Ball Python refusing to eat after failed strike yesterday

[amarnaphiliac]

My brother bought a young ball python several weeks ago and could not get him to eat frozen. We finally found a place that sells live and got him to eat a pinky rat last week. Purchased a fuzzy rat yesterday that he immediatly attempted to constrict, but after failing, he gave up completally. I tried once more that evening to get him to attempt to eat the fuzzy, but he had no interest. Today I went back to the store and got a pinky rat for him and put them in the separate feeding environment but he shows no interest now. He's been with the pinkie now for a few hours and we've moved to the feeding environment into his normal habitat so he has the 85ish daytime temp and appx 55 humidity. I'm hoping that once it gets to be nighttime he'll feel comfortable enough to strike, however I'm worried he exerted too much energy on the fuzzy rat yesterday (given his already weakened state after the frozen food hunger strike) and is too tired to strike now. At the moment though we've covered the sides of his habitat to make it as dark and comfortable as possible.

[Marissa@MKmorphs]

What do you mean he "immediately attempted to constrict, but after failing, he gave up completely."? Did he stop constricting the rat and it was still alive? Did he kill it and not eat it?

I just want to fully understand the situation.

In the meantime, I would stop removing him to feed in a separate bin, and zero handling until he is eating reliably. It just causes added stress which could be causing him to refuse food. Also, I wouldn't offer food so closely together, that is going to cause additional stress also. I would offer every 5 to 7 days.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Offering too soon after a snake refusal or missed meal (regardless of the reason) only leads to more refusal, if I understand you offered 3 time in the last 24 hours and it's two too many.

If an animal doe not eat wait a week before offering again in the meantime make sure your husbandry is SPOT ON and no handling until the animal eats for you.

[amarnaphiliac]

no problem, He at attempted to constrict the fuzzy rat but it squirmed and eventually got away. So the rat was still alive and the snake didn't attempt again.

Usually he only eats once every seven days, though I'd assumed that today counted as still within that time period since he didn't eat yesterday. Hopefully next week he'll be ready to eat again, as i can't imagine it's good for him to be going on so little food. :(
At least we got something in him last week though.

Until then he gets to have a human free time in his habitat I suppose while we have to find out what to do with this pinkie he refused. The job of dealing with that unpleasant task is definitely going to my brother though, haha.

Thank you both so much for your advice though! Helping him out with his snake is a whole new territory for me, I'm straight tropical fish keeper, so I appreciate as much advice as I can get!

What do you mean he "immediately attempted to constrict, but after failing, he gave up completely."? Did he stop constricting the rat and it was still alive? Did he kill it and not eat it?

I just want to fully understand the situation.

In the meantime, I would stop removing him to feed in a separate bin, and zero handling until he is eating reliably. It just causes added stress which could be causing him to refuse food. Also, I wouldn't offer food so closely together, that is going to cause additional stress also. I would offer every 5 to 7 days. :)

[CamoCat]

My bp does the same thing, if anything goes wrong with the hunt he gives up. I think it takes so much energy to get that perfect moment that they just don't feel like going through it again sometimes. Mine hit his face once on the glass and wouldn't eat for a month, some things just take time and you can't offer too often.

[SnakeBalls]

The first feeding attempt I had with my ball was a f/t pinkie in his enclosure. I used tongs. He ended up striking the tongs and I haven't been able too feed with tongs or in his enclosure since..

[hungba]

They fail to eat sometimes. Leave them alone to calm down and try again the following feeding day. The more you keep trying the more they refuse.

[Dano94]

When you fed him frozen, did you heat the mouse/rat up and brain him? Sometimes when my BP refuses to eat, I just heat his head up and squeeze his head to brain him, then my BP strikes and eats it first time without hesitation.

[SouthernVaper]

How dose one go about braining a feeder?

[Dano94]

How dose one go about braining a feeder?

You can't if it's live (obviously) but if you gently squeeze on the mouses snout/brain area, eventually small amounts of brains will come out of it's nose. This is something that is vastly recommended as the snakes love the smell and taste of it.

Hope that helps! (as disgusting as it sounds it works)