My BP is aggravating me....

[JChristine23]

I haven't been on here in quite some time because things got really busy at college and I didn't have time to be online a lot. Any way... My female norm BP is not eating. I know that that's typical for a female this time of year, but I there is a little more to it than the typical breeding season refusal to eat.

When we got our girl she was underweight at the time. Of, course me being ignorant, I didn't realize it. She was over 3ft and she weighed less than 800. Her previous owners where feeding her 2 live mice each week. I decided to try her on f/t and she took them no problem. When I finally found out on here that she was underweight I switched her to f/t medium rats. She ate those no problem either and she put on weight quickly. She got up past 1100 and then she started getting really restless in her tank. She started spending a lot of the twilight hours each morning and evening trying to get out. (I am assuming that she's looking for a boyfriend.) And to my annoyance she stopped eating.

She went 2-3 weeks without eating. I was getting worried because I didn't want her losing weight once she got up to size, so I caved and bought her a pair of live mice. She stuck at the mice before their feet even hit the ground. They were both gone in minutes so the next day I picked up 2 more and those were gone just as quick.

The next few weeks I tried her with the f/t rats but no luck. Toss in a live mouse and it's gone. So now what am I supposed to do? It seems that she is hungry but only wants live mice. She's way to big for mice though. She needs to be on rats. I'd consider a live rat, but she's not exactly a superior hunter. I watched her grab a mouse by the shoulder instead of the head and so the mouse fought her forever and made her bleed. If a mouse makes her bleed, what's a rat going to do? Also her last owners gave her a live rat one time and the BP has the scars to prove it.

Any ideas would be great.....

[Kinra]

I kind of went through a similar situation as you, but I was the one underfeeding my ball python. My first BP was getting one live mouse every 1-3 weeks when I first got her. She was only 700g in March (and that was after feeding her f/t rats for a few weeks in a row). She started pounding rats until about mid July. She got up to 1800g and just decided she was done. She stopped eating unless I gave her live mice. I don't feed live because I can't reliably get to the store each week. I basically waited her out and now I only feed her f/t small rats. My theory is that they will pound food and put on weight quickly, but when we let them do that they are more likely to go on fasts because they have been eating so much.

Snakes can go long periods without food as long as it is their choice. I would watch her weight and keep offering her the f/t rat. I had a juvie ball python go on a 2.5 month hunger strike and come out of it about the same weight that she went into it and I tried everything, even live ASF.

[heathers*bps]

You can stun the rat before giving it to her. But I'm also sure she will be fine to go a few weeks without eating as well.

[Alexandra V]

If you're completely against feeding live then I suggest trying the "tough love" method described by Kinra. But if she starts to lose considerable weight then really the only thing you can do is cave and get her live.

Just watch her weights. She'll more than likely become less picky after the breeding season is done. You've just got to wait her out.

[CliveBixby]

Something simple it seems you can try. You said you are feeding her Mice. So take a frozen rat and rub a little of the mice scent onto the rat. It could be simple enough that she doesn't mind frozen but she just wants mice instead of rats. If that doesn't work then I would try just to heat up the rat just a little more than normal.

[jtomb1510]

I've used the method Clive mentioned several times for problem eaters and it worked with great success. I thawed the rat out, heated it up, rubbed it down with a mouse, and viola, no more problem eater I'm not saying it will work every time, but it's worth a shot