Hi, everyone! Angie here. In July, my wife and I adopted a ball python (his name is Sir Hiss), and had his home all ready for him. Temp and Humidity is good (we have the correct products, actually found them here), he has a hide on each side, and a water bowl that he can drink and soak in. Now that I shared that, here is the problem: he won't eat on his own. I spoke with a breeder nearby who said that a. he is so small, he was most likely sold earlier than he should have been and b. because of how thin he is (outside of general body shape, you can see his body caving in) that if he didn't eat by week 3, to assist feed him a pinkie or fuzzy. By week 3, he didn't eat on his own, so we did. He did keep that down, but the food was small.

By week 4, he had no weight gain, and was acting weak (couldn't hold his head up, wasn't moving much and normally he's a pretty active little guy, and finally, could barely form a grip), so my wife and I did assist feed him a larger food (this was supposed to be a fuzzy, but was quite large.) Again, he kept that down, but hasn't pooped. I did read that they don't after every meal, but thought I should mention. So now, it's week 5. If he doesn't eat on his own, should we assist feed again? After the last feed, he had gained a little weight, and his skin wasn't drooping so much - until now (one week later).

We know that assisted feeding is stressful on him, but everyone we've spoke with in person has said that with how thin he is, and when he was getting weak, that he needed food. We do everything we can to make the experience easy, and after 48 hours, he doesn't seem stressed (or angry).

TL;DR: should we assist feed him the 3rd week in a row, if he's thin (caving in, and thin all around) / young / and has drooping skin? He doesn't seem to be in shed, no flaking, no blue eyes, no pink underbelly. When we show him food, he doesn't seem to realize it's... Well, food. We've tried dangling, dancing, leaving the food in his home. We've tried blow drying the fuzzy, we have tried braining the fuzzy, we have tried the chicken broth fuzzy. So, any help would be appreciated, for that main question or if you have any other advice! Thank you.