Feeding Woes!

[Allysen]

ARGH! I am so frustrated with my albino ball python! We purchased Lemony in mid February from a breeder that we know and trust. He was about 500 grams when we purchased him and just slightly over a year old. Good amount of chunk to the boy, very healthy looking.

We let him settle in for a week before attempting to feed him, and tried our usual technique the first time, which is waiting for night time and dangling a well thawed and warmed appropriately sized rat through the hole to his hide for a few good solid minutes before gently leaving it there and turning out the lights.

No luck the first time, but no worries, sometimes it takes a few weeks for them to settle in. So we made sure his temps and humidity were right and left him alone for another week. Another feeding attempt, this time a slightly smaller prey item, and no luck again. He shed perfectly a few days later, so I figured that was why he refused the second meal.

We kept up with this schedule, wait a week, try again, sometimes using different types of f/t food, sometimes trying at different times of the day, trying while he was still hiding, waiting until he ventured out for his evening stroll to try, but still he absolutely refuses to eat!

So I picked up a nice smelly box of soiled mouse bedding from the pet store last week and put that in his tub to get a real good mousey smell going on and then tried offering him his food. I even rubbed it in the mouse bedding real well, and left it near him all night. He still wanted nothing to do with it.

So yesterday I grabbed a live rat pink from the store and tried the mouse bedding trick again. He acted utterly terrified of the pink and shied away from it. I left him alone all night and found him this morning, after he'd somehow gotten the little box of mouse bedding open and crawled inside of it. Still wouldn't eat, though.

He's down to about 418 grams and everything seems fine aside from the fact that he isn't eating! He's alert and active, his scales are smooth and shiny, his one shed was perfect, his eyes, nose, mouth, and vent are clear...

He lives in a sterilite tub, the foot by two footer, with a combination hide/waterbowl on the hotter end and a snug cardboard box hide on the cool end that he usually ignores.

The hot end is 90 degrees directly on the surface, heated by flexwatt on a herpstat thermostat. The ambient temps are in the mid 80s, and the cold end goes down to 78. I use newspaper substrate and have kept the handling to an absolute minimum except for maybe two short bouts of picture-taking.

I know they can be picky sometimes, but I've never had one THIS picky and stubborn before! As long as everything SEEMS okay, how long should I wait before taking him to the vet? Or should I just take him now? Would that stress him out even more? Should I break down and get him a live mouse? He seemed genuinely scared of the rat pink, would a mouse scare him even more? I believe he was being fed mice before I purchased him, which is why I've been using mouse scent for the last few feeding sessions.

Should I really be this worried yet? I know two months without eating really isn't that big of a deal, and he's not a hatchling or anything, but still! He's lost weight and he's showing no signs of coming around. I'm stumped!

[dalvers63]

Have you talked to the person you got him from about what his feeding schedule was like and what he was being fed before you got him? If you can get him on the same thing they were feeding, that might help.

At 418g, he's way too big for a rat pink and it's possible he refused it because it was so small. I know my bps will do that if they prey is too big or too small. Have you thought to try a live rat pup or just weaned rat? That could get his attention and should elicit a feeding response.

[Patrick Long]

I have a male that is 415, and he is pounding small rats.

So I agree with Deb, maybe its to small.

[Allysen]

Have you talked to the person you got him from about what his feeding schedule was like and what he was being fed before you got him? If you can get him on the same thing they were feeding, that might help.

At 418g, he's way too big for a rat pink and it's possible he refused it because it was so small. I know my bps will do that if they prey is too big or too small. Have you thought to try a live rat pup or just weaned rat? That could get his attention and should elicit a feeding response.

We only used a rat pink to try to stimulate him to eat with something live, and I didn't want to offer anything with teeth just yet because he seems so afraid of his prey. We've been offering appropriately sized f/t small rats aside from this recent attempt.

We've contacted the breeder, and they're gonig to get back to us sometime later today hopefully. I'm pretty sure that he was eating sometimes live and sometimes f/t large adult mice, but we definitely want to double check that in case we're going in the wrong direction.

[greghall]

most likely he was on live small rats,or even mice,my male went off feed one month after I got him don't know why he just won't eat its been one month today & he has lost only 2 grams,im not worried at all but I know Ball pythons eat live most of the time & most breeders feed live so there is no feeding issues,you should try live each week,Im waiting for mine to be ready to try this weekend. my females eate great!