This is getting frustrating!

[chromeitout]

Do you have them someplace where they can have the normal light and dark cycles? If you do, try getting them in a darker spot. In the wild a Ball would be curled up in a moist dark termite tunnel and would come out in the night.
If you have them in a darker spot, try something a little lighter.

If you have feeders in the same room with them, get them out of the room and far away. Present the room prior to feeding.

I'm sure you mentioned it, you have your humidity up to 60%?

They are in a temp controlled building with no windows, but I also have bearded dragons and uromastyx in there with lights on a timer.

There are no rodents in the room, and I do bring in the tub of rats a little before feeding time.

As for humidity... I haven't checked it lately, but I NEVER have a stuck shed. I will recheck this tomorrow.

[chromeitout]

You should try to get the ambient & cool side above 80F if you can, maybe doing this will get them to start eating.

I've heard that giving a Ball python a warm soak before feeding them increases their appetite. I haven't personally tried it but I hear it works.

I do the best I can with the temps that my crappy sideways rack will allow. 80 is the average from top to bottom.

I might give the soak thing a try.

Thanks to all of you so far!

[rabernet]

You should try to get the ambient & cool side above 80F if you can, maybe doing this will get them to start eating.

I've heard that giving a Ball python a warm soak before feeding them increases their appetite. I haven't personally tried it but I hear it works.

Never heard of such a thing (the soak). Never had to soak a ball python to encourage them to eat.

chromeitout - yes, colubrids are very different from ball pythons when it comes to feeding response.

As long as you offer appropriately sized meals (not too large) on a weekly basis, they tend to eat pretty consistently. However, once I start to get consistent refusals amongst my collection, I move to a once every 2 week feeding, except for girls who are breeding and I know will eat - they still get offered weekly.

[Wh00h0069]

I have tired many different things with my balls, but some are just bad eaters. Some will take f/t, some won't. Some will eat every week, some every other week, and some like to take months off. That is one reason that I am selling all of my ball pythons, and switching to snakes that eat very well on f/t. It is just so frustrating when you breed your own rodents. You never know how many to breed because you can never determine which, or how many, balls are going to eat each week.

Good luck though.

[BPelizabeth]

Hold up.....you don't have all 12 in the same tub do you? Am I just reading that wrong?

[chapskis1]

Most of the big females started skipping meals at the same time before Christmas. I have a normal 1.1 that hasn't eaten since then. I've tried live f/k, rats, mice,... Most of them have even bred for me over the last few weeks.

!

What has bred for you? The ball pythons, or the rats and mice?

Later,

George

[chromeitout]

Hold up.....you don't have all 12 in the same tub do you? Am I just reading that wrong?

No, they have their own tubs.

What has bred for you? The ball pythons, or the rats and mice?

Later,

George

6 out of 7 adult normal females, my pastel female (bred with the pastel male, but won't have anything to do with the cinny or spider...GRRR!), and all three morph males spider, cinny, and pastel have bred. Everyone has bred for me that is big enough except 1 normal female. I do still have a normal male adult, a 700g female, and an 1100g Black Pastel female that I have not attempted.

Oh, and the rats and mice will not STOP breeding, lol. I'm busting at the seams with them.

I have tired many different things with my balls, but some are just bad eaters. Some will take f/t, some won't. Some will eat every week, some every other week, and some like to take months off. That is one reason that I am selling all of my ball pythons, and switching to snakes that eat very well on f/t. It is just so frustrating when you breed your own rodents. You never know how many to breed because you can never determine which, or how many, balls are going to eat each week.

Good luck though.

I am afraid that I share alot of the same feelings with you, and it's possible that I may get rid of mine as well. There have been alot of good posts in this thread alone about methods of dealing with the bad eating habits of balls, but I'm not sure that I want to deal with a species that is knowingly going to be a problematic feeder. It takes me longer to feed my 14 balls than it does to feed 40 colubrids due to the "well I'll only prekill one rat and move from tub to tub to see if anyone wants it, then put a live rat in a couple of tubs and watch to make sure they eat it and not viceversa, then grab a mouse or two and see if the rat refusers will take them". With the colubrids you just count out how many feeder items you need for each one, total it up and thaw or kill all of them and chunk them in the appropriate tubs. I'm definately not hating on bp's because alot of the morphs are just stunning, but they are beginning to stress me out, and to know that this is considered "normal", makes it worse.