Problem Feeder

[rzreptile]

Hey guys and gals, so I am very much aware that ball pythons tend to go off feed from time to time sometimes for an extended amount of time without any issues. My question is when is enough enough. I have a het pied female that when I got her was my most aggressive feeder (as long as they prey was live) but now hasn't eaten in 3 months. She has lost right at 100 grams. I had originally attempted to convert her from live to f/t with no luck but that seems to be where her reluctance to eat started. She is kept in a 28 qt tub in the rack with all my other BP's paper as a substrate. I have tried pretty much everything I have read to entice her to eat I have tried different sized rats, tried mice. Tried moving her location, placed her in a smaller tub, with hide without hide etc. temp and humidity is correct. She sometimes she seems somewhat interested but only momentarily and generally just moves away from the prey item. I am not horribly concerned yet as she still looks pretty healthy however I can tell that she has lost the weight. Thanks for looking.


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[purple python]

I had a male in the exact same situation. Three months without eating and I tried everything to tempt him back into eating. I was pretty frustrated and worried when he had visible weight loss but he was still active and strong. I tried not to bug him too much in my endeavors however. If he turned away from it and clearly wanted nothing to do with it, that was the end of it and I let him be for another week.

I had him in a 28qt tub on news paper and decided to move him into a 34qt one day. The next feeding, offered a live mouse again and this time I made sure he was in complete darkness (which I had already tried). After only a moment he struck and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I offered a small/weanling rat shortly after since he was all fired up from the mouse and he took that too. He is now eating like a champ and even converted to f/t. Gained every gram back and more.

This is what worked for me for this snake.

Different things work for different snakes. For another bp I had, it was switching substrate from news paper to cypress that got him to eat. For a blood python, getting him to eat again was as simple as laying the f/t rat in the tub and letting him be.

I would say keep trying but don't be overbearing and stress them out. They will eat when they are ready.

[rzreptile]

Good news! She finally broke her fast. Don't know if she was just ready or the fact that I changed her back to cypress bedding from paper.


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