Hi there !
I have a male ball python since three weeks now.
He seems to aclimate well to his enclosure, moving around at night.
His first two meals went well, feeding hime with small dead mice. But tonight he refused his meal, despite showing signs of hunt since couple of days. I have seen him cruising around his water a lot the past few days, is it a shed preparation ? Sorry if my question is dumb, just I have been worried for him to feel safe. Thanks !
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Most likely him getting ready to shed. I would let him be for now and try not to bother him much. Another week before a meal is fine.
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What a great enclosure btw- love that wood!
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Thanks a lot for your reply. I am aware that BP have feeding issues, just me being concerned about his comfort. I will try next week so. I have put some wet sphagnum close to the water bowl, but closer to the cool spot. Is it a better option put it closer to a basking lamp if he is about to shed ? Thanks a lot for your advices, really appreciated !
Thank you ! He has a lot of way to climb and happy to have found these fake plants. He likes to sunbath by semi-hiding behind the leaves
The thing is, they don’t feeding issues. People that are adjusted to keeping mammals as pets have issues with how ball pythons feed. If the snake doesn’t want to eat, then nothing at all is wrong with that unless the snake is sick. Given that ball pythons are extremely hardy and almost never get sick is husbandry is good, it’s really just humans driving themselves crazy, not anything to do with the snake.
Most snakes have insanely efficient metabolisms, partly due to the fact that almost all species go through a food drought due to natural conditions every year. A healthy ball python can easily go 12 months without food. I’ve had it happen to me more than once. It used to be much more common than it is today when the snakes were a little less removed from the wild genetically. There was a time that if you sold or bought an adult ball python, you couldn’t reasonably expect it to eat for you for a few months or even a whole year.
No ball python has ever starved itself to death once it was established on food as a baby.
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We bought a hatchling ball python (hatched 8/6, purchased 9/25). He hasn’t eaten for us. He did eat 3 times before we got him, but didn’t eat the 3 times we offered food, about a week apart. He seems to be settling in. You say a ball python can go 12 months, but what about the young? Thanks!
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Hello, and welcome to the community! And congratulations on getting your ball python!
I don’t know if you’re new to owning ball pythons, so forgive me if you are aware and familiar with proper husbandry and whatnot.
I think first thing you want to do is check up on the husbandry side of things. What type of enclosure do you have him in, and approximately how big is it? Do you have a hygrometer to know the temperature and humidity and temp gun to check surface temperatures? If so, can you share those numbers with us? Also, what type of heat source are you using? Are you offering him live, pre-killed, or frozen/thawed mice, or rats?
I think once you are able to answer the above questions, we can better understand why he won’t eat for you, and try to get him eating for you. As you mentioned, some ball pythons can/willingly go without food for long periods of time, but babies definitely can’t.
Again, welcome to the forum!
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Thank you for the welcome. We are new to having a ball python.
We have him in an acrylic cage with a smallish screened area on top for the heat lamp. The enclosure is 36 x 24 x 18 inches with the only view out being the sliding “glass” doors on the front. We’re trying to keep the humidity between 60-80% and the temp has been 75 (cool side) to 83 (warm side) degrees. We’re using a heat lamp that gives out a small amount of light. I don’t remember what exactly it is. We have that on a thermostat and have thermometers/hygrometers on each end. We have 3 hides in it, but I have just ordered a couple smaller hides because none are really small. We’ve been offering frozen/thawed rat pinkies that we try to get close to 100 degrees. I’m trying to source live rat pups, but I haven’t found a place yet. I don’t really know where to look. The surface temp on the half log under the lamp is 108.
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I would try smaller, tight fitting hides, those seem really large for a hatchling and likely won’t provide the security they need. They tend to prefer hides where they can touch the sides and really squish in there
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Thank you. I have two smaller hides arriving tomorrow.
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No problem! I think that will help a bit
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Humidity only needs to be 50 to 60 percent. You can up the humidity when your snake is in shed.
Hot side should be 86 to 88 degrees. 83 degrees is too cool. Unless you just want a light, natural light is enough. Your snake will spend the daylight hours mostly hiding.
You do not need super deep substrate. Repti Chips hold humidity well. Also if you start feeding live you will probably get stuck feeding live. If he was eating ft when you got him he will eat ft again. I would try a small completely unthawed Mouse dipped in hot water, and paper towel dried/lightly squeezed to get most of the liquid out.
You can worry about switching to rats later if you want but male ball pythons do just fine eating mice their whole lives……T H Wyman will agree with this……
Most males. I don’t agree with all.
Anything past large in mice sizes are usually retired breeders. Especially ‘jumbo’ sizes. They will be fattier and may lacking in other nutrients when compared to a rat of similar sizing.
While most smaller males would be okay on mice for quite a while, not every male would. Some individuals need us to adjust as needed to provide optimal care.
My 24 year old would be flying out of his tub constantly if he only ate one mouse every 2 weeks. He’s slim but weighs in at over 2000g. He is not a small snake. He was a very picky live mouser when he was young but has thankfully been great on f/t rats the last decade.
I have a 2nd male that’s a pretty good size as well and is on rats because he would be eating ‘jumbo’ mice. Sometimes he will get 1x large mouse each week instead of 1x sm rat every other week. Thankfully he’s just in the sweet spot for either size.
As an example…
Pink sterilite ‘shoebox’ lid for scale. My largest male with my small 4 year old girl… And my largest girl of 8 years old.
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@t_h_wyman Travis could you “weigh” in on this? Or have I misunderstood again on your thoughts regarding male ball pythons eating mice as opposed to rats……
I seem to have a knack about posting erroneous information……
TIA
The only other things I can add here on top of all the great info you’ve already received are:
Since it sounds like he’s been settled in for a while, I would weigh him if you can. That way, if it takes a bit of time adjusting the temps and humidity, you will at least have a baseline weight for him. If he’s losing too much weight, you may have to come back on here to figure out next steps in getting him to eat. But for right now, keeping him hydrated and unstressed are important. He’s definitely not the first little baby-dude to go on a hunger strike lol.
I think the log temperature is dangerous and can burn him. I don’t have overhead lighting, so maybe someone else can chime in here, but if I had to guess I would shoot for no higher than 90° in any part of the enclosure that he could potentially come in contact with.
If adjusting up the warm side temps and getting the humidity in check to the parameters that @caron mentioned, and he still won’t eat, you might need to get him into a smaller enclosure like a Sterilite tub with a locking lid. Some babies need sized down to a smaller enclosure until they grow a bit or eat consistently. That worked for my ball python when he was a baby.
If you handle him a lot, it’s best to try to leave him be as much as possible to reduce stress.
Please keep us updated, best of luck to you!
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We all know I am pretty outspoken in my belief that the vast majority of keepers are overfeeding their animals (if it did not violate the ToS, I would post some necropsy pics that would make you cringe over how much fat was in some animals)
All of my males are on a diet of only mice and they do fine with it (even my 2kg, 18yo boy). Males are trimmer and do not have the same energetic needs as females so their caloric demand is naturally less
That said, as with all cases, there are exceptions to every “rule”, which Cristina very adroitly pointed out:
Christina’s animal basically has the same body composition as mine, so obviously a frequent rat diet does not hurt him
My way is certainly not the only way of doing things. I am just very vocal about my way because all too frequently, the answer given by someone is “Well BigBreeder X said this is how it is done so it is right” and so I am constantly challenging the community to stop thinking that there is only ONE way to do things
There are absolutely “wrong” ways to do thing, but there are also countless ways to do things “right”:
- 90% of my non-ball python animals have a diet that is completely devoid of rodents
- 90% of my non-ball collection are cohab groups
- 60% of my non-ball animals have no supplemental heat
- I have raised a ball python in a 55g glass tank from hatchling to adulthood (the horror
)
Long story short, of all the things on my ‘list of keeper concerns’, switching a male ball from mice to rats probably ranks at the very bottom
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Thank you @t_h_wyman and @armiyana.
There are exceptions
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