Force Feeding

[MDB]

You've force fed ball pythons and you don't even know what kind of substrates work besides newspaper? ....How are your 75 ASFs doing?

Lmao sorry bud but just because I havent familiarized myself with substrates other than newspaper and papertowels, does not mean that I do not know how to care for my bps. So seriously quit hating and bashing my threads. All I asked is peoples opinions on force feeding, not if you think that I am a qualified ball python/reptile owner. Anyways brown noser since you like me so much, maybe you should familiarize yourself with my post a little bit more and realize since than that I realized 75 asf rats were way to much. And decided to go with only a couple trios. But anyways thanks for asking smith lol

[MDB]

If a 1500 gram snake is going off feed, and losing drastic body weight or tone then you need to take it to a vet, it likely has other issues than just not eating. BPs will go off feed occasionally...perfectly normal. However, they will not lose drastic amounts of weight unless there is another issue. Perhaps they're off feed because of a husbandry issue.

I agree with Deborah. No reason an animal that size has to be force fed if it's healthy otherwise.

sorry maybe you should do a little bit more research into my post, I am not considering force feeding my wild caught or any other of my animals as of now. All I asked was members opinions on force feeding. Jumping to conclusions, makes people look like idiots. So thanks for your concern buddy

[starmom]

I am thankful that I have not ever had to force feed a snake as I think I would be trembling to the point of not being able to get the prey into the mouth of the snake!!

I have a little hypo girl who was refusing to eat for months and months (she was a baby) and started losing weight rapidly and then took a huge drop in weight. Thankfully, all I needed to do was to offer her live mice (and not f/t rats) and she's been a happy eater ever since; in fact, she's up to 550 grams!! Slow and steady with that little snake!! She's a cutie though!!

[MDB]

I am thankful that I have not ever had to force feed a snake as I think I would be trembling to the point of not being able to get the prey into the mouth of the snake!!

I have a little hypo girl who was refusing to eat for months and months (she was a baby) and started losing weight rapidly and then took a huge drop in weight. Thankfully, all I needed to do was to offer her live mice (and not f/t rats) and she's been a happy eater ever since; in fact, she's up to 550 grams!! Slow and steady with that little snake!! She's a cutie though!!

congrats im glad to hear it

[jknudson]

sorry maybe you should do a little bit more research into my post, I am not considering force feeding my wild caught or any other of my animals as of now. All I asked was members opinions on force feeding. Jumping to conclusions, makes people look like idiots. So thanks for your concern buddy

Anyways whats everybodys take on force feeding?

And my OPINION is that a healthy 1500 gram snake with proper husbandry should not need to be force fed. Ball pythons sometimes go off feed...it happens. However, there are other reasons they will go off feed, but for those they should see a vet. There is NO reason to force feed a healthy snake.

I'm not jumping to conclusions, just voicing my opinion like you asked in the OP.

And, I'm definitely not your buddy... Apparently you need to take it easy in the ring, those beatings aren't doing you any good.

[MDB]

lmao obviously you arent watching the right videos, besides you still havent gotten your facts right because I was using a 1500gram snake as an example situation. Your opinion that you voiced is the obvious. Tough guy
ps please dont be an internet tough guy.

[MDB]

did I start a thread on a touchy subject or what??? lmao

[rabernet]

did I start a thread on a touchy subject or what??? lmao

No - your attitude and response to those answering your question is what is "touchy". I'd suggest taking it down a notch or two.

You say no one knows your experience, and perhaps that's true, so the only thing that people can "judge" you on are the posts on subjects that you have shared with us so far, and they demonstrate very little experience with ball pythons in general.

As to your original question - I've never had to force feed, even with an animal that fasted for almost a year.

Just a note on your WC - the Barkers also note in their book that WC's can take as long as a year and a half to ever take their first meal - they can be that traumatized from being ripped out of the only life they've ever known to being brought into captivity and having a predator (you) hovering over them, even in a very limited way (changing water for example) and hearing strange noises and having a prey type that they've never seen in their life offered to them, etc.

[ReptileJay]

I've never had a situation that I felt that force feeding would be the proper course of action. Force feeding is EXTREMELY stressful, and I personally feel that unless the snake is GOING to die without it, it should NEVER be done.

I have had to assist more than a handful of hatchlings, but even my WORST feeders have never gotten to the point where I felt force feeding was a justifiable option.

For example, I currently have a POS. DH Lavender Albino Clown that turned out to be the WORST feeder I had ever had. He started out not wanting to take ANYTHING, having to be assisted for pretty much every meal (which happens from time to time). After a while, he would not even take food with assistance. He would do whatever he could to NOT eat. He started losing weight and actually got close to the point when I was starting to worry that he may not make it without force feeding... But, at the same time, i felt that the stress from force feeding may be too much for his already weakened systems to handle, so I decided that the best thing to do would be let relax for a few weeks, adding vitamins to his water and doing my best to make sure he was as comfortable as possible. After about 3 weeks, I offered him food again, and he took it on his own. Since then he's been eating like a champ and has gained almost 400grams and will most likely actually breed next season (provided I decide to actually try to prove him out).

Through that, I learned that the odds of a snake that HAS eaten starving itself to death is fairly slim. (Unless there is something horribly wrong with the husbandry or the snake is extremely ill). I hope I never do have to deal with a situation that REQUIRES force feeding, but at the same time, I really do not expect to.

[muddoc]

I usually do not enter threads that seem to have veered off the track a bit, but I thought I would throw my opinion in the mix as well. Like Adam, I have never force fed anything in the 6 years we have been doing this. With that said, I have had to assist feed plenty of hatchlings to get them started. Fortunately I have never had to force feed one to keep it alive. In my opinion you should never have to force feed an animal over say 120 grams. If a Ball Python is 400 grams, for instance, it has apparently eaten before and knows how to eat. It will eat again when it is ready (assuming there are no husbandry issues). I believe that someone else mentioned somewhere in the thread that Balls can go long periods without eating. I had a WC girl go 55 weeks before she started eating (I don't know how long she had not eaten before I got her). I treated her for internal parasites when she came in, set her up properly and commenced to attempting all types of food item in many different fashions until she decided it was time. Now she is a great breeder for us.

My .02.