Ginger still isn't eating

[pbyeerts]

Today marks 2 months since Ginger has eaten. I downsized her enclosure, have tried her usual food f/t rats, and also f/t mice. She did have a perfect shed a few weeks ago. She's 15 months.

So do I just ride this out? I have no idea where to get live food for her, and am too squeamish to do that anyway. Any other ideas???? Thanks, Pamela

[bcr229]

Monitor her weight and ride it out.

[hijacked]

Im no expert, but i would think live food would be the next step. You have to go to a pet shop, not one of the large chain pet supply stores. They will have live food there.
Honestly, its not much to see. My girlfriend wouldnt watch them eat live prey either. She soon got over it. It happens so fast, that its really not as gruesome as you might think. Good luck, i really hope things get better for you and your snake.

[MarkS]

Yeah, a digital scale is a nice thing to have. (here's the one I've got... ) Fasting for several months isn't a bad thing as long as they're not losing too much weight.

[dakski]

I also have female ball python. She has eaten F/T the whole time she has been with me (she is over 2 now and I have her for over about 1 3/4 years).

On several occasions, she has gone weeks without eating, and when she hit about 900 grams, wouldn't eat for several months. It was kind of an adolescent thing I guess.

She went from about 920 Grams to about 880 grams over 3 months and was still happy and healthy.

A lot of people say go to live, and that might entice them to eat faster, but then you might have trouble getting her back on frozen.

My advice is to get a scale, as recommended, and monitor her weight. They can go a while without eating and can use very little energy. As long as she doesn't look too thin, and is not losing substantial weight, I would wait it out.

Don't overstress her by offering food too much. Just keep offering every 7-10 days (or whatever your schedule was) and she will eventually take (I assume).

I have a corn snake and a ball python. The main difference is I dictate when the corn eats (he eats whenever I offer food) and the ball python dictates when she eats. She eats when she wants. Since the fast, she has been eating pretty regularly and has gone from about 880 grams to almost 1100 grams in a several months.

Bottom line: Don't sweat it too much, but get a scale so you can sleep easy.

[Foolish1]

Does she have a hide? I just dealt with this and read a bunch. Take her out of her enclosure and clean her whole tank down. Pythons don't eat sometimes when they can smell themselves due to in their mind their prey can smell it too. Make her a new hide. Clean cage. Take the ft and put it in the cage right outside of her new hide. Put your baby in the cage with the mice in it already. Then throw a dark blanket or sheet over her whole enclosure. Let her be for a few hours. If she doesn't eat. Wait a day. Take her out for a half hour or so and let her relax. Put a new mouse in and throw her back in the cage. I know people say handling them before feeding is bad. But my snakes love to move around and once they get their blood flowing I put them in and they are ready to eat. Just my thoughts I'm no expert.

[barbie.dragon]

2 months is not very long. At that age mine didn't eat for 5 months
Now she wants a medium rat every week. What a pig...