Newish baby

[OJ_and_JR]

Hi, we have a young ball python that was donated to a bio class. I think I may need so.e help feeding. I haven't got to give him his second meal and his first took a couple of attempts before he actually accepted anything. He/she is in a terrarium on coconut shred with a dimming UTH on one side under a 40 watt lamp, under the lamp it is about 85 and his hot hide around 90 his cool side is high 70s low 80s. Humidity is hard but between 60% and 40% misting often With a big water dish. He ate 2 weeks after we got him. And just finished its first shed ( a good one ). We are offering frozen thawed small mouse, which he ate 2 a little over 2 weeks ago today, yesterday and today we attempred to recreate the situation to no avail.


Actually he took about two weeks to eat and we waited a week to try. He refused to even pay attention to the dancing mice pinkies on the forceps. (Duh too small for him! But strikes at me all the time) we would try early morning before the light goes on and give him/her a little show and then leave the mouse alone with him for a while, nothing. But when I gave him a small mouse of course he rejected the wiggling..... but, 20 min later he came out and wrapped him up. Now he acts funny, real funny when we try, he gets all active normally he is invisible in the hide or another camo spot. But when trying to offer him food he is out all over the tank and trying to slither up up and opening his mouth and tounge flickin and basically acting all comando- performer all that day, out and hunting about, but ignores our frozen/thaws. Oh yeah we decided to feed him in the tank cause we do not want to stress him out-which im sure I am with all the dancing mouse stuff anyway. I thought maybe out of tank feeding woyld make the warm mouse more visible to him once though but have not tried.

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[OJ_and_JR]

Still no action, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, maybe i need to up the size again? Is this normal, say first meal one size, second meal a little bigger and third meal bigger still? the "small mice" are just about exactly his girth, dont really want to buy the wrong food size.

[scalrtn]

Have you tried leaving the pinkies/feeders with him in the cage (and giving him privacy)? It's also important to insure that f/t's are warmed just right....not too hot, and not to cold. Not sure it will help, but I thaw my feeders in soiled mouse bedding, and then take a blow-dryer and scent the room with the feeder for about a minute prior to offering it. Here is a link that may also be helpful ....

http://jkrballstreetjournal.com/2014...-eating-again/

[CORBIN911]

Also he looks quit big... id give him either rat weanling to a smaller small rat.... Aswell take ur cage and put Black paper or w.e color around 3 sides, only exposing front(more secure) bcz if its in a bio class it will be stressfull for a bit so he will decline meals, I think your best bet is to warm the rat/mouse before you leave and drop it in (warmside) if he doesnt strike.. by morning its gone

[OJ_and_JR]

Thanks guys for chiming in. I hope he does look good and big, but i dont want him to start getting skinny, Maybe move up to small rat pup, it seemed like that is why he/she rejected our offerings, wrong size, i will try and weigh him. His cage is blacked out, and he is in the lab, not the classroom so he really gets minimum kids in there, and when they are, he is usually invisible. I am going to try this weekend with a blow dryer Is the mouse being too cool making it invisible? I warm them in warm water in their bags for 10 min. He looks like he is hunting for the meal when its in with him, we give him privacy as in leave the lab for about an hour, but I worry about leaving him in there with a thawed mouse for too long, you know bacteria and everything, but overnight is ok? hmmm. What about his poop, he has only left urates since we got him, should we wait for him to defaecate before we feed/? I read that was not necessary.

[Pythonfriend]

their eyes are not that important for hunting, its mostly their sense of smell and the heat pits. and i guess he smells there is something going on.

so maybe the food item isnt warm enough. that could also explain why he is more interested in your hand than in the food item.

overheating the food item is also bad, i think the best suggestion is the hair dryer. blast it with a hair dryer to drive up surface temperature directly before feeding.

BPs dont poop as often as they eat, so just keep feeding. it may take 4 meals until they poop once.

[OJ_and_JR]

Here is a size frame reference pic, little guy/gal being held by a normal 7 year old

[MrLang]

I would say a rat pup or adult mouse is fine for that size. Are you able to offer in the evening after dark? Also make sure to leave 5 days or so between attempts or you could stress him to further reject. You also want to make sure there is lots of privacy and security in the tank. Good luck and if he starts to lose weight please consider offering live prey as ball pythons can be tricky to get eating F/T consistently.

[CORBIN911]

Here is a size frame reference pic, little guy/gal being held by a normal 7 year old

Well much smaller in that picture, but yea Rat pup to Rat weanling i think would be good.

[OJ_and_JR]

Well he took another small mouse today he has three left, maybe try to get rid of them on a slightly quicker interval, and buy some little rats.