Talking about rehoming my ball python.....

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Let me start with this: I LOVE Kallista. She's my adorable sweet girl.

However I dont' want to sound like I'm giving up or anything, but feeding her is a pain. She's picky, won't eat FT and there's nowhere cheap to buy live and breeding rats is not an option at all(Plus I love live rats too much I've realised to want to kill off baby rats to my snake).

I have a friend who used to have a python who she loved but had to get rid of due to school.

However her new aparment, they'd(her and her husband) would have to go through a lot with the people in charge of the apartment to allow pets........

Anyway, I feel sort of conflicted here. I hate getting rid of pets, but I don't do much with Kalli... And my main passion is with Crested Geckos. I love my geckos, think about them all the time, talk about them all the time, devote a large bit of my life to them.....

So I don't know, I just had to talk this out. I've had Kallista since August and she just doesn't take FT, she only likes live. It wasn't a problem awhile back, and we'll feed her live if we gotta feed her live....

Not sure really what to do....... :/ Also not sure how to go about giving her away.... Whether it's rehoming with a fee or whatnot.

[Crazy4Herps]

If keeping snakes is not your main interest and you're thinking of rehoming her, go ahead. This goes without saying, but just make sure you take the necessary steps to ensure she goes to a good home. As far as rehoming fees go, I don't think you should charge anything if you have a friend willing to take her, but if you're going to list an ad (I recommend FaunaClassifieds.com, you can register for free, or post an ad in the business section here), you could ask for maybe $20. When rehoming animals in ads I like to charge a small price because there are people who will jump on anything that's free, often times without necessarily understanding what they are getting into. Also as a side note, I would suggest that you stay away from shipping her. After a very traumatic shipping experience (with a happy ending, thankfully!) I only recommend shipping to people who sell reptiles regularly as a business. The certification process and the purchase of supplies as well as the risk in shipping imo is not worth the bother if you're only shipping one snake

For the record, that's the main reason why I am against beginner keepers acquiring snakes in their first year; I think we all need to be open minded about the fact that keeping any pet, no matter how cool they may seem at first, may not turn out to be the right thing for an individual. And while rehoming one snake is not an ordeal, finding homes for many is not as simple.

Anyways, it's entirely your decision, and I think that if that's something you want to do, there shouldn't be a stigma associated with it.

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Thanks for the reply!

I have her out with me now and I love her to bits. It'd be hard to rehome her and I definitely wouldn't charge a fee for a good friend. Fauna would be a good place to put an ad up if I really decided to do it.
I just don't know if I could get myself to. I love her a lot.... I'm thinking of seeing if I can 'wet' her appetite by giving her a live mouse then offering a FT rat... she seems disgusted after she realises it's dead though........

But I guess I'll think about it. I'm not going to rush this at all.
But lizards /are/ more my thing.....
I bought her with every intention of keeping her for a long time, but I think that it really is a learning experience, seeing what animals you like as pets and what animals you don't.
Twenty dollars seems fair for a rehoming price considering that's how much I did spend on her. It's hard though, to make decisions like this. Especially for me who often has trouble making decisions.

[Crazy4Herps]

I understand; it really is a difficult decision. How long have you had her? I don't think switching to f/t is a lost cause, but even if you can convert her that still doesn't mean feedings will be easy. My first bp was an extraordinary picky eater. I eventually did get her to take f/t after a long struggle, and now she will take f/t, but to this day (4 years later) she refuses food more often than she eats. I love her more than the world, but quite honestly, if I didn't have boas that will readily eat anything she doesn't want, I'm not sure I would be willing to handle all the stress and expense of throwing out food every week.

I wish I had an answer for you... At any rate, you're not in any rush to get rid of her so I guess you've got some time to think about it.

[fluffpuffgerbil]

I've had her since August...It was a lot of work to actually get her(As in, show my parents they are good pets, which took a lot, but they warmed up to me having a snake)...


I think I'm going to try what I can to get her to eat.... but I see her being like this all the time. :/

I've held her for the past couple hours and it's so relaxing and stuff to hold them. She's such a good girl, not head shy at ALL, tolerates being held incredibly well, curious, just not a good eater, though she's very healthy and I know they can go a long time without eating. She's only been refusing for for about two months now. She'll go on and off with FT, I think it depends on how hungry she is, the temperature of the rats, and how soon she strikes before she realises they are dead.


Yeah, not sure about rehoming her... I see more pros with her than cons.... I think I just really needed to talk out to someone who might understand more than my friends and family....

[Becs080]

I think you should try to F/T thing for a little longer if you're this conflicted about giving her up. If she's young then you should be able to do the switch. I've yet to fail at converting a BP (yearling and under) from L to F/T. However, I have failed Many a times trying to convert adult bps.

You should offer 1 X per week (F/T) and if she refuses she doesn't eat. Let her get hungry - hunger is the driving force often when it comes to this. Let her go for a few weeks - a month without food if she refuses. Try all the tricks - Braining, rubbing it on gerbil pee/bedding, zombie ray dance. Patience is the key here and it's your best friend. Don't stress, just try and if she refuses then move on and leave it for a week.

If you do decide to give her up then start with close friends and fam...anyone fit the bill to take her on? If not, fauna classified or even craigslist could work ask the potential buyer questions, test their knowledge...feel them out. Either way, it's a hard decision. All the best!

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Thanks so much! I'll keep her, at least for now and try all I can. She is 8 months old now.

I actually did let her go about 3 weeks without offering her food. Today I tried to feed, but she didn't take it. For the gerbil bedding, we used to have gerbils but not anymore. Will a petstore(like Petco) give you bedding if you asked?

[Annarose15]

I'm thinking of seeing if I can 'wet' her appetite by giving her a live mouse then offering a FT rat... she seems disgusted after she realises it's dead though........

If she's eating live mice, you need to try to switch to either live rats or F/T mice first, then to F/T rats - you're making her make too big of a jump all at once. And make sure it's warm enough when you offer - there are tons of threads on the forum about switching to F/T, if you haven't used the search function yet. If she refuses, just track her weight with a scale - time (a week, a month, three months) isn't nearly as important in waiting her out as watching her weight. I just can't see giving up an animal because it doesn't eat as often as I would like it to, even though it's healthy.

One add: Unless you're intending to feed her gerbils (I don't recommend), I would stay away from gerbil bedding. However, dirty mouse bedding would be worth a shot since mice are what she obviously likes.

[Slim]

just not a good eater

It sounds to me like she's not a good F/T eater. That doesn't mean she's a problem feeder if she'll eat live. The problem is you want her to be a F/T eater, and so far, she is not.

When making up your mind on something it helps to keep the apples in the apple barrel and the oranges in the orange basket.

Good luck.

[Rob]

You made a commitment to the animal and it sounds like a live eater so why not just feed it live? I'm assuming you knew what snakes ate when you bought it and I'm assuming you knew there was a chance it would eat live. Just because it won't take F/T isn't a reason to abandon the animal. One live rodent a week will not break the bank. My advice is to keep the animal you made a commitment to.