't eaten since October). I just wish I knew how much she weighed before this happened so I could tell if she really lost weight... Word from the friend she lives with is that she might have eaten, though. I've never tried leaving the thawed rat in the enclosure, so I don't know what the chances are she just hid it, but my friend said she didn't see the rat anymore last time she went upstairs. Would a snake hide a rat instead of eating it by chance?