Not eating, underweight ball python

[dakski]

A few things quickly.

1. I saw in another thread that you thought you might have snake mites, but you never responded yay or nay. I assume you do not, but it goes without saying that would be a reason for a snake not to eat.

2. Hot side too hot and cool side too cold. Lower hot side to 87-90F tops and bump cool side to 77-80F. If you are not sure how to do that, ask. It sounds like you have a UTH for the hot side, but that does nothing for air temps. Fix this if you want to start eliminating reasons why you BP might not be eating. Husbandry is number one. Once that's dialed in and if your BP still doesn't eat, you can start troubleshooting other things.

Being that the hot side is a little hot and the cool side a little cold, your BP probably isn't sure what to do. Additionally, not having a gradient (which it sounds like because of using only a UTH - correct me if I am wrong), is bad too. If it's 92F and then 74F next to it, that's not good.

3. Your snake looks okay, but if your BP lost 20% of his/her body weight, I'd be concerned. I think fixing husbandry and getting proper sized meals (see below) will get your BP back on track.

4. Do not force feed a snake that's been eating on its own.

5. BP's are not stretchy. The older they get the smaller the meals can be to maintain or even grow. Young BP's can eat larger meals proportionately and likely will more often, but not huge meals. 20% of body weight is insane for a BP. Can they, probably, but is it good, absolutely not and will probably cause them to fast for a while. When I feed a growing BP, I really don't want to notice a bump after feeding, and if I do, it should be gone in 24 hours completely. My 2KG adult female BP eats a small rat every 2 weeks and fasts in the winter. A little goes a long way with adults, but young ones are efficient too and shouldn't' be pushed.

Other pythons, like Carpet Pythons, can eat 1.5-2X their girth, but not BP's.

I would also be really careful feeding larger meals with your husbandry off. Regurgitation is worse than not eating.

6. You BP is probably too young and small to fast on his/her own accord right now. Something is wrong. I think it's your husbandry and feeding techniques.

7. Leave him/her alone. Stop weighing and taking your BP out regularly. Take out only to clean the tank, don't handle, but put in a holding container instead. This is a new snake now. 3 consecutive meals without any issues or skipping and then you can start to handle again. Also, you should consider putting this BP on quarantine, or any snake that you have health concerns with. Can't hurt, but if that's difficult, and you did when you got him/her and your other snakes, I would be less concerned.


Get your husbandry fixed, ensure no obvious health issues, and feed appropriate sized meals. I like the chart Bogertophis showed you earlier in the thread for size of prey up to medium rats, but think once on small rats, BP's should be fed every 2-3 weeks. I also had bad luck feeding mediums as it meant sporadic feeding. Smalls meant regular eating schedule. Again, my girl is 2KG and will skip meals if fed mediums. Often 2-3 if offered every 2 weeks. Small meals are easier to digest and if you want a BP to be healthy and happy, smaller more frequent and regular meals are better than larger infrequent meals.

Any questions just ask.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[newbpowner4]

Hi thank you for your response. I did not find any other bugs in any of my snakes' enclosures or on their bodies/faces, so I assumed it was just a wood mite or something else. As far as I know I definitely don't have mites.

The hot side is 89 degrees Fahrenheit so that is in the correct range. The thermostat is set to 92F only because after the heat travels through the bottom of the tub and the paper towels it is only 89F, according to my temp gun.

As for warming the cool side, yes I am not sure how to do that. I've heard about ceramic heat emitters but I was under the impression they can't be used with tubs, only terrariums. Additionally, I have 5 other BPs all with the same temps and they eat just fine for me. This specific BP used to eat just fine for me as well at these particular temps, I haven't changed anything.

There is a bit of a gradient, the cool side is 75F (1/3 of the enclosure), the middle 1/3 is between 77-81F, and the warm side outside the hide is 87F and inside the hide is 89F. The ambient temp in my home is set to 75.2F so I'm not even sure how/why the ambient temp in the enclosure isn't at least 75 as well (it's 74).

To point #3, I'm glad you think he at least looks okay. The maximum weight I've got on record for him is 216g which was a few days after feeding the 38g rat so some of that weight was certainly the weight of the food/poop. My most recent weigh in for him is 193g. So he's lost about 10% so far, but again, some of that was food weight/poop. I don't know if you saw this already but he was 72g when I received him on Dec. 6, 2020.

To your point #5, and based on both Bogertophis and your answers, I'm thinking he is fasting after giving him that huge 38g gram rat. Perhaps it upset his stomach like Bogertophis said. Definitely a rookie mistake and I won't be doing that again. I basically just wanted to see out of curiosity instead of just throwing the rat away. I was also secretly hoping he'd eat it because I thought he was underweight.

To your point #7, I only take him out to clean his enclosure if he goes to the bathroom and I weighed him at the same time to see if he had lost 20% or more of his body weight. I haven't held him otherwise in over over 2 weeks, probably closer to 3-4 weeks.

I also want to add that I have not seen (or heard) any signs of a respiratory infection.

To your point #6, maybe it's just like you said in #5, he's fasting because I fed him a big rat that was 20% of his bodyweight?

When I do attempt to feed him again, do you think I should go for a 10g pinky rat or a slightly bigger (no fur) 17g rat?

[dakski]

I would feed the 17G rat.

BTW - I never offer BP's two meals at once. One properly sized meal is fine. Again, if wanting your BP to gain weight, feed every 7 days instead of 10-14.

[newbpowner4]

Okay thank you so much! I will let you guys know how the next attempt goes.

Yea, I try not to feed two instead of one but I've had pretty bad luck with getting the right sized rats within the range I buy them at. I bought 5 bags of 30-60g rats and 2 bags of the 60-90g rats and I didn't get any rats between 45-75g :/

[newbpowner4]

It was a success! I fed Platano the 17g rat and he struck and coiled instantly. He's swallowing it as I write this. Thank you so much to both Bogertophis and Dakski for your help! From now on, I will be feeding him, as well as my other BPs, smaller meals. I rather have them eat a rat that's 10% of their body weight every week, consistently, then try for a 15% one that might cause them to refuse the following week.

This was a (stressful) learning experience and I really appreciate that you guys took the time to help me solve the issue as well as made me feel better about his current weight so I wasn't constantly worrying these past 9 days.

So thanks again!

[dakski]

It was a success! I fed Platano the 17g rat and he struck and coiled instantly. He's swallowing it as I write this. Thank you so much to both Bogertophis and Dakski for your help! From now on, I will be feeding him, as well as my other BPs, smaller meals. I rather have them eat a rat that's 10% of their body weight every week, consistently, then try for a 15% one that might cause them to refuse the following week.

This was a (stressful) learning experience and I really appreciate that you guys took the time to help me solve the issue as well as made me feel better about his current weight so I wasn't constantly worrying these past 9 days.

So thanks again!

You are very welcome. We are always here to help.

Thank you for a) posting a response (many people leave us hanging and we never know what happened and if the problem was resolved), and b) for listening and applying what you learned. I think you will be happier and your snakes will be happier in the end.

Awesome Platano took the rat and I think you should have smooth sailing from here on out.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Bogertophis]

It was a success! I fed Platano the 17g rat and he struck and coiled instantly. He's swallowing it as I write this. Thank you so much to both Bogertophis and Dakski for your help! From now on, I will be feeding him, as well as my other BPs, smaller meals. I rather have them eat a rat that's 10% of their body weight every week, consistently, then try for a 15% one that might cause them to refuse the following week.

This was a (stressful) learning experience and I really appreciate that you guys took the time to help me solve the issue as well as made me feel better about his current weight so I wasn't constantly worrying these past 9 days.

So thanks again!

GOOD JOB! And you're welcome, that's why we're here- to help you figure out your snakes. And maybe have a little fun sharing our experiences too...