Feeding Problem

[ballpythonandragon]

Hello I have a male 3ft. ballpython that is a very picky eater, He is housed in a Vision tank 36x28x18 and is heated by a Infered 100Watt bulb he is on aspen beding a big water dish and hide on each side. But he never moves that often. He gets scared easy by big prey even when they are F/T so i have to get largest rats i can get, plus i have just went and changed back to live because that is the only way he will eat. Should i try feeding in the enclosure im all out of ideas and thinking about selling trading him what should i do? Thanks Aaron

[PrincessErica]

If he's scared of big prey, why would you buy the biggest rats you can find?? Maybe you should try smaller meals, feeding a couple at a time.

As far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with feeding in the enclosure. The old "he'll associate your hand with food and bite you when you try to handle him" is just a myth, as far as I've been able to tell. I've fed my guy in his enclosure from day 1 (too much stress on him to be moved to a separate container, I didn't want to put him off feed once he started eating for me) and have never, ever had a problem.

Try waiting until he's in a hide and running the rat back and forth across the door until he strikes, this has worked wonders for me. This is pretty much the only way I feed my guy now, it's so easy on both of us.

I have a question though... are you thinking about selling/trading your guy because he's a difficult eater? If that's the case, you probably should have thought about that before choosing a BP, as they are notorious for being picky eaters... it's not his fault. What are your temps? Do you try to feed when the lights are off? Have you considered switching to a UTH instead of a light for heat? Just some things to consider...

[kavmon]

i'd try feeding him in the cage(less stress) and try small rats. i've seen some very large bp's that feed on just small rats.


vaughn

[Adam_Wysocki]

He's a picky eater because those big ole rats you're giving him are too much food. When he does eat, he "fills up" and is able to go many weeks before he's hungry again.

An adult male ball python can thrive on one mouse or small rat per week.

-adam

[Forrest]

I agree with the above post switch to a smaller meal for your BP. Have you ever heard of Ivan Pavlov's theory of conditioning? Basically he was able to get a group of dogs to heavily salivate whenever a bell was rang. This type of feeding conditioning could also work with your snake. Whenever I'm ready to feed my snakes I use a que. I always tap on the bottom of the outside of their tank very lightly. It helps alert the snake the food is on the way and to be prepared for a meal and I've had very good feeding responses because of this. It does work people, but it does take time to develop conditioning like this (it took my bp 8 months feeding regularly to establish this type of response from the tapping, it took my corn only 3 months because she is a quick learner lol). I'm not an expert so take my opinion for what its worth and good luck