Eat Fluffy!! Eat!!!

[fluffy3]

I made my snake (Fluffy) picky I was feeding him wrong fuzzy mice once a week for 3 feeds before I had found out that wasnt enough The first 2 rat pup meals went down quicker than a cold beer on a hot day thats because the poor guy was starving!! next one he refused Someone suggested I sent the rat with the left over mice I had The next week I thought fluffy was starving NOPE turned it down!! So I dug the frozen mouse out rubbed it on the warmed rat and He ate it!!! next feed I didnt even offer the rat before I sentedand it went down fast! This time I forgot to sent what a disaster!! he has "killed" this poor rat 3 times now its been sented and re-heated!! I think I will have panic attacks if he ever goes off his food for any length of time
what kind of feeding problems have you all had and what are the most creative solutions you have tried????

[Kinra]

I made my snake (Fluffy) picky I was feeding him wrong fuzzy mice once a week for 3 feeds before I had found out that wasnt enough The first 2 rat pup meals went down quicker than a cold beer on a hot day thats because the poor guy was starving!! next one he refused Someone suggested I sent the rat with the left over mice I had The next week I thought fluffy was starving NOPE turned it down!! So I dug the frozen mouse out rubbed it on the warmed rat and He ate it!!! next feed I didnt even offer the rat before I sentedand it went down fast! This time I forgot to sent what a disaster!! he has "killed" this poor rat 3 times now its been sented and re-heated!! I think I will have panic attacks if he ever goes off his food for any length of time
what kind of feeding problems have you all had and what are the most creative solutions you have tried????

I don't think you made your snake picky, some just prefer mice to rats. I'm not sure how long you'll have to scent your rats if that's what you want to feed him. You could always offer more than one prey item if that would be easier than scenting rats.

Feeding at my house is interesting.

I have two BPs that will eat anything (my normal and spider), I don't even think it needs to be warm. They are the easiest to feed, but my spider has to have it offered to him. If it's not dangling in front of him he doesn't know what to do. I accidentally dropped the rat pup when I was trying to feed him the other day and he kept coming after me looking for food not realizing it was behind him. When he finally realized I didn't have it and he found it, he managed to bite him self instead of the rat.

My two spotnoses don't know what to do if I offer them food. They just get scared and strike at it defensively, so I've learned all I need to do is drop it in their tub and they can figure it out from there.

And last but not least my pastel yb is a pain to feed. She won't eat if I leave in her tub over night, and she's really not to happy when you try to feed her. It took me 3 feeding attempts to figure out how she wanted to be fed. Basically you don't believe her when she strikes defensively, she'll eventually ball up and then you have to hold it above her and she eventually realizes it's food.

[blackcrystal22]

Ball pythons will go off feed sometimes.

You just have to wait it out. Unless it's going months without eating, I wouldn't worry about it.

It sounds like your ball python is eating fast because the meal is too small. Make sure to get a rat/mouse that's about the same thickness as the thickest point on his body for a good hearty meal.

[blushingball419]

Well, first it took quite a few attempts to switch mine from live to frozen, and then after that I had to switch her from mice to rats. The biggest thing I've found is that sometimes the f/t prey just isn't warm enough, so even after I've thawed and heated it up in warm water, I also use a hair dryer on it for a few minutes. She's been loving f/t ever since I figured that out

I also had to scent my rats with mice at first too. But after 3 or 4 feedings she was good. Every bp is different, and some are pickier than others. Sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to get them to eat. But as was already mentioned, as long as he's a good weight, I wouldn't worry if he misses a couple meals. They can go for quite awhile without eating.

It sounds like he's definitely hungry though, so I'm sure he'll start eating well for you eventually. Patience is the best trait to acquire when dealing with bps