Presense of other animals affecting BPs?

[slickshadowrunner]

Hey all,

My 3-year old female normal has refused food for two weeks in a row. She eats live, and normally does it in her habitat with no problems. She came from a house where she was not fed enough (she was getting a small rat every three weeks) and I started feeding her a medium once a week. She fed for three weks in a row, had a great shed, and is now refusing food. Moreover, she is acting like she is actually scared of the rat. She flinches away from it if they ever get too close (nose to nose). I realize that fasts are not necessarily a big deal. She is really active at night and is not displaying any outwardly visible problems, however, I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything. She's my first and I don't want to screw this up. The only other thing I wanted to mention is that the room that her tank is in now contains an open-top guinea pig cage with two guinea pigs in it. I'm sure she can smell them. Would it throw her off at all as far as feeding is concerned?

[Gouzman]

Hello. Are you feeding her during the day time or at night. Try to feed at night as ball pythons are nocturnal so that might help in getting a better response from her.

Check your temperatures to make sure they are all correct. It could also be that she is not used to being fed once a week now that you have switched her from her three week cycle. So try feeding her once every ten days. This is still perfectly fine and will not affect her.

Maybe the smell from the guinea pigs is getting her too used to the smell of rodent, so she doesn't get excited when she smells one in her enclosure, but I doubt this is likely.

Don't handle her for the next ten days, then offer her some more food.

Or she could just be doing the famous ball python hunger strike.

Good luck and keep us posted.


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[Gouzman]

Hello. Are you feeding her during the day time or at night. Try to feed at night as ball pythons are nocturnal so that might help in getting a better response from her.

Check your temperatures to make sure they are all correct. It could also be that she is not used to being fed once a week now that you have switched her from her three week cycle. So try feeding her once every ten days. This is still perfectly fine and will not affect her.

Maybe the smell from the guinea pigs is getting her too used to the smell of rodent, so she doesn't get excited when she smells one in her enclosure, but I doubt this is likely.

Don't handle her for the next ten days, then offer her some more food.

Or she could just be doing the famous ball python hunger strike.

Good luck and keep us posted.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Coopers Constrictors]

It sure can, although as you mentioned, fasting is completely normal and a couple weeks off food is nothing for a BP... with an adult like that not being used to feeding regularly, and then all of a sudden being offered a good size meal on a weekly basis, then comes a g pig smell... it's probably just throwing her off a bit. No worries.

[slickshadowrunner]

She seems fine. She's really active at night, and I usually feed her in the evenings anyways. You'd think the smell of the guinea pigs would only make her hungrier, since she smells prey all of the time. Anyways, thanks for the thoughts guys, appreciate it. I'll try again this weekend and if she refuses again I'll wait for a couple of weeks before offering her one again. I don't want her to get into the habit of refusing food.