Ball Python that wont eat on her own

[Annarose15]

I'll give it a try, its getting pretty rediculous Ive tried all sorts of prey items f/t and live. I can tell she has a good feeding response she just doesnt strike, shes kindof a spaz I think. I have had her for over a year and am keeping her in a rack with 2 hides, water dish, and husbandry is nominal. Shes not a stressed out snake and is fine in her tub and while being held but when food pops up she starts doing her thing.

I have a female pied that acts similarly. She's an 8/2010 hatch from a big-name breeder. I got her this past spring at 300g, and now she's up to ~550g. She only eats one or two meals in a row, then strikes for 6-8 weeks. Feeding just isn't that important to her; I also have a crazy theory that her conditions were just too perfect in his facility, so she's still pouting about having to live in my house . Her first meal with me was 3 months after I got her. She obviously understands the concept of food, so I will never assist feed her. She just obviously isn't going to grow as quickly as I would have liked. That's what I get for expecting her to follow my plans!

[Domepiece]

I'd definately try waiting her out a little seeing If the ft trick may happen to work but if that doesn't I'd give her awhile and offer a live mouse weekly. Eventually she'll eat it. She wont starve. Even if she goes let's say 2 months it won't hurt her and you can go back to assisting. What I'm getting from this though is you want to stop assisting. So it may take just waiting her out. Observe and monitor weight of course but it won't hurt her.


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Yep shes def got enough reserves to go quite a while and yes I would love to stop assist feeds. It only takes a minute with her but still. I have 20+ and feeding time takes a while sometimes. I guess I just dont have the time to sit around for an hour trying to entice her. I was just trying to find out when enough is enough and I guess that time is now. Im gonna try the overnight f/t in a blacked out tub or throwing some weinling mice in with her for a while and see if that works. I just never had this issue before and didnt know how long these issued lasted and when I should draw the line. lol since it seems nobody has assist fed for this long I'm assuming its been going on too long, I feel like shes just getting spoiled and letting me do all the hard work. Thanks for the advice, I'll update when she figures it out.

[Domepiece]

I have a female pied that acts similarly. She's an 8/2010 hatch from a big-name breeder. I got her this past spring at 300g, and now she's up to ~550g. She only eats one or two meals in a row, then strikes for 6-8 weeks. Feeding just isn't that important to her; I also have a crazy theory that her conditions were just too perfect in his facility, so she's still pouting about having to live in my house . Her first meal with me was 3 months after I got her. She obviously understands the concept of food, so I will never assist feed her. She just obviously isn't going to grow as quickly as I would have liked. That's what I get for expecting her to follow my plans!

I know the feeling. Maybe she just doesnt like me lol. When I first got her I let her go a while just thinking she needed to acclimate but she got to a point that I wasnt comfortable with so I decided to intervene and now shes been packing on the grams. I think shes just likes making me feed her instead of having to do the hard work herself. I just was trying to determine how long was long enough so I'm gonna put a little extra time in with her and try some different tactics and hopefully little bugger will figure things out. Thanks for sharing.