new here and have some questions about feeding and other stuff!

[azula]

Hi im new to this forum. I am a reptile fanatic! I have 8 chameleons and my fiance has a normal ball Python that I adore. Well for my birthday I was suprised with a beautiful baby albino ball! Not sure the gender but were thinking male anyways I named him meeko after my favorite disney character and he is an absolute sweetheart! My fiance had him hidden in our closet for a month to quarantine him. He also got a fecal done and he's parasite free! So he's healthy and so sweet he loves being out and held and i absolutely love him to death! Sorry I promise im getting to the point... ok so the people we bought him from said he only is interested in live mice so we went and bought a few and just like we feed our other ball we put meekp in a seperate box and dangled the mouse over him.... this didn't seem to work.. he just completely ignored the mouse and kept trying tog get out. So I was wondering if there are other ways of getting him interested? Also I was wondering if it was bad that I have him out with me for a good part of the day... he loves being out with me and were best friends.. I just don't want to get him sick or anything. I know this is long im sorry! I just wanna make sure my meeko has everything he needs

[Johan]

I hate to burst the balloon but snakes dont like being out with large potential predators. This is especially true for young snakes. You should not be handling your snake until it eats. The stress probably has her off feed. Having your snake out for a whole day is very bad. Even for a well adjusted adult this can be stressful. Pull back and give your guy some space. Sometimes too much love is too much

Good luck

[Adam Chandler]

Johan covered it pretty well. Ball Pythons are not the best "show" snakes. They are very secretive and sedative snakes that enjoy spending most of their time hidden away.

In my opinion you should let you snake hide and relax to the point were it starts eating again before taking her out again.

Also If your BP is not eating I can think of 4 possible things it may be:
1. Husbandry is somehow not right. Is her warm side over the UTH about 90 degrees?
2. Your BP does not feel secure and is stressed. Does it have at least 2 hides? Are they identical?
3. Maybe your BP doesn't like mice. Maybe try an appropriate sized rat.
4. Your BP is simply not hungry. BP's can go a long time without eating. During the breeding season my males typically don't eat for about 6 months with no ill effects. Although when they are young they tend to have a good appetite since they are growing so fast.

Also to increase the chance of you BP eating try offering the meal during either dawn or dusk. In the wild this is usually when BP's come out look for food.

You also may want to check out the BP.net caresheet, it has a ton of useful information:http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?127203-Ball-Python-(Python-regius)-Caresheet"]http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet[/URL]

[Homegrownscales]

I agree he's not eating because it sounds like with the frequent and long handling he's stressed out. Also if your dangling live thats another thing I've seen kinda freaks them out. With live I put the mouse/ rat in the tub and watch to make sure it doesn't hurt the snake. Dangling isn't very natural to them. With frozen thawed I half drag it on the ground about 6 inches away (with tongs) from their face to get them interested. Because he's new take a hands off approach with him until he's eating steady. When you dk handle after that don't have him out for the while day. I really only handle for like 10-20 min and then it's time for them to ho back to bed.

[Docile1]

Hi Azula,

I agree with much of the previous advice. Handling is cool after you've got a regular feeding schedule established just as long as the snake feels secure (doesn't constantly try to bolt) and is kept warm to prevent respiratory infection.

I've had good success feeding frozen/thawed mice by making sure they're warm - thawed in a plastic bag in warm water then put over a heat-lamp for 30+ seconds right before presenting - this last step seemed to make the difference.

If that doesn't work, you can try cutting into the mouse's head or abdomen to release even more scent (had to do this to get her to eat when I first got her) or soak the mouse in chicken broth (something I haven't tried but heard works great.)

Have you checked out Brian's snakebytes.tv on YouTube or at his BHBReptiles.com site? I think he's got an episode or two that deals with picky eaters.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll find a successful feeding technique that works.