BP feeding question for those that might know.

I ended up snake sitting a Ball Python for my cousin, I had a setup already & she can't have the snake at the moment but will be taking it in a month or two. It was on sale at the pet store & she just had to have it. Anyway, I brought it home, got it all setup in it's new home & let it be for a week then tried putting it in the small feeding bin that I feed my corns in, for two hours with a mouse & he didn't eat. So I waited 3 days & tried again by putting the mouse in his cage over night & he still hasn't eaten. I have a book on corns & one I just got on BPs that have tips on getting a snake to eat, also read quite a few on here. But I wanted to know what everyone thought worked the best to get a Ball to eat F/T? Thanks for any replies!

If your parameters are off even a little, they can go off feed. What are your temps? How are you maintaining those temps?

My bp's have never liked feeding in bins. We feed all of them in their cages... I think it is a security thing. We have also found that our BP's tend to want their food very hot, like most boids. They want it hotter than our corns do. If super hot F/T later at night does not work, you may need to offer live. I started one of our bp's on live and switched him over to F/T. If it is a young bp, start with a live hopper. Don't feel bad about it either-- hopper feeder mice are evil little buggers that will bite the crap out of you if given the opportunity. I never felt bad for the hopper mice.

The temps are about 80-82F on the cool side during the day, usually dropping into the
70's at night, no less than 72F though. The hot side has been between 89-93F for the most part, probably gets a little less than that at night. This last time I heated the mouse much hotter than I do for the corns & put it in the cage with him, covered the cage, turned out the lights & left him be for two hours. When I checked & he hadn't taken it I decided to try some of the tips in the BP book. So I grabbed the mouse at the hips (with my fingers, don't have any tongs, but will be buying some today) held it's head up to a light bulb for 30 seconds to warm it up then offered it to him. I jiggled it a bit, but he was only interested in getting on my hand & out of the cage. I tried heating the mouse with the light & offering it about five times then gave up & put the mouse back in the cage for the rest of the night & it was still there in the morning. I'd need to watch that the hopper doesn't bite the BP if I try a live one, right? We're going into the town with the pet stores today, so maybe I'll go ahead & get a live hopper to try. Thanks for your reply!

This time definatly leave the ball in his tank. Preferably in his hide with just his snout showing. In the past I had to "walk" very hot f/t rodents past the cave where they "happened" to be strolling by the "hunter". You sometimes have to fool balls into eatting. Also try a rat pup instead of a hopper. (contradicting my GF) Rat pups are safer if fed live. Plus if the snake was on rats, it might be hard to switch to mice at first. But I think you might be jumping to live too fast. It took 2 months for some of mine to eat, balls can be very stubborn feeders. Just only try once a week...not every 3 days since that gets a bit stressful. And by hot...I ususally mean steaming!

Both Lauren and Tara are right! Make sure every single bit of your husbandry is spot on! I had a BP decide not to eat out of the blue until I noticed that her humidity was about 5% off normal. They're THAT picky! We also never feed the BPs out of their tanks nor when they're out in the open. We also wait until they're just poking their heads out and "walk" the mouse in front of them. I still have one BP that is on live adult mice. Scares the bejeezus out of me to feed her that way but I have to or she just won't eat. To do that, we shut off all lights except for a red bulb over the tank(so we can see) sit back and watch. If after 20 minutes she shows no interest in eating that sucker it's removed.

We could not get our new BP to eat f/t, so we finally broke down and fed it live, then immediately afterwards tried f/t. The feeding response was still going strong, and she took the f/t in an instant. She's been eating f/t ever since.

So try piggy-backing and see if that works.

whippet said:

Also try a rat pup instead of a hopper. (contradicting my GF) Rat pups are safer if fed live.

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Excellent suggestion... though rat pups are cute, while hopper mice are vile, evil little...... :realhot:

Well, will try again this next Friday & see how it goes. I got some mouse bedding from one of the pet stores to try scenting this next mouse with, maybe the last one didn't smell much like a mouse. How does a ASF hopper compare to mice hoppers or rat pups? I checked on them at the stores & they, at this moment, only had ASF hoppers, everything else was an adult. Thanks again for everyone's replies! I just have to keep telling myself there is time to get him eating, that it won't kill him not to eat for awhile. It's just a little harder with this one because he's not really mine & I'm going to feel really bad if something happens to him while he's in my care.

From what I understand the ASF's make pretty good food for BP's... something to do with being more reminescent of their natural prey.

Well, Ronan refused a F/T mouse again last night. Arrrg!

Kermit262 said:

We could not get our new BP to eat f/t, so we finally broke down and fed it live, then immediately afterwards tried f/t. The feeding response was still going strong, and she took the f/t in an instant. She's been eating f/t ever since.

So try piggy-backing and see if that works.

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About how long does the feeding frenzy response last? I'm just trying to figure out when to offer a F/T mouse after a live one. Do it just after the mouse clears the snake's mouth or after it's reached the stomach? Going to go ahead & try a live one tonight & thought I'd try the piggy-back idea.

Just a few minutes after swallowing the first mouse completely your snake will be ready for the next mouse. You'll know because it'll starting moving around looking for dessert, which you'll serve up frozen and thawed. Just make sure it's plenty warm, otherwise the snake won't be interested.

Last night was a half success/failure. Ronan ate the live hopper right away (it was kinda cool to watch, though I did feel sorry for the mouse) but refused the F/T mouse. I think that was mostly my fault though, 'cause he showed some interest in it but about the time I'd think he might strike at it I'd get a cramp in my hand & drop the mouse from the tongs & that would put him off. I'm quite spastic with those -unprintable- tongs! But at least he's had one meal so I can rest a little more easy.

He ate! He ate! Yay! He took the F/T mouse in the first 30 seconds! Now just have to hope he'll do the same thing next week.

Great to hear! We've since introduced f/t to three other ball pythons, the same way, and now all of our BPs are eating f/t. No more live mice!

I'm going to try to do the piggy-backing with our live-feeder next feeding session. She's sooo finicky! It's funny because she was always a f/t eater until she went on a hunger-strike and since then she'll only take live. I hate it because it scares me so much! She's very slow to decide whether she's going to eat or not and it can take her up to an hour to eat. In the mean time I have to sit there in the dark intently watching her tank out of her sight. So frustrating!

Different question...

I know the pictures aren't great, but can you guys tell if Ronan is a Normal? That's what I'm thinking he is but I have a hard time telling the difference between some of the morphs. By the way, he's had 3 F/T meals so far! Thanks again for everyone's help!