My boyfriend and I are hobby breeders. This is our fifth year breeding, and tenth year keeping ball pythons. We have an issue that we aren't sure how to proceed on so are hoping for some second opinions! I have also emailed our vet this same info to ask his opinion. (Also, I hope this post isn't in violation of the community rule of only one person per account! It is just me checking this account and replying, but it would feel weird to omit my bf from the story, thus it being told from the point of view of 'we'! Mods, if it's an issue, please let me know and I'll edit it.)

Back in late June, we picked up four adults (all who eat F/T) from a breeder who was moving out of province. We asked many times, but we did not receive the snakes' records before their move, and during the move, their computer was damaged. It is unlikely now that we will ever get records, and (understandably because they have hundreds of bps) they doesn't recall the snakes' recent histories before we bought them.

All four snakes passed quarantine. Three of the snakes we've gotten to eat with no problem, but one, a four year old female (breeder says she has never been bred), has been mostly a hold out. She has snagged once. It was a F/T ASF (snagged about four weeks ago) and small for her size. She has never snagged again, and she has shown no interest in other ASF/mice/rats we've offered since.

We're concerned because we don't know how well she was eating before we acquired her. The only bowel movement she has had in our care was one small one after the ASF. She did not have any before that, which we take to indicate she may not have been eating regularly before we bought her.

We weighed her when we got her; She was 920 grams at the end of June. She is now 850 grams, so we are starting to feel more pressure and concern about getting her to eat regularly, especially as we don't know how she was eating with her breeders.

Our quandry is, at what point do we consider taking her to the vet to be assist fed? Please, we'd love to hear your opinion on what you'd do in this situation. We know this should be a last resort, but as she is getting closer to having lost 10% of her body weight since we got her, we're concerned.

Over the past three months (after one month of no eating) we've been gradually trying tips suggested in the great Psychology of Problem Feeders article by JKR. So far, no luck. We feel like we're flying blind because we don't have her records. Many of our bps go off food regularly depending on the season, and we just keep tabs on their weight and let them do their thing. But we're not sure what to do in the case of not knowing her history.

Thanks for your opinions!