Ball Python Food Question?

[led-zep]

so my point again is,lol..if this guy moves or relocates or just stops breeding his ASFs,what do you do now?

Bingo!

[Naom9Anne]

Are they triangular rather than healthy? How long have they been off food for and how often are you getting them to feed. Have you changed anything recently? Even the smallest thing? Handling?

Are they losing considerable weight?

[Crazymonkee]

I have a picky eater who not eat anything except live white mice. I even tried asfs and she wouldn't eat those either.
Check your parameters, how are you taking your temps. How often do they eat?
I believe something is off somewhere in the husbandry for both of them to be like this

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[sho220]

A BP's reluctance to switch back to normal rats after eating ASF's is yet another bp husbandry issue that has been blown way out of proportion by people with no first hand experience...here's a start...
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=imprinting

[NYHC4LIFE8899]

Well It sounds like you are going to get them regardless so I'd just try them then. What NYHC4LIFE8899 is trying to tell you is that once they start eating ASF it's hard to get them to switch back over once you need to. If it was me I would make every attempt to feed them Rats, whether it be F/T, Live, or whatever. Check and recheck humidity, temps, and substrate. Then if nothing at all will work after a month or so then by all means switch over, but only as a last resort.

Exactly my point and yes I'd make it last resort. I really couldn't find why any bp wouldn't eat reg rats or mice....,like you said..check substrate,humidity,temps etc....strong possibility something may be off. I know sometimes the switch from rats to mice is a pain,but I'd assume once they make a switch u can then feed um mice or rats easily,my guys take either.

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Bingo!

[NYHC4LIFE8899]

A BP's reluctance to switch back to normal rats after eating ASF's is yet another bp husbandry issue that has been blown way out of proportion by people with no first hand experience...here's a start...
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=imprinting

Sho,I've also heard that once a BP has a taste of gerbils and hamsters to get them to switch back is a pain in the back...so I guess it comes down to the individual snakes preference. No I don't have the experience of doing this,but I've read and heard and spoke to a lot of ppl,be it on here or in every day life and I always get different answers..best is to find out what works for every snake individually

[Mike41793]

Ive fed a gerbil and hamster before and it didnt even phase my ball. Idk, thats just one example though. Prey Imprinting is something that CAN happen but really isnt as common as people have made it out to be, IMHO

[DooLittle]

Yeah, I don't think the asf's are quite like the crack some people make them out to be. We used to breed asf's. We got out of the asfs because they take so much longer to grow to size. My snakes all now eat strictly rats. But they would eat both then. I even had a few that wouldn't touch the asf's...

[4theSNAKElady]

A BP's reluctance to switch back to normal rats after eating ASF's is yet another bp husbandry issue that has been blown way out of proportion by people with no first hand experience...here's a start...
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=imprinting

I agree 110%. I have balls that eat anything i offer, whenever for the mosy part. And i have a few in my collection that wont eat anything but asfs, and one that only likes mice. However, imo both your snakes are extremely light for their ages. If i were you, id do whatever i could to get them to eat and gain weight first, and then worry about switching later. I have a 1 year old female who sits at 1300g, even with some skipped meals, and a few 4 month olds who sit around 300-400g. I would think your main concern would be getting them to eat, no matter what the prey was. I definately would hit up that asf breeder for some feeder animals and maybe a trio to start breeding ur own. Good luck

sent from my incubator

[Phantomtip]

My girl was on an all rat diet from the day I got her till she went to live with my friends for a little over 1 1/2 yrs. They bred ASFs and she ate them just fine. Wehn I got her back she was on reg rats again because they fed off and sold their ASF colony. She had no problems. She's even eaten a chick or 2 while with them. I do feed her in her enclosure but when she was younger I fed her in a separate enclosure. She will eat what ever you give her if shes hungry. So the theory that a bp wont switch back is false.