Strikes but won't kill

[moonlightgdess]

What do you do for juvies that strike their prey, clearly want it, but won't coil it and eventually give up? I've tried smaller rats, even down to 2 wk old pups, mice, hide box, no hide box, leaving it for a few hours, not leaving it at all... Husbandry is all normal but sometimes she will get it ans sometimes its like she's just too eager.

[JLC]

More details would help diagnose possible causes...

1. What is "normal" for your husbandry?

2. What kind of enclosure and what size is it?

3. How long have you had the ball python?

4. How many times has it eaten for you?

5. How often are you trying to feed? How long do you wait between failures to eat?

6. Are you hovering and watching to see if your ball python eats?

And any other details you can think of.

In my experience, juvi ball pythons are typically voracious eaters, so long as they are feeling secure. What you're describing sounds like an issue with security, rather than some sort of "inability" to coil and kill the prey.

[moonlightgdess]

More details would help diagnose possible causes...

1. What is "normal" for your husbandry?

90 hot spot, 78 ambient, 45-50% humidity

2. What kind of enclosure and what size is it?

AP rack, 15 qt tub, water dish, RBI hide, paper towel substrate

3. How long have you had the ball python?

5 months

4. How many times has it eaten for you?

Almost every time until the past few times

5. How often are you trying to feed? How long do you wait between failures to eat?

5 day cycles (shes roughly 200g). At least two days, sometimes 3

6. Are you hovering and watching to see if your ball python eats?

I sit back out of eye sight just to supervise the pups that can see, but if their eyes are closed I leave.

And any other details you can think of.

She strikes at everything. She's always reared back waiting to bite .

[decensored]

I had a similar situation this year. My OG went 10 MONTHS without eating (from the time he was 7months. We had tried moving it up in weight for rats, getting him from smalls to larger smalls/ small mediums.. and that very day he stopped eating. I continued to try to feed him every week, moving back down to smalls, than weaned, and eventually pups and he never showed any interest. I TRIED ALL THE TRICKS. I tried different sized ASF.. Nothing worked. He never lost any weight but he got VERY thin.. I started to freak out.

About a month ago he started striking at the prey, but wouldn't constrict. He was always the sweetest most "sociable snake," I owned and he started acting aggressively. I took him to the vet last week ($120 for an examination), to make sure there wasn't anything I was missing during my own examinations, that could be causing the fast. He checked out fine. She told me to try gerbils.. Determined to avoid gerbils at all cost.. I tried a pup this feeding again..

He was doing his striking, almost like a cobra, but wouldn't constrict. The rat got freaked out and ran beside him, he turned to striked and kinda rolled into the constriction. It was almost like he forgot how to constrict after all this time. HAHA. But he killed it, and he ate it ( I am very proud of him)

I guess my point is not to sweat it..

I would take it to the vet if your really worried, but BP's are very resilient and can go a long time without eating.

[JLC]

I would suggest this, then:

Absolutely don't try feeding every 2-3 days. That only increases potential stress issues.

Move to a seven day feeding cycle. Try something small, that you can leave alone with the snake overnight. (Rat pup or f/t)

If the snake still doesn't eat, try again in seven days.

If they get overfed, they will start fasting at random intervals for varying amounts of time. I'm not saying you overfed...just that on an every five-day schedule, the snake may have gotten to the point where it felt like it had simply eaten enough for awhile.

At 200 grams (if that is a healthy body weight for his length), I would continue this routine for a good month or so before trying to switch things up yet again. Every time you try something new, you may be resetting the "settling in" clock. Some ball pythons don't take well to changes of any sort.