STILL NOT eating. :(

[sweety314]

Okay....I don't know the age of Baby. "She" hasn't been probed. Bought her in Jan. from a private owner, so I don't know if she was CB or ?? She's about 2.5' in length. The owner said Baby would eat live juvie rats, (no particular color---a guy @ the pet store said HIS BP would eat only white mice). I don't know when the owner fed (evening/day). After the 3rd or 4th question, she was getting peeved at me and wouldn't answer me.

The tank is on an inner wall in my livingrm where it's warmer, but I have cats that roam. A humidity gauge in the center of the glass, the digital thermometer is 1/2 'n 1/2 length and height in the tank on the back glass. Water bowl in the corner, natural branches both on the cool side. The 1/2 log hide is along the back wall--part of is is warm, some cool. The substrate is a reptile felt. I'm using two lamps, with the one "light" being turned off at night so that only the red would provide heat. An under tank heat pad is on all the time. Day temp is 88-90, and when I've turned off the one lamp, the night temp is 76-80. Humidity @ 50%. When she shed the 1st time I didn't have a HG, and it was incomplete. This last one, I made sure to mist and keep the humid. up, so it was complete. I've got a humidifier going now, but the humid. is still only 50% because of the screen top. She's shed twice since I've gotten her, but hasn't eaten yet. She's made waste in the tank 3x.

No external parasites.

I was handling her, before reading that they need to destress for a new home. Now she's been left alone except when I lifted her out to remove the mouse she wouldn't eat last week.

I've tried juvie rats 3x, a mouse 3x (last time just last week after my roommate thought the rat was too big--found out via Shrap's size guidelines it was probably okay) after she hadn't been handled for almost two weeks. Tried the mouse both daylight and in the evening, leaving the mouse for about 20-30 min. before removing. Except for the nighttime attempt where I left everything in the tank, I've removed the hide and branches from the tank before dropping the prey into the tank. The last couple of attempts she wouldn't even strike but would occas. yawn. The 2nd rat try (two months ago), she struck a couple of times, but didn't grab the rat or coil. I've tried just dropping the live prey in, with and w/o the calcium dust on it (usu. w/o ) or holding the prey above her head.

With all these attempts, we've now accumulated a pet rat and mouse since now "Scabbers" is too fat to feed to Baby. I really don't want to end up with more rats and mice if Baby won't eat. (I'm going to try the mouse again eventually). When observing, Baby acts like she's afraid of the prey---it gets close to her or touches her and she recoils. Occas. she'll track it around the tank, but she won't try to kill it.

I've read some of the different care sheets here and on some of the other websites, as well as a bunch of different care books, but I'm not sure what to try next. I'd rather not consider force-feeding. She doesn't appear to have lost any weight (yet).

Any other suggestions that I can try???? I'm not thrilled with the idea of F/T. I even tried fresh, PK'd and that didn't work either. I can try the sep. feeding box/bucket, but I'm on a limited pet budget and would prefer to try something else first.

I took care of the biology prof's snakes/rats/mice in college, but this is the first snake that I've OWNED. I've wanted to own a python/boa since I was in college, and Baby w/accessories & tank was a really good deal.

Any other suggestions or ideas would be appreciated, THANKS!

[Adam_Wysocki]

Fix your temps ... 82-84 on one side of the tank, 92-94 on the other .... keep those temps 24 hours a day, no temp drop at night. You might have to change around the way you heat the cage because you still want to give the snake a light cycle with about 12-14 hours of daylight and the rest dark (no lights).

You might have to move your cage. High traffic areas like living rooms make ball pythons very nervous. Bedrooms and other places where theres not a lot of people hanging out are much better locations.

Make sure you have hides on both sides of the tank that are small. Ball pythons like hides that they can barely fit into so that the walls of the hide are touching them on all sides. It makes them feel more secure. To help add to your snakes security fill the tank with crumpled up newspaper (after she starts eating regularly you can take it out).

Do all that and wait for about 2 weeks. After that, drop a small chub rat into the cage at dusk and leave it for a couple of hours and go away. (For all you anti-live people out there chub rats teeth aren't hard enough to do damge to a ball python ).

oh, and your purple font is hard to read.

-adam

[frankykeno]

Try that newspaper trick Adam described to you. I've read lots of posts here about that working magic to make a snake feel more secure in it's environment and I'd surely move that snake to the quietest place in your home especially where a roaming cat can't prowl the enclosure. We too have a cat and he would harrass our snake if given even half a chance (and he's 16 years old for heaven's sakes!) Remember both snakes and cats are nocturnal so as the snake comes out at night you might be unaware at how much your cat may be adding to the snake's stress.

As I've read over and over here in this forum a stressed snake doesn't eat well and a warm snake is a happy snake so if both those issues are addressed hopefully you'll get a better feeding response.

Best of luck, it must be a worry for you.


~~Joanna~~

[Jay001]

force feeding always worked 4 me

[Adam_Wysocki]

force feeding always worked 4 me

Force feeding is one of the worst things that you could ever do to a ball python as far as stressing the animal out.

In 25 years I've never had to force feed a ball python. Almost all feeding problems are either related to poor husbandry or a health problem. If you fix those, the snake will eat without cramming food down it's throat.

-adam

[sweety314]

thanks for all the ideas. The two most active cats are in their carriers during the night, and the old queen is usu. on my bed all night long.


I forgot to add that I've even tried a dead mouse, newly killed, but the snake didn't even LOOK at that one.

Thanks for the suggestions about the temp. I don't know yet how I'll do it, but it looks like that and the newspaper would be the first things to try.

The hide is small enough for her (she does touch both sides), and she does come out to climb every once in a while, but I only have the one. There's not enough floor space for very much more. My other choice is to remove the branches, but then she can't climb.

But thanks for the info. Anything to read is good for ideas and assistance. (That's why we're here, right? lol )

[frankykeno]

Once you sort out her temps and humidity and add the newspaper and so forth, I'd give the snake a good week of just being left alone other than to change water or clean up any urates or feces. Let it adjust before trying to feed again. Also I've seen some here suggest contact paper on 3 sides of a glass tank to help the snake feel less "exposed" while it feeds, might be an idea.

We feed late in the evening (after 10 p.m.) when it's most quiet in our house and with the lights dimmed, with freshly pre-killed mouse and do the mouse dance to make it look like the mouse is still alive and it seems to encourage a strong strike reflex in our snake, then we just leave the snake and it's dinner strictly alone. I've also read here and been told by our pet store snake guy that some reluctant feeders will take a fresh killed mouse that's had it's brains exposed (not nice to do but if it gets it feeding then I suppose it's worth it).

We feed on Monday evening and we've noticed a pattern where our snake will normally curl fully in her hide but by Saturday night she's starting to lay in her hide with her head just peeking out like she's waiting for something nice to eat to wander by. She'll do this consistently till Monday night then after she eats she goes back to the regular hide behaviour.

Isn't there also a brown paper bag trick folks????


~~Joanna~~