Baby Ball not accepting food

[Vini Sourile]

OK, my first post so I will try not to make any noobie mistakes.

I've read a lot of the forums over the last few days trying to see if I have missed something in getting my 2 month old BP to eat again...I say again because the week after I adopted her from the breeder she took down not 1 but 2 pinkie mice. The second week she took down a fuzzy mouse. Now, 2 weeks later I can not even get her to look at food. I have tried pinkies, fuzzies, nothing. (Her sister died a week back from an unknown issue and did not eat for 3 weeks so I am of course paranoid). (Her sister ate the first week but never again). Doctor says she appears healthy and no signs of mouth rot and doesn't believe she has RI ether. I have been giving her antibiotic for the last week as a precaution. Heat and humidity have not changed, 80,82-85,88 gradient with hot spot and hot cave 90-95. Humidity at 40-60, usually 50 average. Cool cave is lined with moss and kept damp.

Any suggestions would be awesome. I have tried scenting with gerbil too with no luck...out of ideas. Oh yeah, she weighed in at 46g at doc office and now 45g week later.

[RichsBallPythons]

Need picture of the setup and be very detailed on the setup.

Babies not eating is due to owner error with the setup.

[Skittles1101]

95 is too hot, I keep my cool end between 75 and 80. The antibiotic could be why she won't eat. How do you read temps? And you don't know how the sibling died...were they housed together?

[rperry03]

What are you offering for food and is it f/t, p/k, or live?

Im not sure exactly how old mine were when I got them but I don't believe they were much older than 2mths if they were even that old but they weight 67 and 70 grams, now 2mths later they are 106 and 117 and eating whenever they are offered food.

The first time I feed them after 2wks, the first they refused and the 2nd week they also refused then I decided to assist feed them a pinkie mouse and have eaten everyweek since.

[RichsBallPythons]

Pinky Mice are too small and not a good food source or ball pythons. Pinky rats would be the smallest meal i would ever offer a hatchling.


Like stated, when a hatchling refuses to eat its owner error on proper setup.

[Vini Sourile]

I thought the meds might be affecting her eating. As far as the temps, I had it at 78-85 during the day and 75-82 at night. I was told by the breeder that I needed to increase for babies, said the adults are fine with what I had but babies warmer. The BPs never stayed to the cold side so I figured they are were content with the temps...at times in 90-95 area, then to 85 areas (middle), then to cool side cave at 78.

Doc said setup was fine, Cyprus bark at the bottom 1.5" deep, UTH on hot side controlled by Repit-therm, combo deep dome fixture on hot side with a 50w day heat lamp and 50w night bulb. Fixture is mounted so I can raise or lower the height to control temps if house temp increases or decreases. The tank is a 20H glass. I have 2 glass thermometers in the tank for accurate temps working on getting a better humidity gauge. As I said before though, nothing has changed in the setup. I had this thing running for a week prior to getting the BPs to insure it ran perfect.

Doc didn't say anything about the weight to us, I felt she should be closer to 60-70. Food being offed are live, breeder feed live so I did not want to switch before they got used to new home. Did not touch them for a week after home ether, until feeding time.

Back ground on myself, before marriage I housed 2 BPs, Red Tail, Br Ranbow, and a Blood. This would not be my first go at this for sure. I never had such young BPs. My red was this young but ate like a horse. Same with others. Never had this issue with other BPs ether.

[Vini Sourile]

Rich, breeder feed pinkie mice, I feed pinkie mice. I was not going to change food right after getting them, that would be stupid.

[Vini Sourile]

BTW, since it is my fault that BPs are not eating, by all means tell me the proper setup. Please enlighten me...

[rperry03]

I thought the meds might be affecting her eating. As far as the temps, I had it at 78-85 during the day and 75-82 at night. I was told by the breeder that I needed to increase for babies, said the adults are fine with what I had but babies warmer. The BPs never stayed to the cold side so I figured they are were content with the temps...at times in 90-95 area, then to 85 areas (middle), then to cool side cave at 78.

Doc said setup was fine, Cyprus bark at the bottom 1.5" deep, UTH on hot side controlled by Repit-therm, combo deep dome fixture on hot side with a 50w day heat lamp and 50w night bulb. Fixture is mounted so I can raise or lower the height to control temps if house temp increases or decreases. The tank is a 20H glass. I have 2 glass thermometers in the tank for accurate temps working on getting a better humidity gauge. As I said before though, nothing has changed in the setup. I had this thing running for a week prior to getting the BPs to insure it ran perfect.

Doc didn't say anything about the weight to us, I felt she should be closer to 60-70. Food being offed are live, breeder feed live so I did not want to switch before they got used to new home. Did not touch them for a week after home ether, until feeding time.

Back ground on myself, before marriage I housed 2 BPs, Red Tail, Br Ranbow, and a Blood. This would not be my first go at this for sure. I never had such young BPs. My red was this young but ate like a horse. Same with others. Never had this issue with other BPs ether.

My first babies too and was stressing because they were so young, mine won't even think about it's food unless it was live and are now eating rat pups or asf's hoppers. Slowly moving them up in size till I get to the just right!

Could it be that he just has not settled in yet?

[RichsBallPythons]

Well first, your temperatures are all over the place, Which is one indication why its not eating. Temps need to be properly measured and controlled. As so humidity needs to be properly measured and controlled. Get digital thermometer and not stick on dials ones.

Another is you have a 50g baby is a 20g tall tank. That baby should be in a 5-10g tank at most, or even better a 6qt plastic bin. Your doc/vet is just that, they dont know the first thing to properly housing reptiles. Ive yet to see a vet know what their talking a bout when it comes to proper care of reptiles. Theres very few that know the requirements of reptiles.

you need to have a 78-80 cool side and a 88-90 warm side. This needs to stay constant 24/7 with no night time drops. Also need a thermostat to control the temps properly to minimize stress and overheating.

Food needs to be offered live till they are eating. Offer either live pinky rats or live hopper mice. Dont stand over the snake and gawk at it, drop the mouse / rat in and walk away. Neither will harm the snake and will help with privacy.


And till all this is fixed, no handling till snake eats for you 3-4 times consecutively