Rubbing the nose on the food?

[littleindiangirl]

I was just surfing and i found this site http://www.faunaimportuk.com/careshe...yal_python.htm
and they said that they have several ways to feed a finicky eater. One was to gently rub the fuzzie on the front of the snakes mouth. anyone ever do this?? and is it real smart? here's a copy of the text for picky eating snakes:

"Leaving food in over night: In our ten years or so of experience leaving defrosted food in with the snake over night has a limited success rate, but it’s worth a go.

Tease feeding: this is a very successful method for snakes that look interested in feeding, and may strike out or wrap and then drop food. This is done by holding the snake gently either side of the head supporting the body on a flat surface, and then rub the fuzzie on the front of the mouth. This stimulates the feeding response and the snake will bit down on the mouse and wrap it, sometime for a long period of time squeezing tightly, after a while it will release its grip and start feeding. Sometimes a royal will then follow-through with another mouse if offered on tweezers. The assist feeding method may have to be used several times on the animal, but within a few feeds it will start striking for food.

Assist feeding: this is used when the snake shows little or no interest in striking for anything.


The above methods of starting difficult feeder may only have to be used on an individual once or twice, and provoking a strike feeding response by simulating the movement of a live mouse with tweezers should be tried at each feeding time. In our experience some will start feeding properly with a few feeds, however some can take a lot longer, but generally learn to wrap the mouse quickly using the tease feeding method. There are some exceptions to the rule and you occasionally get a really difficult feeder, in general these are aggressive snakes that just want to bite you. These snakes will continuously shake the mouse out and generally make feeding them very difficult, time and patience will work, and they will eventually feed. "

[SnakeEyes]

My male strikes and kills his food, then spends about 10 min rubbing his nose in the body of the dead mouse, so I can see how that would work.

[Lobo_Reptiles]

Tease feeding was how I got Narcissa to eat again. She came home, ate and ate then stopped. It is a step below force feeding, which is a very last resort. It all depends on the snake. Tease feeding could be very stressful to some, while strangely Narcissa liked to be pampered by it. She was weird. Now she's Jen's weirdo!

[8b8ll]

I have had success GENTLY tapping the prey item on the nose of my snake and usually get a feeding response everytime...or I just leave it in his cage overnight. Some people misunderstand me by thinking that I smack him with the prety item that is incorrect and would probably never work with this species of snake.

Mike

[hardball]

I just tried to feed my bp for the first time and he had about 30 minutes in there with the mouse but he didnt even pay attention to the mouse. I left the room for a second to look for something to put the mouse into because i was hopeful he would have a successful first feeding and when i returned to take the mouse out it started crawling on my snakes back, which finally got him to strike at it but he missed and had another chance to strike it as the mouse was right in front of him with him in a strike position but he didnt take it and the mouse walked off and he eventually went back into his hide. The mouse rollowed his tail into the hide (almost looked like he took a nibble at it). and the mouse stayed in there for maybe 15-30 seconds and it almost looked like my bp took another little strike because the mouse seemed to make a little jump on his way back out. So i left him in there to see if maybe my guy would come for the kill but he didnt so i waited for him to get out of the entrence way to the hide and put him back into the bag and wrapped him in the pillow case my bp came in. I really dont know what im going to do with a live mouse now because i have nowhere to put it. Is there anything I can do?

[8b8ll]

Hardball how long have you have your Ball Python? I'm really not sure what you should do with the mouse but has the snake always been feed on live prey? I would try and switch it to F/T as you already saw a mouse can do damage to a snake...even though it didn't this time it was on your snakes back and such...I will let someone more expierenced help you with the rest!

Good luck.


Mike

[Purrrfect9]

I just tried to feed my bp for the first time and he had about 30 minutes in there with the mouse but he didnt even pay attention to the mouse. I left the room for a second to look for something to put the mouse into because i was hopeful he would have a successful first feeding and when i returned to take the mouse out it started crawling on my snakes back, which finally got him to strike at it but he missed and had another chance to strike it as the mouse was right in front of him with him in a strike position but he didnt take it and the mouse walked off and he eventually went back into his hide. The mouse rollowed his tail into the hide (almost looked like he took a nibble at it). and the mouse stayed in there for maybe 15-30 seconds and it almost looked like my bp took another little strike because the mouse seemed to make a little jump on his way back out. So i left him in there to see if maybe my guy would come for the kill but he didnt so i waited for him to get out of the entrence way to the hide and put him back into the bag and wrapped him in the pillow case my bp came in. I really dont know what im going to do with a live mouse now because i have nowhere to put it. Is there anything I can do?

This sounds like defensive behavior to me. How long have you had you BP in his enclosure for? A lot of BP's take a while to acclimate to their surroundings, so it might be a whole week or two before they take their first meal for you. Also, what time of day are you feeding them? My year old female displayed the same defensive behavior that your BP seemed to be having, so I waited 24 hours and fed her at a later time at night ( well, really 2:00 am, but it's finals week, what can i say? ). BP's are known to be picky eaters, some more so than others.

[hardball]

ya the reptile store i got him from (experienced snake owner is the guy ive seen in there every time) said to start with live and when he proves he can do that to move onto F/W. Im a little angry with Buddy right now because the mouse showed a lot more interest in him than he did to the mouse. He even joined him in his hide a couple times! Im going to stop handling him until he eats. Every day i take him out to handle him he spends time coming out of his hide trying to climb onto the roof of the tank as seen in some pictures ive posted in a couple other threads. I guess the only positive i can take from this is the fact that i know it will take A LOT for him to try and bite me if he wont even bite the damn mouse.

[hardball]

Ya it was bout 8:20pm here when i put the mouse in and it was in there for about 30 minutes. I waited until night and for him to come out for a stroll. Ive had him since last friday. The guy said his feeding day has been monday so I gave it a try today.

[Purrrfect9]

Ya it was bout 8:20pm here when i put the mouse in and it was in there for about 30 minutes. I waited until night and for him to come out for a stroll. Ive had him since last friday. The guy said his feeding day has been monday so I gave it a try today.

My new male is much more shy than my female, so I make sure not to handle him at all 24hours before feeding him. If you've only had him since last friday I really wouldn't worry too much about him not eating right now. Healthy BP's can go for up to 3-4 months with out losing a significant amount of weight, which doesn't hurt them. I know it's frustrating, but give him a little more time to settle in, and I'd try restricting handling until every other day fro about 10-15 minutes until he starts eating again. Also, do you know if he's about to shed? A lot of times BP's tend to go off feed the week that they shed.