New adopted baby BP will not not eat, help.

[Bellabob]

So my brothers friends wife works at petsmart. She knows I keep snakes and called and said that there was a BP free of charge at petsmart that day. I said ok and went to pick it up. When I first saw it, it had some pretty bad stuck shed, and looked a little skinny. She said that the former owner said it had mites but treated it and that they're gone now (she was right, there are no mites on the snake).

I took the little girl home and gave her a warm bath to help with the stuck shed. I put her on moist paper towels and she shedded it all off. I waited a day and then tried feeding her, and she wasn't interested. Waited a day, tried feeding again, not interested. Shes now in a little critter keeper plastic enclsosure with a hide and cypress mulch. She's pretty skinny and apparently hasn't eaten in 4 weeks.

All I would like is some suggestions on ways to make her eat. Thanks.

[ChrisS]

Give her time to settle in, and keep her well hydrated. Wait a week then offer her food. Also keep her away from your other snakes and don't work with her before your others snakes. Also some pics would be nice so we could see how skinny she is. Just make sure husbandry is top notch and keep humidity a little higher.

[John1982]

It's hard to maintain the proper temperature gradient in one of those little plastic critter carriers(let alone humidity). Get her setup right and time to settle in and she'll likely be more inclined to eat. Here's a care sheet to get you started.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

[Kymberli]

Seems like they covered most of what I was going to say. S/he really just needs proper husbandry and time to settle in. Unless the BP is incredibly emaciated, 4 weeks without food won't kill it. So don't worry about when the last time it ate was (at the moment), worry about the housing first and proper quarantine.
After setting up proper housing, not a plastic critter keeper, leave it alone for about one week. Unless it seriously soils its enclosure (which is unlikely considering it hasn't eaten) then you should not need to handle the snake at all and should only need to open the enclosure to give it fresh water.

Once you're ready to feed it, if it doesn't accept f/t try a live prey that is slightly smaller than what it would typically eat. Start small and slowly increase the size of the meals. Stuffing it with large meals after it has clearly been off feed for a long period can do more harm than good.


If you still can't get him/her to eat, message me. The three BPs I have at the moment were all "rescues", if you will, that refused to eat for their owners. One was on a ten month feed strike. I know a few tricks to get them to eat.

[WesSmith21]

You could try braining the pinkie to get the snake more interested (f/t of course) or you could try heating the pinkie with a blow dryer or something.. my ball didnT eat the first time i offered it food so i just used a blow dryer to heat it up and my ball took it right away

Good luck, hope your ball eats soon!

[ChrisS]

You could try braining the pinkie to get the snake more interested (f/t of course) or you could try heating the pinkie with a blow dryer or something.. my ball didnT eat the first time i offered it food so i just used a blow dryer to heat it up and my ball took it right away

Good luck, hope your ball eats soon!

Wait a pinkie? Please tell you aren't feeding your bp pinkies. A hatchling bp can eat adult mice. Pinkies are for baby corns and other colubrids not bps.

[WesSmith21]

Wait a pinkie? Please tell you aren't feeding your bp pinkies. A hatchling bp can eat adult mice. Pinkies are for baby corns and other colubrids not bps.

Yes pinkies, i started him off with 2 pinkies. He wasnt interested in anything bigger. Obviously im going tomove up to bigger sizes but i wanted to get him a couple meals first. He's a picky little guy for some reason

[sharkrocket]

Aside from what others have said, attempting a feed that often might stress your snake out. It's usually recommended to wait about 5 days before offering food again.

[canzoman]

I use African Soft Fur Rat scent on my picky eaters. Usually get good results.