Breaking The Habit

[Little B-Py]

Hissy exploring the new digs. I know the hide is a bit big but I am gonna pick up a smaller one tomorrow for hers and one for oakley.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Sounds good. Now get them all set up and leave them alone for a week. Then try to feed. i would definately recomend you try live. a live rat pup would prob be best because you can leave them in overnight without them hurting the snake.

The most important thing is... once you wait a week and try to feed them the live rat pup, if they don't eat you take the pup out the next day and wait another full week before attempting the same thing again. same day, same time try to feed the same size rat pup. I know it is about enough to make you crazy but they can go a long time without eating. As soon as you assist feed again, your back to square one. When they get hungry they will eat. That could be 7 days from now, it could be 7 weeks from now.

Keep us posted.

[Little B-Py]

i will definitely keep everyone updated. do I need the 2 hides or will one do because of having the foliage in there? She has went into her hide once and keeps exploring. lol.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

2 hides are preferable. They should be identical. The snake should just BARELY be able to fit in them. Remember, the more cramped the better.

Nothing wrong with the foliage but it isn't necesarry and is just one more thing to clean.

Mike

[Little B-Py]

it's not hard and they enoy it. I'll make sure to get 4 small hides today then. They crawled around exploring for about 10-20 minutes each last night.

[Egapal]

No everyone is not jumping to live, but people are rather suggesting to try live (that’s different and based on experience), there is absolutely NO REASON to assist an healthy BP.

I exaggerated a bit. Many people said try live without any details other than the person is assist feeding. I guess I just wanted to here more details before people suggested trying live prey. How long since the snakes last meal and what size was it? How old is the snake and what is its current weight? How many refusals before the first assist feed? How long do you wait before offering again? How are you preparing the F/T mouse?

Assist feeding should be done as a LAST RESORT when everything has failed and the health of the animal is declining.

In this case as I suspected (hence my questions) there is no reason to assist, there are husbandry issues. Even when solved if the animals are still not eating assisting will still not be the answer.

Also when acquiring a new animal the priority is to get them to eat not switched, switching should be done when the animal is eating with consistency and is well established.

I was in no way condoning the assist feedings. I was pointing out that maybe moving to live was not necessary just yet. For all we know based on everything I have read on this post the snake refuses and is then assist fed, every 7 days. If that is the case I think fixing some husbandry issues, presenting a room and trying a F/T heated to normal mouse body temp would be a solid plan. Obviously if the snakes health is declining then offering live is probably the best bet to get the snake to eat.

[Little B-Py]

Where would I go about getting the live rat pups? The only way my fiancee can think is to breed rats but that's not happening because of living with her mom for now. Is there anywhere online or on here because she wants to try and feed them soon because it's been a week.

[SatanicIntention]

Just try live mice. Feed what is readily available and easy for you to obtain. If the snakes eat those on a regular basis and are growing/gaining weight, it doesn't matter if they eat mice or rats. There is no nutritional difference between the two and since we don't know the nutritional requirements of Ball Pythons, it doesn't matter anyway

When you get the mice, put them in a critter keeper or cage for 30 minutes to an hour next to the snakes' enclosures. This gets the snakes ready so they know what will happen. Turn the lights off too.

After that time has passed, go in the room with a flashlight and put a mouse in each snake's tub. Close the lid and leave. Well-fed prey that is calm will not hurt your snake whatsoever.

If they have not taken the mice within 15 minutes or so, take the mice out and wait another week. Don't handle them at all in this time.

[Little B-Py]

I have found a place in TN what breeds feeder mice/rats. If we feed them mice will the BP's take rats when they get bigger or will they prefer mice? The site i found them on is here. They are relatively cheap either way and I have a box I can keep the rats in for feeding and one for just in case they don't eat them. Which size should I get?

[Hyper Joe]

I have found a place in TN what breeds feeder mice/rats. If we feed them mice will the BP's take rats when they get bigger or will they prefer mice? The site i found them on is here. They are relatively cheap either way and I have a box I can keep the rats in for feeding and one for just in case they don't eat them. Which size should I get?

Switching them is another issue. Get them eating on their own first.

Make sure you you don't keep rats in cardboard for too long they can make their way out of them. (At least the ones that are old enough and have teeth)

I don't know if you got the smaller hides yet but if you didn't just use the bigger ones and stuff paper towels or newspapers in it to make it more snug. This will save you on money on getting bigger ones when they grow out of the small ones.