Hi. I have a new ball python named Sora, a beautiful 8 year old female weighing 1903 grams. She has not eaten in almost a month and a half, and I think it may be “The Wall”, but I am still concerned for her. I feed her ShMed rats once every four weeks, but she refuses every time after the first. I really want advice on this, so any info is helpful.
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So she was an established eater before you got her, correct? How long have you had her? Has she eaten for you at all since you got her?
I am not sure what you are saying here.
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How long have you had this girl?
Looking at how huge the lower 3rd of her body is I’d assume she’s either very overweight or very gravid. Both could cause her not to eat…
Whats her setup like?
If she’s not gravid she is definitely dangerously obese and needs a diet to reduce the risk of organ failure and/or FLD… her missing a few meals is cause for concern if this is related to obesity.
I’ll go ahead and tag @ballornothing @t_h_wyman @armiyana for their thoughts.
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This is very observant! The possibility of her being gravid is obvious. Where did she come from/how did you acquire her?
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@cmsreptiles Christina do you think that maybe the angle/way this picture taken makes her look obese or gravid?
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This is exactly my thoughts at the photo even before reading the tag. Either quite obese or If not gravid at the very least a big ovy. Even if she hadn’t been bred this year, if she had been bred before she may have retained the sperm and can still produce a clutch.
“The Wall” is usually a term I see used for people who are raising their animals for breeding. These will be younger snakes under the age of 4. They hit around 1000g and then can take a bit to break that… Once they do they’re usually pretty quick to make it up to the 1500 required for the safest starting weight.
As @caron was asking, how long have you owned this girl? How many meals has she eaten vs refused?
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I’m going to say no, as comparing the size of the snake’s head to its body is an indicator that the snake is actually quite large. Not just a trick of photo perspective.
For example here is my 1600-ish gram girl during ovy.
Her head isn’t hugely oversized by her body, she’s got some chunkiness but she still has a taper in her spine that can be seen in the photo by looking at the shadow.
The snake presented in the post has no taper in the spine all throughout the body at all and the head is dwarfed by the sheer size of the rest of its body. There is also zero wrinkling in the bending points of the body, although the bending points of the body aren’t extreme it would still be present in a snake that isn’t to that extreme of either being overweight or gravid.
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So what I reccomend that you need to do as soon as you can is get ahold of the person who sold this BP to you and ask them questions reguarding any breeding attempts made with her, when was she paired last if at all in their care.
And then ask them about her feeding regimen, what she was fed and how often.
If she is not gravid I’d suggest feeding her weaned rats every 2 weeks to get her to drop a bit of weight.
If the previous owner says that she has been paired before I’d definitely refrain from offering her meals right now if she’s refusing them, this is a sign that she is in or past ovulation and they typically do not eat at all at this stage until after they lay eggs.
Keep an eye out for sheds, if she sheds soon for you ir has shed very recently mark a calendar or make a note of some kind 30 days in advance. If she is gravid this will be a pre-lay shed and she will lay eggs around 30 days after this point.
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A male doesn’t necessarily need to be part of the equation for her to be gravid. Facultative Parthenogenesis is fairly common. Although if she was a breeder before, they can retain sperm for a couple years. If you’re feeding only once a month, she’s most likely gravid or about to be.
The wall, is a hobby wives tale that comes from people who overfeed their ball pythons. If it happens it’s between 950-1200 grams. People who feed for health and not fast breeding never experience it.
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Then I will never experience The Wall!
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Ok, some more information. She is a retired breeder and she eats smaller medium sized rats once every four weeks. She ate for me once, but then refused after that.
Let us know what her hot spot and cool side temps are. I’ve had customers where the animal I sent them ate right away, but then stopped, and I’ve found temps needed to be adjusted to get them back eating.
~85 warm side,~78 cool. Basking spot is about 89 degrees, and night temps are ~75 cool and ~81 warm. Her humidity is 73%.
Humidity should be between 50 and 60 percent. 73 percent is too high
Thanks, just released it to 58%
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Perfecto!!! 
Sorry, just getting back from vacation so catching up on all my tags
I would not be overly stressed about her missing a feed here and there. Balls are known for going off feed at times and if she is a recent acquisition then she may just still be settling in. I have had animals go off feed for no reason for extended periods (record so far is 19 months on one of my girls and she barely lost any weight in that whole time)
As others have noted, she has enough mass to her to not really worry. I would just aim to keep her comfortable and keep an eye on her, maybe offer a live small in a month (sometimes live food kicks the food response back on)
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