Need some feeding advice.

[AngleusGabriel]

What better way to be welcomed into the world of keeping my first ball python then having an issue feeding the beauty. So I will do my best to describe all situations in which the snake is in so that maybe the community can find what I cannot.

Origin to now: According to my notes, I have received my snake (Nagini) on the First of February. I purchased her from her original owner of two years. I weighed her on the 5th and she was 720 grams (31 inches). On the 14th she began showing signs of shed and I have bathed here 3 times in the next 4 days and tried my best to mist the cage for better humidity and she shed on the 18th. It was a bad shed which I had to help her get a good deal off. Disappointing with all the baths I gave but none the less wiped her down good and she is shiny as ever . I weighed her a few days later on the 24th and she was at 680 grams. I weighed her 2 days ago and she was 681 grams.


Feeding: The original owner said he fed her both live and F/T, in her cage, which he had aspen digs for the cage I believe. He also said that she had not eaten for 1.5 weeks. First attempt of feeding was the day after I got her with a live mouse in a larger brown high walled box. The box seemed more interesting to her than the mouse. After doing this for 3 days in a row I read that multiple feeding attempts stress the snake. I wait a week then try to feed her on the 8th, same story, the box is the coolest thing in the world. More research is done during the week and I find out that snakes like eating on the same thing that they originally lived on. So I decided that for my humid hide I was putting in her cage on the 24th that I would use the previous owners substrate as the humidity holder. I also tried to feed the 22nd, in the cage, using the same mouse, even holding it by the tail sometimes at the entrance of the humid hide. She showed some interest but no biting after staring at it for 15 minutes and I called it a night. I feed Nagini around 8pm when I do and with minimal disturbances. I am trying to feed her now in a smaller cardboard box with the mouse and a towel over it to have Nagini feel secure but I still see her trying to escape the box every five minutes or so. Thus bringing me to write this.

P.S. I kept the same living mouse over the past month for trying to feed her, so I use the same one every time, as cute as the thing is, I want it to be in my cute snake. Only thing I did not try and will try next week is F/T, other than that any advice?


Husbandry: 20 gal tank, UTH on the left side which is 100 deg F on the floor (In the hide though it is 94 deg after getting to the plastic of it), Water dish on the closer end of the left hand side with the UTH under it to keep the water warmer. In the middle of the tank is my CHE 100W and another water dish (cooler one). On the right side is another hide and a rougher rock for shed and itchy spot purposes. The ambient temperature at the left/middle of the cage is about 85 deg F and on the cool side (Right Side) it is roughly 78. Since this is Ohio and winter it is illustriously about 25% humidity outside the hide. Inside the hide I can get it to be about 45-60% humidity at all times. (Once summer comes I might have to remove humidity though X-p since it reaches 80% easily) Finally on top of the cover I use cardboard covered in foil that is soon to be Plexiglas.


Temperament: My baby is adorable in every way, she likes slithering everywhere and is not "Bally" in defense after you handle her for about 20 seconds from getting her out of the humid hide. Never nipped at me once, owner says she did to him once while he was feeding her. (I would take a bite for her to eat now!!!!!) Anyways, lover her and I think she classifies me as "not trying to eat me." Life is good outside the eating part.


Notes: Sometimes looked like she will strike with "The Pose" but does nothing with it.


I would like to thank all of you for your help and any replies will be read.

Picture 1 is Nagini



Picture 2 is her not wanting anything to do with the mouse.



Picture 3 is the Terrarium/aquarium

[Daigga]

Couple things here. Firstly; preemptive soaks in preparation for a shed do more harm than good as they rinse off the naturally secreted fluids produced by the snake in preparation for the shed. Soaking should only be done if an entire ring of shed sticks around the snake, and even then some people will say better not to soak at all. The best thing you can do for a coming shed is to keep the humidity levels between 60 and 70%.

As for feeding, do away with the cardboard box. The snake is going to be more curious about a new environment nearly every time and you can expect her to continue to ignore the mouse. Ball pythons don't have much of an aggressive feeding response, and rarely come to associate regular interaction with feeding. Feeding in the enclosure is going to be your best option to spark interest. You also made it sound like you left her and the mouse in the box alone and out of your sight; never do this when feeding live. Her disinterest or a bad wrap could cause the mouse to do some serious damage to her if you aren't there to supervise and intervene if needed. Some of mine eat live, and I'm never more than a step away with the tongs in my hand ready to step in even though it usually isn't needed.

[AngleusGabriel]

Good thing to know about preemptive soaks. I have spent much time researching ball pythons and their care. It seems that you look at 4 sources and get 7 answers to do one thing with bps. I am always with my snake while feeding for safety reasons, so no worries there.

I ask about feeding in the cage because Nagini enjoys the humid hide, only coming out once in a while at night (2 am ish). I do not want to drop a mouse in the cage because it starts thinking it is its own home (since I tried this feeding technique). I can try a 2am feed, but when I tried a 12 am she wanted to explore her cage more.

Clearly she is not unhealthy by sight, so my worries come in more at the point of this is a roughly 2 year old snake that needs to eat so it can grow. = Lots of GRAMS

[anicatgirl]

Yup, no premature soaks. It took me after my BPs 1st shed to figure this out.

No box. That's just silly. They're too curious to care about food when there's this AWESOME BOX to explore. Kinda like cats.

Have you deep cleaned the tank and changed bedding since shed?

[AngleusGabriel]

I change the newspaper every 5 days, and reset that timeline after her shed vacuuming out all the left over pieces. I have not changed the humid hide's aspen digs. The digs were put in on the 24th. I would like to change those out every 3 weeks so i am going to switch that out on the 17th.

What I have to say about the box is that lots of people out there are saying do so for the pavlog's dog effect so that she will get use to being fed in a box and not her cage so they do not get nippy. I suppose in this case it is better to get her on feed for a while, then try to change things up.

[200xth]

What I have to say about the box is that lots of people out there are saying do so for the pavlog's dog effect so that she will get use to being fed in a box and not her cage so they do not get nippy.

If that's true, what happens when she starts associating being picked up with being fed?

[Daigga]

What I have to say about the box is that lots of people out there are saying do so for the pavlog's dog effect so that she will get use to being fed in a box and not her cage so they do not get nippy. I suppose in this case it is better to get her on feed for a while, then try to change things up.

It isn't a thing with ball pythons. They're known for being very finicky eaters and lots of people report having a hard time switching them from mice to rats, the scent of a human is not in any way going to spark their feeding response alone. Reaching into her enclosure on feeding day to move her after handling a mouse, however, might do to get her to strike at you.

If a ball python gets nippy it's because they have a nippy personality, not because they come to associate the opening of the tank with food.

[Asherah]

Tossing in two cents. Feed her in her cage. Not only will it stress your animal out less it will cause you much less work in the end.
When I first started I fed in tubs that were not the snakes enclosure because that is what the previous owner of the snakes told me to do, I listened to all that mumbo jumbo about needing to do that to avoid getting them used to being fed in their enclosure and therefore associating the opening of the cage and me with food which would = bitey snakes. (run on sentence there)

All it did was put a new owner in a situation where I had to deal with large snakes still in full on feed mode when I would attempt to take them out of the tubs. On top of that both actually began to associate THOSE tubs with food (because that was literally the only time they were in them) and would strike every single time the top was opened. It was not a fun experience for a first timer. I now have a rack system and feed all my snakes in their tubs without taking them out to move them around. Much less stress and I've have no issues with the "Oh the tubs open, your hand must be holding food, let me take care of that for you" issues that I was having before.

Now I don't say that my experience will be everyone's. I've read that plenty of people that feed that way and don't have problems, but in my opinion you're more likely to get bit with all that transferring than just feeding in tub and it stresses the snake to boot.

As for the feeding issue wait a week before offering food again. Try to feed in the evening and scenting the room beforehand. Be patient. She will eventually eat. I'm dealing with a couple of new arrivals refusing food myself. Sunday made a full month of refusals and I'm about ready to call a hunger strike!

[anicatgirl]

Since I just figured this out about my BP literally Saturday, I will throw it out there to try. Clean. Deep clean, replace all bedding, scrub everything out good, set it back up. Mine strikes only after shedding, and both times she has resumed eating day after cleaning. Just a thought

[Albert Clark]

Hi, take your time trying to get your new bp to eat before giving him time to acclimate to a new environment. Attempting to feed the day after receiving a new animal is just too soon. Try to get that uth regulated by a thermostat. The humidity issue can be resolved by purchasing a" glass versa top " for a 20 gallon tank. You then have to make appropriate holes in the plastic part of the top for air exchange. Oh, immediately switch substrates to 100% cypress mulch to improve that feeding response! Work on getting this guy on rats also. Stay in peace and not pieces. Good luck. A.C.