Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
My thoughts- in order of your comments above:

Feeding young BPs once a week is typical- but you should be using long feeding tongs -not putting your warm & wiggling hand in there- because to a snake with heat sensing pits, your hand & arm registers as a potential predator nearby. So no wonder he reacted as he did- many snakes don't, or some will chase you instead, but that's how your snake sees things, so you'll have to take that into account. Also BPs usually respond best when fed at night- keeping the room light low, with minimal activity from you.

Not feeding a new snake for the first week or two is normal, to allow them to de-stress. We also HIGHLY recommend not handling a snake until after it's feeding easily for you, at least 3 times for best results. That's because handling instinctively scares a snake- in nature, the only thing that picks them up is a predator, about to eat them. This particular snake is on the sensitive side- you've perhaps gotten lucky with others in the past.

New snakes should always be fed the same way & with same kind & size of prey as they were previously- when you kept trying new things that added stress he didn't need. Try to imagine being in your snake's place- his whole world changed when you got him- that alone freaks snakes out, because in the wild, they survive by learning their way around. How would you feel if you woke up one day & recognized nothing? By the way, I've had about 10 BPs in the past- I know some are much more fussy than others, & most female snakes just eat more anyway- they have to, for breeding.

I wouldn't keep weighing this snake, either, since you know he's easily stressed. By now you must certainly know a healthy BP when you see one? But since we're not seeing him, I have no idea if he's eating enough or not- so I can't answer whether you should feed him weekly or every other week. Personally, I'd probably lean towards feeding him every 10 days, from the size of rat you said he's eating- and based on the fact that from your description, he's hardly "adult" size.

One other IMPORTANT thing might be going on to keep him from gaining weight: he could be sharing his meals with intestinal parasites- "worms"- Have you had your vet check his stools, ever? Since you're feeding live rodents, he can easily get worms from them- and that can also affect his personality & attitude too.

I also agree with Armiyana's post- that his housing might need some improvements to suit his personality. Again, we're not seeing your set-up, so?
I thought I would clarify here and give a better timeline...

The first week, didn't touch him at all. But he was so stressed out, that he would hiss if I passed him (I had him in quarantine I live by myself)

The first week, tried to feed him, refused feed, tried to strike my hand holding the tongs, rather than the live prey item (per the breeder's suggestion 'cause needed time to transition--wanted to get him up to weight after all that refusing.)

He repeated this for the first month. So I tried to leave him alone completely, then tried feeding him again, then he ate. I followed the 3 feeding rule, and handled him to clean his bin and move him to better accommodations. i.e. Not quarantine. But he was stressed still. Habitually went on hunger strike. The only time I entered his caging was to clean up after him. But he would freak out every time, hissing and sometimes striking. I would try to talk to him and do things I've seen other ball python keepers say to do if the snake is stressed: put calm energy into him, hold him up so he could see the lay of the land. I only wanted to clean his poo and water bowl. But he'd freak out.

I did offer a secondary smaller hide, in addition to the one he has in the hopes he'd calm down given advice. He refused to use it. After a month, I took it out.

I switched him to frozen thawed since he was so spotty about the live prey items. And I had plans to switch all my snakes over. Which I successfully did, but he was a long hold out on live prey items (And yes, I did try to scent the frozen-thawed too). One of the last to get it. 'cause he's picky. For a while, since he did a long hunger strike, I thought he was going to die at one point, so I'm glad he's still alive. The only reason I went back to live prey was because he was getting underweight and refusing too many prey items. That was the only condition under which he would eat, but he wanted it to be a certain size every time. But I finally got him to eat frozen-thawed. That was better for him in the long run.

I did finally solve his stress issues. He's used to me going into his cage now to give water and clean up. He's back to eating on a regular schedule. He's not refused prey items lately. But when he wanted a larger sized prey item, he went on hunger strike again. *sighs* I figured that out, sized up the prey item, and then he's back on normal schedule. (So sensitive)

I was instructed after 1-2 years I should switch adults to a every 2 week schedule on this very forum. Which I do with my older snakes. My biggest one which is just under 6 ft eats only every other week-ish and will refuse in between that. But he's not up to size yet and since his stress levels have normalized, finally after a lot of hard work, and he's technically an adult, I'm wondering if I should keep him on a weekly schedule until he grows to a healthy size.

BTW, I have 9 BPs total. It's just him out of the bunch--I've raised a bunch more from babies too. I put him in a tub, similar to what his breeder put him in. The breeder reported that he was this sensitive before I got him, so I used all of the tricks to get him to not be as stressed--smaller enclosure, regular schedule, do not handle, when handling calm straight forward energy, etc. And it worked. He now greets me happily looking for food rather than super stressed out and won't eat--but he's still particular about the size of his prey items. Wrong size, snubs me. I successfully got him to frozen-thawed, so the size is exactly the same, and the routine feels the same to him.

BTW, I always feed my ball pythons at night when the automated lights go out I scheduled it to time to sundown and sunup. I only turn on the bathroom light (bathroom is nearby my animal room), which then signals to the snakes who are hungry that it's feeding time. The snakes who are interested usually come out. A few don't, but the majority do. He's become secure enough to do that now. He also no longer hisses when I pick him up to do cage cleanings. (Not changing the bedding for a year is cruel).

I don't know why he came this level of stressed out, I've bred my snakes and produced babies, etc and none of them have ended that level of stressed. But at least he's eating back on a normal schedule.

I'm not weighing him because he ate yesterday and handling him after he ate would make him sensitive. I've honestly not handled him that much and have't been weighing him in an effort to keep his stress levels down. But he's super sensitive.

The preamble was to say he USED to be that way which is why he's undersized (cause and effect), but I worked really hard to try to get his stress levels down, and it worked but it still leaves me with the feeding schedule question. Keep him to a weekly schedule now he's eating normally or move him to a bi-weekly adult schedule? like my adult snakes and like this forum says to do.