Refusing one food offering but accepting another?

[KaylaCHERiE]

I have a baby ball. 148g about 17 inches long. I have had him for two weeks and he eats every Saturday afternoon. The reptile 'expert' at the pet store told me he had eaten one frozen pinky mouse each of the two Saturdays he had been there. This week when I offered him a pinky he was more interested in eating my thumb rather than the mouse. (I use feeding tongs) Being that the pinky mice were really a little too small a meal for him and I only had two left I had purchased some fuzzies for next week's feeding... He immediately struck and ate the fuzzy when it was offered. Is it normal for him to refuse the pinky even though that is all he has ever eaten? If it matters at all I was just given a 6 month old ball (425 g 34 inches long) 5 days earlier who is eating one medium adult mouse per week. (Also on Saturdays)

[coldbloodaddict]

Pinkies are way too small mice, so are fuzzy mice...your guy can easily eat regular mice or lg rat fuzzies/small pups.

The 400 gram snake can eat bigger too...weaned or small rats.

[Tragic Image]

I'm feeding my 240 gram Bumblebee 2 adult mice at a time, every 5 days.

If I could get an easy supply of live rats I'd of already swapped.

[KaylaCHERiE]

I'm brand new to python ownership and have been bugging the crap.out of the guys at the pet shop. Thank you so much for the advice. Any other helpful tips are welcome.

[Drift]

Probably one of the better tips I can give you is to stop asking people at pet stores for advice.

No offense to anyone who works at a pet store or anything, but those places rarely hire people who know what they're doing, or train them properly so they can give good advice. In the worst cases they'll hire highschool students who aren't that interested in animals who treat it like just another job, and even the employees who actually own animals of their own seem to have some crazy ideas about their requirements that I'm sure they've picked up through their job, or talking to co-workers, etc. There are exceptions, but why bother when there's so many knowledgeable people and a means of getting multiple opinions and feedback on their advice through the internet.

Second piece of advice is that the only piece of equipment you specifically NEED to buy from a petstore is the decorations (if you must have them), and maybe the substrate. Everything else can be purchased elsewhere for cheaper, and you'll get a better product (this includes thermostat, heating device, enclosure, thermometer/hygrometer, and feeder rodents). Store prices for rodents are insane.

I guess if you're one of those people who really wants a heat lamp, you can also buy the bulb housings for pretty cheap at a hardware store. It's the exact same product with the exact same build at a fraction of the cost. (They also make good low-budget lighting for aquarium plants if you get the right spiral CFL's, but that's not the point here )

[pbyeerts]

My 6 month male BP eats a large mouse every Saturday, and he only weighs 225g

[Ripsaw642]

Just for reference, my 108g baby is eating fuzzy rats, about to move him to pups. If you can find rats, the sooner you switch the better. I would say he should be eating rat pups, or small adult mice.....

[KaylaCHERiE]

The guy at the pet store I go to with the majority of my questions claims to have bred Ball Pythons before so up until this point I have trusted him on everything. However, seeing as to how everyone on here is saying that Salazar's meals are WAY too small for him and Blake from the store says I shouldn't have moved to fuzzies yet, I think that I will refer to B-P.net from now on. He is a really nice guy, but I want my Scaly Babies to be happy, healthy, as living life to the fullest while they are a part of my family. I've already noticed that pet stores are overcharging but they say it's because they provide 'snake-specific' merchandise and that other similar products are not the best for pet snakes.

As I said, I am new to snake ownership and have taken them at their word on EVERYTHING. I paid $45 for Salazar and Nagini was given to me as a rescue. I have paid well over 2 grand buying tanks, heaters, décor, etc...From now on I will use almighty Google and my friendly-neighborhood forums.

[Drift]

I'm assuming 2 grand is an exaggeration... If not, that's ridiculous.

Pet store prices are higher because these animals are considered exotic, so everything for them is treated like a unique specialty item and I suspect most of the customers don't know any better. Case in point, ZooMed's slogan is "Save your reptiles"

Most of the time it's the manufacturers that set the prices that the stores are expected to sell at though.

Anyways... Pet industry is a bit of a personal peeve, but nothing new about it. Off my little tangent

[Pythonfriend]

about the BP refusing one food item, but then immediately going for a different one you offer:

they have a really good sense of smell. maybe the one you offered first wasnt right in some way, maybe it was rotten or had frostbite or something.

im speculating, but its the easiest explanation i have. like when a cat stands next to a half-full bowl of food and keeps screaming for food, and when you offer anything else, the cat goes crazy over it and just gulps it up. BPs are rhodent experts just like cats are catfood experts, and both have a sense of smell vastly superior to humans.


about the other things, i agree. when it comes to expert knowledge, this forum is the place to be. and for good deals on quality equipment, reptile shows and specialized online reptile supply dealers beat any pet shop almost every time. you have more products to choose from, and the prices are much more competitive, because they deal with larger volumes and can use places where they dont pay that much to a landlord.