I think my snake has a burn.

[BluuWolf]

Now admittedly when I first got her I did have struggles feeding her, as I think a lot of other ball python owners initially have. I definitely was too excited to have finally gotten an animal that is my sole responsibility, and I started handling her too early. She wouldn't eat anything. She just got real close to the mouse and smelled it up. But then I started feeding her in the morning, and I haven't had a problem since. I think she was too timid to strike because she was confused if it was some weird moving tree thing reaching into her cage again or food lol. I don't know if this is related, but she gives up on food easily. She never hesitates to strike a rat in the morning on the initial strike, but she will quickly give up if she grabs it at a poor angle, or position. She sometimes powers through it, but sometimes she just lets go of it after attempting to unroll herself, and then begin swallowing it. If I attempt to feed it to her again she typically reverts back to how she acted when I first got her(intense staring match).

Ball pythons are super finicky eaters and any little thing can cause them not to eat. I would for sure recommend the shorter handling sessions, IMO anything over an hour is just to much for these timid little guys and for some even an hour is to much

Just test out the shorter handling and see if it makes a difference. It is ultimately your animal so if you truly think it’s not benefiting it at all then you can go to longer sessions if that’s what you want.

Another way to help with the feeding issue is when you heat up the mouse, focus the heat of the head that way when they strike they will aim for the head and hopefully won’t end up striking in a weird position and give up.

I hope this helps


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