Picky eater... not not eating

[muydesso]

I am having issues with my male bp. He is very skiddish and is afraid of anything that moves including mice and or baby rats. Im not sure how old he is, but he weighs 520g. I've only been able to get him to ever eat mice not rats. He will eat a few meals then go on "strike". Before anyone asks i'll tell you that I keep him in a boaphile rack system with heat tape set for a hot spot of 94 degrees and it is 79 degrees on the cold side with humidity at 40-60 %. I am checking temps with an ir temp gun and an accurite thermometer/hygrometer. I have a thermostat hooked up to regulate my temps. I do not handle him or bother in his tub unless i am changing the water. My question is, does anyone have any advice on how to get my bp eating again?

[DooLittle]

Bps can be very tricky. You have to find their groove, what works for them. And even then they still may not eat. I have a 500 gram mojave that won't eat anything other than/or bigger than a live rat pup. How do you feed? In tub, live or f/t? Also, imo, 94 may be a bit too hot for them.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

[shadow120]

i know people will ask so... what size tub is he in? 2 hides? how offten are you offering food? when he goes on strike how long?

[kitedemon]

Some are just like this.

I find 94 a bit high is the animal always on the cool side especially after eating? The next question is what is the ambient air temps ? I am guessing close to 80 but it really is just a guess. I have a few fussy animals one in particular she is a WC and a rescue. I have played endlessly to get her feeding consistently. there is no correlation between yours and mine but I found she feeds better in an enclosure than the rack. I also adjusted her temps so that she was on the cool side 80% and 20% warm or so. Her temps were 90/80/83 she was always on the cool side so I dropped the cool end to 78ºF the ambient I hold that same to 80 and the hot side is 88º she also is a mouse feeder (I am going to try to switch soon ... again) She went from 8 meals a year, to 29 not every week but most of them. I would very carefully observe the animal and make adjustments based on his behaviour. Every animal seems to have its own quirks.

[muydesso]

Thanks for the relpies... I am offering once a week. He goes on trike for about a month and a half to two months. He has one hide which i keep in the middle of the enclosure. I had two, he defecated inside of one, I dropped it when i was cleaning it and it broke. No stores around me carry the right size hide. He has eaten since only having on hide. Ill lower the temps and see if that provides me with any results.

[muydesso]

**replies** rushing to type while at work. Thats what i get for multi-tasking.

[FoxReptiles]

I had recently picked up some Large hides so that I could upgrade some of my larger balls and pass the medium hides down to smaller sub-adults. The ball pythons that had the new larger hides started to feed irregularly and spent a LOT of time trying to get under the paper in their enclosures.

After a few weeks of this, I figured they weren't going to get used to the larger hides and ordered 3 more medium hides from reptile basics. They really do love tight fitting hides and having a hide of the same size on both the hot and cool side can give them the most freedom to choose to be where they are happiest.

I recently made the change back to medium hides, but am hoping it will clear-up the irregular behavior and get them eating more regularly. I wish I could get away with no hides since I use tubs, but I tried that for a while and ended up giving in and putting the hides back in.

*sigh* Silly pythons!