How to feed a new Ball Python

[Bogertophis]

Tomorrow will be a week that I’ve had my new Ball Python. I want to feed frozen thawed. How should I go about trying to offer a meal? Should I wait until the snake comes out of his hide to explore? He seems to come out and explore around 10PM. Should I wait until he’s out to offer? Should I just open up his hide when he’s in there to offer? Or would that scare the :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: out of him!? How often should I offer if he were to not take this meal?

Ball pythons are more active at night, but actually they're ambush-predators (they sit & wait in a protected place, like their hide, peeking out & waiting to grab prey that gets close enough to grab).

If yours is still exploring his home, he may not yet be settled in enough to be ready to feed-most BPs don't care to feed when out in the open, because instinctively they know that other predators can easily nab them too while they're preoccupied with dinner. His activity lately probably has more to do with wondering what happened to the territory he knew & how can he find it again. New homes are unsettling to snakes- try to imagine how you'd feel "in his shoes". In the wild, their safety depends on learning their way around, where to hide from bad weather & predators.

No, don't open his hide to offer prey. And personally, unless you see him peeking out of his hide in the later evening hours, you might wait another week to offer food. He'll be hungrier then, & more likely to accept f/t -IF you get all the cues correct. (prey thawed properly- not spoiled- & warmed quickly to imitate living rodent- slight wiggle from tongs but NOT in a threatening way to the snake-remember that in real life, rodents don't volunteer to be dinner!) If your snake refuses food, best to wait a week before offering again- that gives them time to re-focus & not be overly stressed from your attempts. Remember that snakes are actually shy.

While I agree that feeding f/t is best for safety & kindness, please also understand that your snake might be unwilling right now to make the switch to f/t from eating live. I hope he does, but you might need to feed live a few times before attempting the switch, because it's more important to get a young (-I'm assuming?) snake eating again than to make such modifications just yet.