Need Help - New Baby Ball Python Refusing Food

[Wesleysparks40]

I will post an update once I get her to eat and post new/better pictures of both her and the enclosure adjustments so that people who have similar issues will have a thread of dos/don'ts. I'm really excited to finally have a ball python. I had a male eclectus parrot for 27-years that I was very close too, he died of cancer last year. Not able or even willing to try and replace him with another bird I thought I would give a python an amazing home, and when she wouldn't eat, I started to panic!

[Bogertophis]

Snakes are a lot quieter than parrots...quite a change. I'm sorry you lost your pal of 27 years, & it's quite normal to panic when a new snake won't eat- they're quite different from most other pets, but in time you'll "get" where yours is coming from, I'm sure. And we can make some generalizations, but they all have their own personality too, along with prior experience that might impact their current attitudes, so staying low-key for a while & letting them settle in is important. Even captive-bred snakes are essentially wild creatures that rely on their instincts to survive...& to them, we appear to be giant predators, since the only thing that picks them up in the wild is a predator that's about to eat them. So when you do start handling, keep that in mind- they feel safer when hiding, not out in the open.

[Wesleysparks40]

I decided to construct a separate feeding tote which gives me more control over her feedings and allow me to get in her enclosure and make changes. Good thing too because I had to remove everything from the enclosure to find her. She somehow managed to wedge herself in the corner of the enclosure and the ponytail palm pot. I wouldn't even have thought she could get back there. After being placed in the tote she went right after her meal. I weighed her, she is 99-grams. Looks like every week I will have to remove everything to find her, feed her and put everything back. Guess I brought this on myself with a "big set-up for a baby".

I purchased the new hides recommended and they are nice, made really well thank you. Added a humidity hide and more plants. I have more coming, but they are back ordered. I purchased a roll of brown masking paper from the local hardware store, ripped and crumpled it for ground clutter, it doesn't look half bad. I removed the single-stage controller I was using and purchased a two-stage controller which is working out a lot better.

I uploaded pictures to the gallery keyword, Bella.

[Lord Sorril]

I decided to construct a separate feeding tote which gives me more control over her feedings and allow me to get in her enclosure and make changes.

Sounds like it is going well! Good job!

Side Story:
My first ball python I would feed in a cardboard box outside of her enclosure. Over time she associated my hands with feeding time and would take a few crazed strikes at me whenever I reached in to perform husbandry. It is not a big deal when they are small, but, as they get older-those half-hearted strikes become full on feeding bites (and getting bitten and then have the snake 'constrict' and twist the teeth in your skin-is no fun for anyone).

Eventually I just started leaving the rodent in the room for a few minutes to 'scent it' in advance and I would see her head stick out and I would know where to reach in with forceps and dangle the prey item. Sometimes I would use a plate on top of the substrate beneath the rodent to make sure she did not get a mouthful of 'dirt' while eating.

With a much larger collection now-all of my ball pythons eat within their enclosures and have associated the scent of rodents (not my hands) as the indicator of feeding time.