Albino Ball refuses frozen/thawed

[Snakebit]

Hi Gang,

I have a 2005 female albino Ball. It took me months to get her to switch from live to pre-killed prey (the breeder only feeds live). She fed on pre-killed adult mice weekly for at least 8 weeks after I finally got her to strike the pre-killed mice. Then, all of a sudden, she refused pre-killed prey. She is actively hunting when the lights go out but absolutely won't strike at the thawed mice. I've dangled them, heated them up with a blow dryer, to no avail. She'll even push the prey around with her nose but won't engage. It's almost like she's hoping it will move, breathe, etcetera. She had a killer (no pun intended) feeding response when I fed her live.

I know if I offer her live mice she'll strike them instantly. But I don't want to lose any progress I've made in converting her to pre-killed by feeding her live mice just to get her to eat. She's missed 8 weeks of feeding at this point and I'm finding myself in quite the juxtaposition. Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks!!

[Kilo]

Yes...don't switch F/T. From your post so far you don't seem to have any reason that she must eat F/T. If she has such a killer feeding respone to live prey I would keep it at that. Maybe she enjoys the hunt? Maybe it will keep her happy? Im not against any method of feeding... but it seems in this situation that live is the logical anwser.

Oh BTW can we please see some pics of this female albino ball. Just the name sounds beautiful.

[joepythons]

How are your temps? Have you changed anything ? Its common for ball pythons to just up and stop eating at times.I have a female het albino that eats maybe once a month,and her enclosure setup is perfect .Welcome to the joys of your ball python being a hemroid .

[elevatethis]

Consistency goes a long way with ball pythons and from your story, it appears that your snake's husbandry regiment has been anything but consistent.

I see no reason not to go back to live feeding if thats what was working before. Some snakes willingly convert to f/t, others do not.

[Snakebit]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure how it was gathered that animal husbandry consistency has been problematic for this python. She's in a Vision cage with fully automatic light/temperature (herpstat II) and humidity control (Habba Mist with Johnson Controls humidistat...almost never runs in the summer months). Nothing varies in her environment. I simply don't like feeding my snakes live (too many injuries) and once I made the transition with her from live to pre-killed I thought I was over the hump. She has apparently decided othewise.


I just didn't expect her to go off feed during the summer months. And as I mentioned, she still "hunts" every night. She just wants nothing to do with pre-killed prey. All of my other snakes (GTP, Blood and het-albino Balls) take thawed rodents without hesitation. I think I'll just need to work on this girl a little longer.

Thanks again and regards!

[Nate]

Do you just drop it in there? and on the occasion wiggle it?

I've heard some people will tug on the tail after the snake has constricted to make the snake think the rat is still wiggling.

I am going to try this in my next feeding, because I don't think my snakes (which i got Wed. morning) have taken a f/t meal yet. I'm going to thaw it out like usual, and when they're ready, i'm going to take a pair of hemostats, hold the rat by it's neck and make it look like's it's a live rat walking around...when she strikes and constricts, release the rat and then grab the tail with the tweezers/hemostats and give it some tugs.

Maybe when she strikes and feels her prey is just limp and there's no struggle, she loses interest?

Just my thoughts...

If you're doing all that and she still has no interest, do live for a feeding or 2, then p/k with the wiggles, and then f/t with the wiggles...Let us know if it works

[Uncle Festae]

when it comes to feeding my Albino, or any other picky F/T eaters, the key word for me is hot, hot, hot!... dip the rat (or mouse, in your case) in the hottest tap water you have, then offer it, I like to make sure the rat is around 100 degrees, gets 'em everytime.....

Chris

[greenmonkey51]

I have a girl who ate F/T from tongs since I got her but when I moved her to a rack she stopped eating from the tongs. I just gave up and put the rat on a paper towel and left her alone. Later that night I checked up and there was no more rat.

[JimiSnakes]

I've heard some people will tug on the tail after the snake has constricted to make the snake think the rat is still wiggling.

That's what I do. Works everytime. Snakes need that "killing" instinct. This keeps it alive in them.

[Snakebit]

Thanks again, everybody. I appreciate the tips. I'll try to go a little warmer with the rodent. This snake is way too pretty to get scarred up during a live feeding. When she was eating the prekilled prey regularly she'd even take it off of the top of her hide, sometimes 10 minutes or longer after it was placed there, with no "wiggling" at all.


I think she's just going to be stubborn with this and I'll try to outlast her. I've already given up on the thought of breeding her this fall because she just hasn't put on enough weight. My 2,000 gram males (hets) will be very disappointed. They are 4 year olds and take thawed medium rats (ala Rodentpro.com) like they're going out of style.

Of course nothing compares to the feeding response of my GTP when the lights go down. He starts hitting his heat panel before I even have the first lock opened on his enclosure. But in the daytime he's the nicest snake I've ever had. Whoever owned him before me put an awful lot of time into interacting with him. Either that, or I (we) just got very lucky. My Sumatran Blood is the complete opposite. He'll strike me after being out and crawling on me for 20 minutes. He's pretty much Jekyll one day, Hyde the next. Sorry for rambling...