female pin suddenly changed?

[jharris08]

ive got a female pin & shes about 300-400 grams... Ive had her for 3 months and she was feeding like a charm every 5 days on f/t rat pups. I was feeding her in a separate enclosure every time w/o any problem...about 3-4 weeks ago she started acting stressed all the sudden (crawling around a lot & not staying under her hides) and it was taking some work to get her to take food...then she went through a shed a few days ago and now she wont take rats at all..whether its in her cage or not...only thing I changed at all was I re-positioned her hides about that time...didnt think that would be a big deal?? any suggestions to why she all of the sudden became fussy

[Skittles1101]

ive got a female pin & shes about 300-400 grams... Ive had her for 3 months and she was feeding like a charm every 5 days on f/t rat pups. I was feeding her in a separate enclosure every time w/o any problem...about 3-4 weeks ago she started acting stressed all the sudden (crawling around a lot & not staying under her hides) and it was taking some work to get her to take food...then she went through a shed a few days ago and now she wont take rats at all..whether its in her cage or not...only thing I changed at all was I re-positioned her hides about that time...didnt think that would be a big deal?? any suggestions to why she all of the sudden became fussy

She's probably hungry. A rat pup for a 300-400 gram snake is quite small, even on a 5 day feeding schedule. At the least I'd switch to weaned rats, maybe even switch to small rats once she takes a few weaned. A hungry ball python with roam.

[jharris08]

i actually offered a weanling rat 2day for the first time...even left it under her hide for bout 30 mins...she acted interested, but then started roaming around the cage again and left it alone....she seems stressed, but I can figure out why , since she was doing great & I didnt change anything except the hides?

[majorleaguereptiles]

I'm guessing you put her hides back in their former spot after all this? Sometimes the climate changes in your area can change ball pythons and their feeding habits. I would suggest making sure the husbandry is correct, and then just give her some space, meaning not bug her for a week or two, then try to feed. I imagine she will be just fine. Is she in a tub or tank? What is the heating source?

[majorleaguereptiles]

Also how do you present your F/T? You try feeding at night? Try heating up the head of the rat with a blow dryer? Try feeding in it's own enclosure?

[jharris08]

shes in a tank...heated by bulb during the day and UTH at night. I did move the hides back and Ive read about the suggested things to get them to feed like , feed at night, hair dryer, in their enclosure, etc...but I never had to do that with her for the first 3 months ive had her...just thawed and put in hot water for a couple minutes and she would take just fine...I'll leave her be for a few days and try to feed her at night, maybe she will be more comfortable in the dark.

[jharris08]

just an update...most of the night b4 I went to bed and as soon as the lights came on this morning, she is crawling relentlessy in a circular pattern around the enclosure! she goes under each hide & comes right back out, then makes her way to front of cage and pushes on it trying to get out, and then repeats the process....its like theres some scent or something driving her crazy??shes done this ever since she shed 6 days ago... idk im pretty confused & frustrated.

[heathers*bps]

Can you post pics of your setup? What are the temps and humidity?

[jharris08]

yea Ill post a pic when I get home from work...I know my temps probably need to come up at night since I just have the UTH...the ambient temps away from it are in the 70-75 range at night, but 85 during the day... im going to a reptile show in 3 weeks, so Im going to get CHE's for both my balls and use reostats. Humidity stays about 60% most of the time right now (b/c of the furnace running in the house) until I spray the cage down in the evening..funny thing is that I have my male in the same enclosure on the other side of a divider with the same temps and he is doing great.

[benwallage9]

I've heard it is quite common for snakes to go of food around this size here is a link to a video that talks about it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFB3Pa1SDhs

this is justin from jkobyla reptiles