Issues Feeding

[Renigaed]

Hi guys, I’ve been having some issues with my girl. For the first 6 months that I had her she was eating frozen thawed very well. Then she went on a feeding strike so I tried feeding live and she took to it very readily, despite her hunger strike. Well now she seems to be afraid of any rat I put in front of her, or just picky? The size she should be eating is a weanling-small rat. She won’t take anything small, like fuzzies (20-30 grams). She’ll sniff it out but decide it’s not worth her time. Anything bigger and she gets scared? For instance I put her in the bathtub tonight because it’s a biggerr space and I figured that maybe being in a small space made her feel insecure since she can’t get away. I put a 50g rat in there, she acted interested, but as soon as it got close to her, she was no longer interested.
More details:
Always feed outside the cage in a large ziplock container
Tried different color rats and different sizes
Used to eat frozen thawed but will no longer touch frozen

Any advice? /:

[Jus1More]

Hmmmm... maybe when you fed live rats to her one of them attacked her and that's maybe why she is afraid?
Just a guess, but balls will keep you always guessing!!

[dakski]

Hi guys, I’ve been having some issues with my girl. For the first 6 months that I had her she was eating frozen thawed very well. Then she went on a feeding strike so I tried feeding live and she took to it very readily, despite her hunger strike. Well now she seems to be afraid of any rat I put in front of her, or just picky? The size she should be eating is a weanling-small rat. She won’t take anything small, like fuzzies (20-30 grams). She’ll sniff it out but decide it’s not worth her time. Anything bigger and she gets scared? For instance I put her in the bathtub tonight because it’s a biggerr space and I figured that maybe being in a small space made her feel insecure since she can’t get away. I put a 50g rat in there, she acted interested, but as soon as it got close to her, she was no longer interested.
More details:
Always feed outside the cage in a large ziplock container
Tried different color rats and different sizes
Used to eat frozen thawed but will no longer touch frozen

Any advice? /:

I'll be brief, but here are some initial thoughts.

1. Feed in the enclosure. Many snakes, especially shy ones, like BP's, get very stressed being moved somewhere to eat. Let her eat where she is comfortable.

2. Feed F/T if she took that in the past, unless you want a snake that eats live. It can difficult to get them to switch back to F/T. You might have to be persistent and/or try live, then pre-killed, etc. Not sure what to tell you here. BP's often fast, and will sometimes take live more readily when fasting, but that's not necessarily good unless you want to keep feeding live.

3. Open space equal insecurity for BP's. They want to stay hidden and not feel exposed. Another reason she may not eat.

4. How are you defrosting and offering you F/T food?

5. How much does she weigh and how old is she? Do you have pictures? She might be fine not eating for a while.

Any responses would be helpful and feel free to ask for clarification.

Good luck.

[Craiga 01453]

I'll be brief, but here are some initial thoughts.

1. Feed in the enclosure. Many snakes, especially shy ones, like BP's, get very stressed being moved somewhere to eat. Let her eat where she is comfortable.

2. Feed F/T if she took that in the past, unless you want a snake that eats live. It can difficult to get them to switch back to F/T. You might have to be persistent and/or try live, then pre-killed, etc. Not sure what to tell you here. BP's often fast, and will sometimes take live more readily when fasting, but that's not necessarily good unless you want to keep feeding live.

3. Open space equal insecurity for BP's. They want to stay hidden and not feel exposed. Another reason she may not eat.

4. How are you defrosting and offering you F/T food?

5. How much does she weigh and how old is she? Do you have pictures? She might be fine not eating for a while.

Any responses would be helpful and feel free to ask for clarification.

Good luck.

^^^^ exactly this ^^^^

[Renigaed]

I’ve always supervised feeding and she’s never been hurt. I don’t like feeding her live, it makes me super anxious and nervous.
how I’m defrosting food: 45 minutes to an hour in cool water (in a ziplock bag so it doesn’t get soaking wet). Then 14-20 minutes in hot water, rewarding the water when it gets cool. When the rodent is at 100 degrees I take it up and feed it to her. I’ve also tried leaving the dethawed rat in the cage over night under the heat lamp, and she’s still not interested.

She’s been a problem feeder ever since I got her, even though all the temps and humidity is correct in her cage. She weighs a little under 800 grams and she’s a little over two years old, very small for her age

Do you have suggestions for how to prekill? I’ve seen videos of people popping rats’ heads from their spinal cord but I can not do that, I love rats too much. Is there an easy way to set up a CO2 chamber?

[ElliotNess]

Try feeding 2 small weaned rats instead of a Small one.

[Renigaed]

Live weaned rats or frozen? I ways try to feed her more appropriate sized rats when it’s frozen but I’m scared to feed her live weaned rats because she’s so shy.

[dakski]

I’ve always supervised feeding and she’s never been hurt. I don’t like feeding her live, it makes me super anxious and nervous.
how I’m defrosting food: 45 minutes to an hour in cool water (in a ziplock bag so it doesn’t get soaking wet). Then 14-20 minutes in hot water, rewarding the water when it gets cool. When the rodent is at 100 degrees I take it up and feed it to her. I’ve also tried leaving the dethawed rat in the cage over night under the heat lamp, and she’s still not interested.

She’s been a problem feeder ever since I got her, even though all the temps and humidity is correct in her cage. She weighs a little under 800 grams and she’s a little over two years old, very small for her age

Do you have suggestions for how to prekill? I’ve seen videos of people popping rats’ heads from their spinal cord but I can not do that, I love rats too much. Is there an easy way to set up a CO2 chamber?

I would defrost in room temp water for a couple of hours, maybe flipping the rat over halfway through. Make sure it's completely defrosted.

Then, either warm with a hairdryer, which many people like, or put in hot tap water (not boiling water or even close) for 30 seconds to a minute (which is what I do). If you do the hairdryer, offer on tongs immediately. If you do the warm water, dry quickly with paper towel and offer on tongs ASAP.

Putting a defrosted rat in hot water for 20 minutes can actually start to cook it a little, leading to refusal. BP's, and all snakes, eat raw, whole, prey.

I would be patient.

Offer on tongs initially, see if she's interested. If she is, but doesn't strike, leaving for a while is okay. I wouldn't leave more than overnight.

If she refuses, I would not offer more than every other week until she eats again.

800 grams is a good size. Unless she looks too thin (you can post pictures), she can probably go a long while without eating.

My female fasts every winter for about 5 months. Then she goes back to happily eating F/T again.

Again, give her lots of hiding space, and feed in the tank (this was all covered earlier).

Also, do not handle any more than necessary (to clean the tank, etc) until she starts eating again.

Finally, if she is 800G, I would be feeding small rats (in the 70-80G +/- range). Weaned rats at 50G are too small IMO.

Good luck and keep us in the loop!

[dakski]

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...=feeding+chart

The second post in this thread has a feeding chart for BP's based on size/weight.