I'm still having problems getting my 530g ball to feed. HELP PLEASE

[mwedgley]

Okay here it is all the information necessary for you guys to understand my situation so my problem feeding can be everybodys to solve as I cannot solve it and feel defeated. I have a female ball python that weighs 530g. She has been off feed for at least 5-7 weeks now. I reaction to this I have done a couple of things I have tried pre killing her prey. I have tried frozen thawed. I have tried twice frozen thawed. I have tried the method of using tongs that adam with 8 ball pythons has reccomended in his video. I have supplied another hide which hasn't been used by her in the day and a half it has been in there. I have the warm side temp about 93 average and the cold side around 84. I have an ambient temp around 77 right now. Humidity runs around 60%. The cage is in my room not in the living room so noise factor is not to bad. Now the last time she ate she ate a rat I would estimate was around 60-70 grams. I threw it in there covered her cage and she took care of it. Recently I have tried to downsize her food in order to get her to eat and the last item I tried was a 45g live rat and I used tongs to offer it to her. A couple of things I may have done wrong. I first tried pre scenting the room but first off I'm unsure how to do it being that it is a glass enclosure fairly sealed off I don't think one rat in the room will do much as far as scent goes so I opened the cage and threw in a tiny piece of cloth that was in my rats cage. An hour later she still had not come out of her hide. So to try to feed her I removed her hide and offered the rat to her. She did not take it so I moved it a little closer. Eventually she defensively struck at it and did not take it. Alright help me out please. By the way here are some pics of my cage. The log hide is the warm side and she loves it. The second one is a large pop tart box in the middle of the cage where the cage is about 84 then the water dish is in the ambient temperature range of 76 or so. I use undertank heaters.
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...y/IMG_7522.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...y/IMG_7521.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...y/IMG_7525.jpg

[BallNation]

Take a look at this
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=60804

Its nothing for a ball to go of feed.

You however need to change some things
1-Get two of the same hides
2-Go smaller on the water bowl
3-Throw in some fake vines the tank is to open.
Try these.

[mwedgley]

Take a look at this
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=60804

Its nothing for a ball to go of feed.

You however need to change some things
1-Get two of the same hides
2-Go smaller on the water bowl
3-Throw in some fake vines the tank is to open.
Try these.

Thanks for the advise but I have a couple of questions. One why smaller water bowl? 2. I actually have a large dried grape vine that I took out last night to make feeding easier but I will add it in and take a pic so all can see. I forgot about that.

[Freakie_frog]

Also check this out.
Those hides look alittle big for a 500 gram ball
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=543688#543688

[TheMissingLink]

Thanks for the advise but I have a couple of questions. One why smaller water bowl? 2. I actually have a large dried grape vine that I took out last night to make feeding easier but I will add it in and take a pic so all can see. I forgot about that.

If your bp needs it to soak then something is off.

A Soaking bps means a few things a-Your humidity is not right and it needs help shedding b- Your tank is to hot and its trying to cool itself c-Your bp has mites

their not swimmers so they dont need a huge water bowl.

And it looks like its taking a ton of space.

[jkobylka]

Relax....! : ) I mean that in a non-condescending sort of way. We've all stressed at one point about our bp not eating.

All the above advice is great. The only thing I would say is sometimes getting a bp to eat means you need to dial back the prey a little. Often if a rat eater goes off feed, I'll start giving it mice to reestablish the feeding response then switch back to rats. Also if she won't eat live then she is unlikely to each prekilled or f/t.

When feeding with the tongs remember that if your tongs are not very big, the snake is not only seeing the rodent heat signature they are also seeing a HUGE hand and arm coming towards it as well, which usually will put it into instant defensive mode.

Those are just some thoughts based one what I read in your post. Looks like your monitoring your environment well and I'd leavec her be for a while and start with a live mouse left in with her in a dark room for a short while. If that doesn't work, recheck your husbandry, wait a few weeks and try it again.

Justin

[mwedgley]

Take a look at this
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=60804

Its nothing for a ball to go of feed.

You however need to change some things
1-Get two of the same hides
2-Go smaller on the water bowl
3-Throw in some fake vines the tank is to open.
Try these.

Thanks for the advise but I have a couple of questions. One why smaller water bowl? 2. I actually have a large dried grape vine that I took out last night to make feeding easier but I will add it in and take a pic so all can see. I forgot about that.

[mwedgley]

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...y/IMG_7526.jpg

[mwedgley]

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...y/IMG_7526.jpg

[aaajohnson]

How long have you had this snake? And was she eating OK for you before?

Neil