feeding issues

[steve349]

Hey yall, having issues getting my ball to eat, just got him from petsmart maybe 3 and a half - 4 weeks ago and he hasn't yet eaten. Ive been trying to feed frozen thawed fuzzies, thawed then heated with a blow dryer at first, then thawed and heated in hot water, didn't go for either. Brained a mouse the last time and he still completley ignores it. so i decided to try a live feed and naturally he ignores it except to run away, Ive been offering on roughly a 6-7 day schedule although I'm becoming less and less patient due to my concern for his body weight which seemed to be a little bit less within the past week, so after he refused the live I attempted to assist feed him a frozen thawed fuzzy, i think the failure had more to do with my lack of experience then him, but how can i make sure i don't overly stress him and get him to take food. I should be able to do a better job assist feeding if i got someone to lend me an extra set of hands but i don't know. I guess the big question is should I ignore the schedule and focus simply on making him take the food or keep to the schedule and risk him losing more body weight? He shows no signs of a shed, tank temps and humidity have been very spot on.

[satomi325]

Hey yall, having issues getting my ball to eat, just got him from petsmart maybe 3 and a half - 4 weeks ago and he hasn't yet eaten. Ive been trying to feed frozen thawed fuzzies, thawed then heated with a blow dryer at first, then thawed and heated in hot water, didn't go for either. Brained a mouse the last time and he still completley ignores it. so i decided to try a live feed and naturally he ignores it except to run away, Ive been offering on roughly a 6-7 day schedule although I'm becoming less and less patient due to my concern for his body weight which seemed to be a little bit less within the past week, so after he refused the live I attempted to assist feed him a frozen thawed fuzzy, i think the failure had more to do with my lack of experience then him, but how can i make sure i don't overly stress him and get him to take food. I should be able to do a better job assist feeding if i got someone to lend me an extra set of hands but i don't know. I guess the big question is should I ignore the schedule and focus simply on making him take the food or keep to the schedule and risk him losing more body weight? He shows no signs of a shed, tank temps and humidity have been very spot on.

Can you describe your husbandry and set up?
90% of the time when a baby goes off feed, it's due to husbandry or environmental factors.
Is he in a high traffic area? How big is he? (weight in grams)

Don't offer food so often. Keep to the once a week schedule for now. Offering food too often can actually be counterproductive in trying to get him to eat.
Do not handle or bother him for the entire week either.

[steve349]

cypress substrate an inch deep, a "climbing" branch" water dish 2 hides, one on the 88-90 degree side one on the 80-85 degree side, i lower temps to 73-78 degrees at night hes on a counter right past the entrance to my room im usually the only one passing the tank, plastic foliage its a 20 gallon. I attempt to feed him in a plastic tub. I don't have a scale to weigh him with but hes about 15 inches fully extended. humitidy is between 50-60 percent 95% of the time. I think some of my problems might be from petsmart having force fed him everytime he was scheduled to eat. not sure.

[satomi325]

Ok. Sounds like a baby. A 20 gallon may be too large for him and he's just being really insecure.
I suggest either:
1) putting more clutter in the enclosure. Put more fake plants, more hides, crumpled balls of newspaper. Anything to make the space less open.
2) Block off half of the enclosure temporarily so it becomes a smaller area for him. You can remove the divider once he's large enough
3) Or use a temporary smaller enclosure for the mean time.

Babies can stress out easily from being in a large space.
You can also block out the back and sides of the tank with black paper or a background. It will help him not feel so exposed.

And feed him in his enclosure. Moving him back and forth to a separate feeding tub is stressful and he's not comfortable eating out in the open like that. Some snakes can feed fine in a separate tub, but they have very strong feeding responses. As your snake is not an established feeder yet, I would not move him. Half of my snakes will not eat if moved. They feel safe and secure in their own home enclosures. And they don't develop cage aggression. That's a petstore myth.

When you feed him, I suggest trying a live hopper mouse.

So if you make some of the changes I suggested and leave him totally alone for a week, I would try feeding him again.

[steve349]

I'll try a couple and post results in a week, thank you!

[steve349]

thatll do, Just needed to keep him in the tank for dinner time, he took down two fuzzies with no issues