Previously attacked ball won't eat, losing weight

[Parysa]

I posted about my ball who had been attacked by a rat. She's healed up now, but still refusing. She was new and hadn't eaten since I got her and is now losing weight. I've tried F/T, live watched very closely, scenting with gerbil, different colored rats, different sizes. I'm going to try mice, but after that, I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions? She doesn't seem uninterested as much as scared. I've zombie-danced and let them just lay and she still tries to get as far away as possible. I don't know what to try if mice don't work. I don't have access to ASFs.

[The Serpent Merchant]

How often are you offering food?

[Parysa]

And she's in a tub, temps 89 hot, 80-81 ambient, 57% humidity.
Edited to reply. Once per week when I feed all my snakes.

[Cissin]

Is she a baby? Just a suggestion but I had a baby bumblebee who would not eat. I put her inside a 6 quart tub with just a hide and a little water bowl. Once she was inside her hide I placed a F/T Rat Pinkie halfway inside the opening of the hide. Within an hour she took it and has been eating great since. If you don't have a small tub try the brown paper bag trick. Put the snake inside with a F/T Mouse or Rat, staple or tape the bag shut and just put the whole bag back inside your tub. Give it a few hours and check to see if it worked.

[Parysa]

She's not a baby. She's about 350g. I'll try the paper bag trick next time. Thanks.

[Cissin]

No problem at all. I've never tried it. Snake Bytes TV (BHB Reptiles) talks about it in some of their feeding videos and I've heard about it many times while researching how to get stubborn ball pythons to eat. Just put the snake in something small where it really doesn't have much room to move and put the food item in there with it. Usually they will just eat it.

[Diamond Serpents]

Put a almost weaned rat in there over night with her. The rat this size is to small to cause any damage to her put it in there at 10pm turn out the light in the room and just leave her alone check in the morning. Rat should be gone if not take it out try again that night.

This is how I deal with my picky eaters to get them to start eating again.

[Samii]

I've been successful with the paper bag trick when my new ball wouldn't eat. Once she was locked in that bag she ate right away and hasn't had any problems since !

[steve_r34]

i just got a recent baby and he is very light weight only like 80 grams .. so i figured when i but the mouse in he would shy away and he did as soon as the mouse ran up to him he got scared and tried to crawl out of his tub so what i did was take the mouse by his tail and dangled it in front of the snake and he took it no prob .. u can try that with her i now a mouse is nothing to a 350 but it might get her eating again

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does the paper bag trick work with bigger snakes i thought it was just for hatches

[foobar]

Had such a case here too. Was driving me nuts, tried much, but ended now up in: small box (in a rack) and the front is covered with a black pond liner (not sure how you call that over there, but anything that is dark and covers should do it). I also put the opening of the hide in another direction than the front, so he doesn't get bothered that much when I open the box. Did that setup last Weekend and tried yesterday to feed him with something between rat pup and rat hopper (it couldn't hurt him) in the middle of the night. Put it calm but quickly in, closed to box and went out of the room. Bang. Job done.

The male has ~490 grams, so it was an easy pray. I will now let that setup stay till he feeds another few times. The F/T with long tweezers just stressed him even more, I figured that doesn't help at all. I think make her feel as safe as possible is best you can do. Good luck with yours!