Feeding question

[crazyj83]

Hey everyone, I was just wondering if I could get some help (if needed). The issue I'm having is both my 708+gr female and my 1397gr male have not taken food since nov 17th. At that time my female was at 808gr and ate a sm rat. My male was at 1460gr and took a med rat. Now I have always feed live and on a 7-10 day schedual. I have tried a few feeds and they show no interest, I think my female me be a little shy to live now due to last feeding attempt the rat bite her and she now rather try to escape then eat. Any ideas what I can do to get them to eat? Do I even need to worry about it? My husbandry is right on spec and both bps dont show any sagging or wrinkles.. do I just need to chill and let them be?

[VEXER19]

Have you tried feeding P/K or F/T?

[crazyj83]

Have you tried feeding P/K or F/T?

Yeah tried pk once, no go, I tried live again, no go so I got two frozen in the freezer now, tryin to figure out when to try them. I just hate to waste rats. Once they thaw I cant refreeze...

[Mike41793]

No you can refreeze them. I have heard of members refreezing them 2 or 3 times.

[VEXER19]

Ever thought of trying mice ans see how they react to a smaller portion. You just have to feed them like 4-5 depending on the size.

[VEXER19]

Or weaned or pups if you wanna stay with rats.

[crazyj83]

No you can refreeze them. I have heard of members refreezing them 2 or 3 times.

Ok so I can just thaw them out, heat with blow dryer and feed or do I need to microwave them? I figured once I nuked one I couldent refreeze..

[RobNJ]

I wouldn't refreeze...nor would I microwave rodents.

I also wouldn't worry about your snakes not feeding for a while if you're sure you're keeping them properly and they otherwise seem fine.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Based on their size, and rate of weight loss, I would say just monitor their weight, and don't stress over it. They've only lost around 50 grams per month, which is normal for a fasting ball python.

It's entirely possible that she's hit 'puberty', and he's interested in her, which is why they're both not eating. It is the breeding season. (Females often go off feed over the winter during adolescence--2 of my females in that weight range have done so as well).
If so, she will pick up eating in the spring and put on weight like crazy.

[k8nkane]

Don't microwave the rats. Put them in a container filled with hot water. After 10 mins, check on them. When their bellies are thawed through and nice and squishy, they're good to go. I usually put mine in front of my space heater for about a minute afterwards, both to dry them and put out some heat for my bp to aim for.