Just thought I'd share a success story in progress. :)

[Ball Clan]

OK so a little back story on my old granite boy, Bryan. I've had him since 2005 and he is my oldest ball python (at least 15 years old).

Last year he stopped eating about June or so. At first I thought he was just off feed as sometimes he will do that for a couple of months at a time. But by October, he'd had only had one small meal since June and was losing weight. And my losing weight I mean he was starting to look pretty bad. So I had my vet look at him and we found that his mouth had an infection and was inflamed on the inside. So long story short it took two different rounds of antibiotic injections between November 2013 and February 2014, followed by a second antibiotic in early March that was added directly to the inside of his mouth. The infection finally cleared up after the topical medicine, but still no food since October. Meanwhile his weight, which ideally would be around 2400 grams or so, had fallen below 1900. He became weaker and would sometimes lay his head in its side and lay in very odd and unnatural positions. I really began to think he would die before I could help him. When he would be offered food he would show no interest and would simply turn away if the rat approached him. I really began to fear that the lack of nutrition was causing him as much risk as the infection had been so I decided to assist. Assist feeding proved impossible so in late March I resorted to tube feeding, which I did once a week for a month.

I left him be for about 2 weeks after 4 successful tube feeds of about 100cc, then in May he finally took a live rat. I gave him small ones so there was not as much of a contest. He ate 3 successive small rats on May 10 and another on May 24. He then fasted again until August. I was just about to start tube feeding again, but beginning in August, I have had increasing success getting him to eat small meals so I've just been giving him small meals (very small rats seem to work a lot of times, and he also has a taste for my dwarf hamster colony) as often as I can get him to take them, and finally, after nearly a year of struggling, he is finally starting to look like his old self again.

At his worst, he had fallen to 1830 grams, but here he is today, post shed and post poop, weighing in at 2210.


He still has a little way to go, but he has improved so much, and is acting healthy again.


I'll be honest, I really thought I was going to lose this guy, and I would have been completely devastated. Despite all of the cool fire, pastel, spider, and granite combos I've produced this year, this one is my baby, being the original and all.

Anyways, I just wanted to share his story because I'm really proud of the progress he's making, especially considering that I believe he's pretty old. I think it takes a fellow reptile hobbyist, rather than just your regular friends, to understand how much you can worry about "just a snake" just as much as they would care if they'd battled something life threatening with their dog or cat.