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Ball Python troubles..

Lennycorn said:
Yes, that was my understanding of her post too. You and Meg seem to grasp her point. If you spend the high dollor on BP's why risk it. Pfft
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Excellent question! People risk it because, most Balls will not take F/T with much stability. People who have male Banana's worth 60K, feed them live. Just saying.
 
Carinata said:
Excellent question! People risk it because, most Balls will not take F/T with much stability. People who have male Banana's worth 60K, feed them live. Just saying.
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Oh...like I said I don't know cause I don't ""work with them"". Is that feeding?? But if I did personally own one for 60 grand I would work with it instead flip it a pup.
Do you own any??
 
But you can feed a smaller live prey with a pre-killed without much risk to the snake. It gets their feeding response going and once they are in hunting mode most will eat the pre killed or even a f/t.

I am not saying you don't care, never did those words come out in my post. And I am sure there are breeders out there that look at their entire stock as family and there are those that don't. I don't know you so I would never make that assumption. I was just trying to get it through to you that we look at these snakes as our children, not matter if others believe that is right or wrong and we would NEVER put them in that position where they could be hurt, just like I pointed out I would never put my kids in that position with the bears.

No matter what your opinion or my opinion is on live feeding. The OP wanted to know if her male ball python was showing normal signs of male behavior during breeding of not eatting starting in Oct, which he is, correct? And will probably go back onto the f/t when spring hits, am I correct? If not she can try the smaller live prey item. Which again is not going to hurt them to do so, correct?

She was trying to also get advice on how to get him to eat WITHOUT leaving him with a large live prey item. Atleast that is what I get from her posts.
 
Just because they feed a 60k snake a live doesnt mean its the smartest way! Just because they are big breeders doesn't mean they do things by the book or right. We all know this by the BOI threads of some "large breeders".

and again I am not saying you are in that catagory by any means just pointing out a fact. by no means is it a bash or poke at you personally, please dont take it that way
 
Lennycorn said:
Oh...like I said I don't know cause I don't ""work with them"". Is that feeding?? But if I did personally own one for 60 grand I would work with it instead flip it a pup.
Do you own any??
Click to expand...
We don't have any male Banana's, as it's not a project we're all that into. But we have snakes of similar value (Red Devil, Panda Pied, etc.). The issue with working with the snake is, some Balls will take some F/T meals, and then just stop feeding all together. So it's much easier to start the snake on live, and just use precautions. There is risk involved in everything we do. Sending your kids to school everyday is a risk, driving your car, eating at 7-11 (big risk). I'm not advocating feeding live to everything, but with Balls, it's just easier and simplifies many problems.
 
I keep reading "easier" and "simplifies" Personally, I am willing to take the time and take the road less traveled if it means the SAFEST way to get my ball python to eat. I am sure there are others that agree with me and there are others that do not.

The fact still remains the OP doesn't want to feed large LIVE prey items to get her male ball python to eat. So why not give her suggestions we have tried to get them to eat pre-killed or f/t? Am I wrong? If ALL else fails, yes feed live...
 
beautifullywild77 said:
The fact still remains the OP doesn't want to feed large LIVE prey items to get her male ball python to eat. So why not give her suggestions we have tried to get them to eat pre-killed or f/t? Am I wrong? If ALL else fails, yes feed live...
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I can't see that you are.
Risks are all round us. So if you can avoid one by working with the snake ..why not. Simple.
 
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Carinata said:
If the snake starts to loose weight, live is the best way to go. By saying, I work for a breeder but your snakes are like family it (to me) sounds like I would care less.

Basically when I feed I like to make sure the snake has grabbed the rat before I move to the next tub. If the snake seems interested but doesn't grab right away I leave the rat in the tub for maybe 10 minutes, and check periodically.
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this doesnt strike me as 'watching carefully'. i would never ever leave my snakes alone for any length of time with a live prey item unless it was a pinky. it only takes 1 second for something bad to happen. the two or five or seven minutes before you come back and check coould mean death for the snake that isnt hungry. people that always say 'its easier to feed live' need to get their act together. dont be lazy. put in a little work to get to frozen thawed.

as for the OP i agree its totally fine that hes off food right now, my male ball python is too. hasnt eaten since december. as long as he doesnt start losing a ton of weight hes fine and will eat when hes ready.
 
I know there are plenty of f/t ball python eaters out there. The person who will take the ball I'm trying to get feeding has one that does. That said, balls seem to be one of the few species that will literally starve itself to death to get live. This animal is an import and most likely will only take live for now. Unless I kept it for a long time, got it feeding consistantly on live, then tried pre-killed from there. I'd be fine with that, but I won't. If it will take live consistantly, then it's going to their home and they can screw with it. What I don't understand is why breeders aren't attempting to create a better feeding ball.Since many balls do eat f/t-even petsmart imports-why wouldn't they start with that and then work with those? If all of them just start with live (I know they don't all do it because you can get ones at the shows that eat f/t) how can they say they won't take f/t. If I EVER bought a ball python, I'd want to see that it ate f/t without incidence for at least 10 feedings (same as a chondro). But-we're getting off topic, which is a male going off food seasonally. I still say, no worries. Let him be, he'll come around.
 
Carinata said:
Basically when I feed I like to make sure the snake has grabbed the rat before I move to the next tub. If the snake seems interested but doesn't grab right away I leave the rat in the tub for maybe 10 minutes, and check periodically.
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I'm sorry, I must of missed the point you were making here.

From what you have said in the past, you feed hundrends of snakes (bp).
So...as you move to the next tub and next and next you should have fed tweleve or even more.. in 10 minutes. To me thats alot of "'watching".
But it depends on what size of feeders you are feeding too. Rat pinks would be safe.
So...what size do you feed and do you have help or are supervised during feeding??

I'm guessing so cause that's alot of animals and $$$ to playaround with.
 
Sorry I didn't post last night. I was pretty tired. Anyway, the most difficult part about owning Balls is getting the babies to take F/T, before they've starved themselves. I have 2 Spiders and a Pastel at work that will not take F/T, so they'll get live. Most of our babies get F/T, and they take it. I guess one row has around 400 snakes (6qts), and 80% or so will take F/T. That's not consistently, but if we offer they usually will take it. The adults, will take F/T with about 10% regularity. Most just turn their nose up at F/T.

Most of the baby Balls from Petco come from Bill Brant and and bred by him. His facility is massive. Most babies will take F/T, with some ease, adults just seem to not want anything to do with anything but live.

Dave, we usually have me and another employee at the building I work in. Of course we do check on things for each other if need be, but they trust both of enough to do what we need to do without screwing up, if you know what I mean. Basically, I'll open a bin, offer a rat, most of the time the snake grabs it right then and it's over very quickly. A 3,000g Ball Pythons got some power behind those coils. Then I leave the tub bumped so just the lip is visible, but so that looking at the tub you can see that it's in a different position than the others. If the snake doesn't grab the rodent right away I'll leave it in the tub for a short time and check every 10 minutes or less. This is the method I use, which I've never had any issues with. Live feeding shouldn't be done unless it's with a species that will starve itself for live. If you're not comfortable feeding live, don't get a snake like a Ball that sometimes will holdout for live. My method is in no way the gospel, but it's what I've had sucess doing. Many Ball Python breeders feed live because it's the best way to get the babies feeding and best way to grow the animals quickly. I don't suggest feeding anything live unless it's something like a Ball. At work all our Corns, Kings, Milks, Carpets, Boas etc, all get F/T. They get F/T, because they will take it with no issue. Balls are just stubborn!
 
The fact remains~

The OP male python is not a baby. He is 3 yrs old. He went off food in Oct. Op wanted to know if this is normal and did anyone have any suggestions on getting him to start eating? The OP has already stated she is not going to feed Large LIVE prey items to her bp.

Let's stay on topic here!
 
It is breeding season, so that may be it. But I have seen Balls stop wanting F/T all together and holding out for live.
 
Ok do you have any suggestions on getting to start eating again WITHOUT feeding a large live prey item? Since in post 12 the Op already stated she didnt want to.
 
Lol yeah.. I'd really like to not have to feed him live at all. The whole reason I stopped feeding live (I used to feed my first three snakes live) was because one of the ball's rats curled up in my hands and went to sleep (it was 2 wks old). I cried so much after feeding that to him. Dx I'm such a girl lol.
 
I suggest putting it in a tub, giving it a few weeks, and then trying a F/T rodent. If it won't take that I would try a live small rat.
 
Again she doesn't want to feed a live small rat!

Ali, most ball pythons will feel more secure in smaller spaces with a hide that is snug. I would leave him be for a few weeks and try the f/t. If he doesn't take it I would wait another week and try again. If that doesn't work try a live rat pup (I know I cant watch hubby when he has to feed them) but always put in the f/t with the smaller life prey. That has worked with our male pinstripe and our stinking spotted python who gives me grey hair. You could probably go to ballpython.net and ask them. They actually give great advice.
 
I don't want to feed crickets, but some of my geckos will only take crickets. I can't change that at all. Yes, many Balls feel more comfortable in a smaller cage, and that may be it, but sometimes in order to have a healthy pet, it will have to eat live, there's no way around it.
 
Sorry Ali, please feel free to PM me. I have grown tired of having the feed live shoved down the throat. I think I am actually chocking on it!
 
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