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Ball Python Refuses to Eat!! Any Help???

CaptBogart said:
If you are trying to feed F/T, what is the temp of the mouse? Make sure it's nice and warm, not room temp, and do the mouse dance with it at the end of some tongs or hemos. Have you tried live yet? I've tried to give mine dead twice now, and both times he went up to it and rubbed on it then nudged it, but didn't eat. I gave those to the Emoryi and threw live in and he perked right up and charged both times.... The last time, I gave him a stunned one that was still kicking, and he went for that too...
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I am going to try this tonight. If she does not eat the f/t, I am going to go to the reptile show this weekend and get a live. I have to get crickets for the gecko, anoles and frog. They have 1000 crickets for $15.00. Best price I can find.

Should I get more than one live? Or try f/t again if she eats this live mouse? I was told she eats f/t when I got her.
 
Penman6668 said:
I am going to try this tonight. If she does not eat the f/t, I am going to go to the reptile show this weekend and get a live. I have to get crickets for the gecko, anoles and frog. They have 1000 crickets for $15.00. Best price I can find.

Should I get more than one live? Or try f/t again if she eats this live mouse? I was told she eats f/t when I got her.
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The sad part is no, she will not take Frozen if she is acustomed to live feeds. IT will take a while of training but probably for the next few months will be live feeds. We have had our lil girl for awhile now and she still will not eat frozens. They are offered to her but she will not look at them. They stay with for awhile. We play move the mouse around, still no luck. So, still feeding the live ones right now.

Keep us posted. I am still curious why you waited so long to try live?
 
Not necessarily. I recently adopted a two year old ball that had been fed nothing but live mice his whole life. He takes f/t mice with no problem. Never a hesitation. I can't get him to make the switch to rats, though.
 
Lot of good suggestions posted. i would add make sure the hides you use are ones your bp will be able to just squeeze into. They seem more secure in tight fitting hides. Clay flower pots with the holes in the bottom are great hides. They add security by the fact when feeding live the mouse cant get into the hide, while the snake can lay inside with its head out of the top surveying the scene.
 
well I will add one more....I have been breeding Ball Pythons for over 20 years and "The Rodent Hole method" has never failed for me.....basically i take a container........such as a cool whip container or a butter dish....cut a hole in the lid and place the feeder at the bottom with some shavings from mom and dads cage then i put the lid back on and place this in the viv about dusk.......what this does basically is simulate what they would do in the wild.....crawl into a rodent hole to eat.......also in the wild their main diet is gerboa...so if you have access to a gerbil you might try washing the pinky with soap and water and scenting it with the gerbil or shavings from the gerbils cage this has also never failed for me

Be patient and good luck

MCHouse
www.Nightbreedreptiles.com
 
Quick Updated

She finally ate. I got live mice today and she ate with no problem. She constricted the first one and eat it. She eat the second one very quickly. I left the room about 2 minutes and missed the second one. Hopefully I can get her back to f/t.
 
Penman6668 said:
She finally ate. I got live mice today and she ate with no problem. She constricted the first one and eat it. She eat the second one very quickly. I left the room about 2 minutes and missed the second one. Hopefully I can get her back to f/t.
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:cheers: Something about BP's and their live food.... hope the switch works for you, but like I mentioned above, I've only had luck with live and then stunned, never went the extra step to F/T.
 
CaptBogart said:
:cheers: Something about BP's and their live food.... hope the switch works for you, but like I mentioned above, I've only had luck with live and then stunned, never went the extra step to F/T.
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I know you said you never had luck going back to f/t but any advice/tips on going back to f/t would be great. I know there was a thread started a little while ago on this subject but I have not done a search for it yet.
 
Penman6668 said:
I know you said you never had luck going back to f/t but any advice/tips on going back to f/t would be great. I know there was a thread started a little while ago on this subject but I have not done a search for it yet.
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Actually that wasn't me, as the only time I feed F/T to my colubrids is when I had a refusal due to being in blue or bought too many. I think if I was going to switch my Ball to f/t, I would just take it slow with the next step being stunned but still kicking, then fresh killed, then f/t, but over a few months with a live waiting in the wings if the f/t was refused. Good luck :)
 
As I mentioned earlier, my two year old ball python made the switch to f/t with no problems, eating the first one ever offered to him. I didn't go from stunned, to fresh killed, to f/t, either. So it can be done.

What I did was let him go a few weeks without eating so that he was good and hungry, then thawed the mouse. Once it was fully thawed, I heated it with a blowdryer until it was very warm. I put it into his tank right outside his hide. He took it with no problem.

Normally, I would advocate feeding outside the viv, but balls are an exception. They can stress very easily and need to feel safe. Neither of my balls will eat outside their viv. If you make sure the mouse is very dry, there is less chance of substrate sticking to it, so less chance of inpaction.
 
I second the suggestion to make the mouse very warm. I don't have balls, but I have noticed a much faster, more excited response to a mouse that has been well heated in hot water. Normal temps on a live rodent are 100-101 degrees F. and if it's tepid, a lot of snakes won't take it. I've gotten snakes that have eaten nothing but live for years to take f/t immediately. They were a little put off by the wet hair, but ate after they checked the whole thing out. If you dry it thoroughly though, or at least dry the head you should be fine.
 
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