First feed question.

[SlashAndThrash]

Hello everyone, this is my first post. These forums have been a tremendous asset in preparing to bring my ball python home, so thanks for that.

I brought my first bp home last sunday, and over 4 days hes taken pretty well to his new habitat and seems very relaxed and comfortable, so on this 5th day i decided to try feeding him a F/T rat pup. I put him in a seperate box, thawed a pup in hot water, and dangled it with tongs in front of him. He immediately struck at it about 3 times and investigated it but never went for the wrap or ate it.

My question is if its normal for it to attack its food but not try to eat it. Is he scared of it or stressed out or could he just not be hungry?

Any insight is appreciated, thank you!

[JustinGatCat]

Feed in his habitat. Moving to a feeding box is stressful, especially for a new snake. I’d also wait another few days before feeding again. I waited a week before mine fed


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[SlashAndThrash]

Cool, thanks. I was going to try again day after tomorrow inside his habitat.

[Sunnieskys]

Feed in his enclosure. I used to feed outside too, I'm fact was adamant and boy I was wrong. As said above, it creates stress for your new beep.

[Godzilla78]

If he attacks his food without eating it, it means he is defensive. He is reacting out of fear, and seeing it as a threat instead of food.

I have one difficult snake that I haven't been able to switch yet to thawed, as he associates the thawed rat with ME, and he is scared of me, so he strikes at the thawed rat like it is me, and then withdraws. If I put a live mouse in with him, he eats it. I have only got him to eat a thawed rodent once so far, and I am still working with him though. He is my only fearful one, I adopted him and I suspect he was abused by previous owner's kids. I call him "snappy", but we are making progress with him.

[Chinnamasta]

There are a few things you can try. One idea in particular is kinda gross, but I have heard that rubbing the prey in dirty mouse/rat bedding will entice the snake. Also, have you tried feeding mice? I had one female that wouldn't eat mice, but took a rat immediately when I offered one, some just have different preferences. A last resort would be pithing, if it comes to that I would do some research on it first.

Also as others have said, moving to feed is unnecessary and food aggression is a myth. I myself used to feed in separate tubs, now I feed in their enclosures and have never been bitten

[cchardwick]

If he is striking three times he is aggressively biting the mouse, not trying to eat it. If I get an aggressive bite I'll usually give up on the second strike. The poor snake is scared and defensive. What I like to do is to pick her up and handle her for about an hour and build some trust. I have a snake that I never handled and she still is defensive to this day. She almost never eats frozen thawed because when I open up the tub she looks me in the eye and goes into defensive mode. However, if I slip a live rodent in the tub she eats it right away because she doesn't see me. Really its me that she is afraid of.

I picked up a baby clown hatchling that was the same way, when she strikes at me or a rodent I pick her up and handle her for a few minutes until she chills out. She needs to know that I'm here to help, not to harm her. Seems to be working for me, just need to handle the snakes a bit more. Sometimes they are just in a grumpy mood, for example when they are in shed or if you quickly pull a hide from above them. You have to read your snakes, if they are just in a bad mood then leave them alone. It's not too much of a big deal with ball pythons but with other large snakes (retics) you have to read them well. If they 'buck' when you touch them then leave them alone, or move very slowly at first, make sure they are fully awake before you pick them up LOL. A large retic that bucks hard a couple times when you touch her is best left alone for at least a few hours.