How often to offer food?

[rabernet]

My dear Kashmire is on a hunger strike, I suppose! I got him a week ago today and he reportedly last ate a hopper on 7/3.

I've finally got temps regulated and have only handled him to monitor his weight.

I put a live small mouse in with him last night for about 40 minutes, and he didn't show any interest, even when the thing sniffed him.

The mouse is now safely ensconsed in his Kritter Keeper. Should I try to offer again tonight, or wait a few days?

At what point should I start getting concerned?

He's about 18" long (as best I can measure, might be as little as 16"). He has maintained his weight of 74 grams, and is drinking water and staying hydrated.

Any and all replies are welcomed! I am stressing out waiting for his first feed!

Robin

[daniel1983]

I feed my snakes every Monday (once a week). Did you give him a week without handling? I would try to reduce stress on him as much as possible and offer the mouse again next week. You can reduce stress by making sure his enclosure is set to the proper temperatures, crumble up some newspaper and put it in the enclosure, do not handle for a week, only open the enclosure except to change water, and You may want to offer him the mouse p/k, turn out the lights, and leave it in there a while. Sometimes bps like to hunt in the protection of darkness. Hope that helps.

[Ken]

As Ball Pythons go, that is NOT a hunger strike. In fact, most BP's can do that standing on their heads.

My Male stopped eating last September 7th, didn't eat again until April 14th.

If Kash has only been home for a week, you can afford to wait another week to attempt feeding. Let the snake get acclimated then offer food.

If you offer tonight and it eats, great! But you don't want to prolong the acclimation period and stress the snake by frequently introducing food.

K

[frankykeno]

Only thing I'd add to the great advice offered so far is to make sure your new snake's enclosure is in the quietest spot in the house (preferably low light....like maybe a quiet bedroom or such). We started Baby out (who was about the same size as your snake is currently) in a back bedroom for almost 2 months, then just recently moved her to a more "active" room in our home. Since we have 4 busy, loud kids we have monitored her to make sure the move isn't affecting her feeding or activity level and so far it seems fine.

We night feed our snake which seems to help promote a good feeding response in her. We feed p/k ourselves, but whatever works to get the snake feeding well (and safely) is a good thing I figure.

Let us know how it goes and best of luck.


~~Joanna~~

[rabernet]

Thanks Ken! If he was older and bigger, I wouldn't be so concerned about how long he's taking to feed. Since he's just a baby, I wasn't sure how long of a fast is safe.

Thanks to everyone who's offered advice to this new ball python keeper.

Robin

[joker1]

Hey Everybody,

I am new to Ball Pythons so any advice would be greatly appreciated. It looks like there are alot of knowledge floating around here. I have a couple of questions concerning feeding though.
1) How much should I feed a small BP.
(I was told to feed him two or three if he would take them while in the feeding stage)
2) Is it best to feed the BP somewhere other than where he is kept?

Thanks
BJ

[daniel1983]

1) It is best to fed a ball python a food item that is about the same size as its girth(i.e. the mouse is as round as your snake is). Some people(including myself) like to feed items slightly smaller than the girth of the ball python to incourage a better feeding responce. How small is the bp? If it is a hatchling it will either take a hopper mice or a rat fuzzy. If it is a few months old, It will most likely take an adult mouse or a rat pup.
2) If you handle your ball python for reasons other than feeding, an seperate feeding place is not needed. The only reasons I have heard for feeding in an seperate enclosure is to keep the bp from associating the cage opening w/ food and the ingestion of loose substrate. If you open it often to change the water, clean, and handle...the association will not be made. And snakes can handle digesting most substrate with no problem. I feed my snakes in their normal enclosure and under normal conditions. That way stress is reduced, unlike when feeding in a seperate enclosure. Most stress when feeding in a seperate enclosure is caused by the new environment and handling after feeding.

Hope that helps