6 month BP - underweight, active, striking/not eating

[HerpingLVT]

Hey all! I'm a new BP owner - I got Millie when she was 5 weeks old. She's about 5.25 months now, around 12-13". She ate for F/T for me a few times when I first got her (about once a week). However, recently she has stopped taking food. She'll strike and constrict, but then drop the prey and move on. If I leave the mouse in there, she ignores it and I take it out in the morning. Some days she doesn't even strike and will just stare at it and focus on trying to get out of the tank.

She also is way more active than I pictured a ball python being - she likes to try to scale the glass walls and push her nose against the mesh on the top. She hasn't hurt herself yet - but I am worried about her hurting her skin.

She's in a 10 gallon tank with coconut dirt bedding. She has a water bowl on the cool side with a hide, and a fake fern plant to take up some room. Hot side has a big hide with a smaller one in it that she spends most of her hiding time in. Cool side is around 70-75 (my roommates like to keep our house freezing...), warm just got moved down to around 80-85 (was previously more like 90). I use an UTH and a red 75W bulb. Humidity is 60-85%. I tend not to handle her too much - maybe three or four times in the past two months because I didn't want to stress her more.

I usually use fuzzies as that seems to be the best body-size-to-snake-size ratio - but when she was eating okay she did eat the smallest rat option which I was excited about! She shed in two pieces about two-three weeks ago - the inappetence started about two months ago...

I really don't want to make her an unhealthy weight.. I work at a veterinary hospital - so I'm hopefully bringing a scale home, or bringing her in for a quick five second visit to get a weight on her. What should she weigh a little over five months old?

Here is a photo and video (below) of her that I took earlier today so her BCS can be evaluated!


https://imgur.com/nbrVOLE

[Zincubus]

Hey ... it’s very promising that she already ate for you so ... I’d consider using the tried and trusted hairdryer method .

I’ll send it to you by PM now


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[Zincubus]

Oh and one other little trick is to give the mouse / rat a little tug when she’s constricting !!

It usually makes them more determined and they immediately constrict even tighter and start eating ..


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[bcr229]

She's thin but not bad.

I would upgrade the tank; a 10-gallon isn't really appropriate for a juvenile ball python anyway.

I'd suggest something like this since with the four latches your snake will not be able to push up the long side of the lid:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hefty-25-Ga...Lid/1002612460

It is a lot cheaper than another fish tank + lid, easy to clean, will retain heat and humidity, and you don't have to worry about replacing heat bulbs every few months or constantly spraying to keep up humidity.

Use a large heat pad on each side since your house is so cold, and with thermostats set one UTH to warm the tub floor to 80*F for the cool side, set the other to 90*F on the warm side. Put a hide over each UTH and a large water bowl between them, and you shouldn't have problems retaining humidity. You can use either newspaper or aspen as substrate.

[XpensiveWino]

I agree with @bcr229 on the tub advice. The red light and low temps are where I would look at making adjustments first. Here's two helpful videos on setup and temps:

Tank setup details: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7P...sW6A7Xw/videos

Tanks vs Tubs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7P...sW6A7Xw/videos

Whichever method you choose, getting those temps up and regulated to the specs BCR229 noted will help immensely.

[HerpingLVT]

Hey ... it’s very promising that she already ate for you so ... I’d consider using the tried and trusted hairdryer method .

I’ll send it to you by PM now


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Thanks so much for this! I got her to eat that night! I can't believe I wasted so many mice trying other things...

I got her all settled in a 20 gallon long tank tonight with a bigger water dish and more hides. She's roaming around a bunch but it's a new environment for her so I'm not too worried right now!

Thanks for everyone's advice!

[Zincubus]

Thanks so much for this! I got her to eat that night! I can't believe I wasted so many mice trying other things...

I got her all settled in a 20 gallon long tank tonight with a bigger water dish and more hides. She's roaming around a bunch but it's a new environment for her so I'm not too worried right now!

Thanks for everyone's advice!

Brilliant news about feeding !!

Yes you’re right not to worry about her .. they will sometimes slither around for a day or two when they get a new home ..



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