We have a champagne male. He has some other genes. We were told super pastel yb. Don’t plan to breed him but he’s super chill. One problem is feeding. I know you have to try and try until you figure out what the snake feels comfortable in. He’s been in a black box for weeks with a hide undisturbed other than water and cleaning. The box has holes to let sunlight in. His heat is 88 hot and 77 (ambient). I’ve played with temps and everything thing on one week cycles. Usually I just handle him once a week to try to not disturb his eating progress. 2 months now it has been so I assist fed him. Took a couple of tries but finally he gave in and took the rat down and kept it down. I’ve had to do the assist with 2 other snakes. The following progress with them was very impressive. One hunted right away the other hunted 2 rats later. Both are doing great. So I did some reading on champagne and apparently they are derpy-er than derpy. Will I have to continue assist feeding him or will he eventually hunt? For the record I assisted due to him being a bit on the lethargic side. He’s been losing weight but had plenty of energy but this last time he was a bit weak in my opinion. I tried all sizes rats live, f/t, and prekilled. I tried mice the same way and ASF the same way. He just cuddles them. Thanks!
I can tell you I have had assist fed an animal for 4 months before it started eating on it’s own even though everything had been tried before (that animal went on to be a very aggressive feeder). Usually my average when assisting is about 2/3 meals.
All you can do is keep trying different thing, very small dark tub, hides, crumble newspaper in the tub, car ride, offering live hopper (prefered), offering live rat, offering only every 7 to 10 days, offer each time and only assist the next day if the animal did not eat.
Now of course at some point you have to make the right calls and decide if the animal will have a quality of life or not, and being assisted for a life time is not.
BTW how old and how big is that animal, did you produce him?
My champagne combo never misses a meal and doesn’t care what I have for him so long as it is mouse shaped, so the gene isn’t the issue. How old is this snake, and how much does he weigh? Has he fed before you got him? It is a general rule not to assist/force feed an animal that already knows how to eat, especially since BPs can go a long time without food (assist feeding stresses animals out, so it can make things worse). If a snake seems lethargic when it has only been 2 months, they could probably use a trip to the vet to test for parasites. Try not handling him at all for a couple weeks and then give him a live mouse and dangle it by the tail in front of him (not rat, they don’t trigger the same feeding response). If an animal isn’t feeding you shouldn’t handle them at all unless absolutely necessary.
Girlfriends snake she brought home. I don’t know the details. I’m just an innocent bystander. He’s 220 grams before feeding and is very triangular. Thanks!
I got a spider with no wobble. It’s not uncommon to have ball pythons with certain problem genes to exhibit no problems and have the gene. I’ll try the 10 day mark. I usually feed every 5 days except for the ones who I know won’t
Well that is a whole different ball game here I thought this was something you produced and was not eating.
Obviously the animal was well started and eating before, knows how to eat and you generally speaking do not assist an animal that knows how to eat, what led to that?
How is the animal house enclosure size, type of hides, type of thermometer, temperatures etc.
The issue with assisting an animal that already knows how to eat is that you are more than likely making it worse by adding stress each week.
This is the first time it was assisted. He took the rat down and finished the rest. IM just wanting to know if anyone thinks it will be a long road of assist feeding or should he go back eating on his own. I do not need help with husbandry. That’s not the issue at all. Thanks
You do, if you get a new snake and it is 220 grams he does not need to be assisted, there is something triggering it (be health, stress, husbandry etc), also how long before getting it and assisting did you wait?
A snake does not go from 60 to 220 grams if he does not know how to eat and need to be assisted.
People jump the gun because animals will not eat and assist which is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE with an animal that size especially if there is no other issues.
Thanks for your comment. Respectfully I dismiss it though. You don’t answer my question in it so I have no need for the actual response you gave. Please stay on topic. Isn’t that in the rules somewhere?Have a good day
Wow 
BTW I answered your question several posts ago (quality of life and all) 
Not open to change your setup or even tell us what size it is? That tells me you are doing something fundamentally wrong with care and your snake not eating is the result. Learn to take criticism and maybe you will have success in actually having your snakes thrive. And don’t be rude to Deb when all she is trying to do is help.
I agree totally. Any snake that is in the 200 or 300 gram range has been eating by it self for a while. And not all champagne are “derpy”. And a wobble will not keep a snake from being a good eater or from having a good quality of life.
Respectfully you are not listening to anyones offer to help you with something that is obviously wrong with what you are doing. But to answer the one and only question you seem to care about, no you will not need to assist feed this animal as there was ZERO reason for you to assist feed it to start with. Now with that said you have MANY people here willing to help figure out what is going on and help you fix it, but you must be willing to ANSWER the questions asked and take the advice given. If you are not then Best of luck.
Is there anyway to get an answer without all the fluff?
What is the fluff you are referring to?
The question is does the champagne have feeding issues like this and am I going to be assist feeding this animal for longer than the others I’ve had to feed. Thanks!
Well i believe your question has been answered MANY times over but
And NO champagnes don’t have feeding issues if you are providing PROPER HUSBANDRY. And you DON’T need to assist feed an animal THAT WAS eating prior to you obtaining it.
do you often have to assist feed your animals? Respectfully if this is a common problem for you, then you may have a larger issue at hand that MANY people on here are more than happy to and willing to help you with. You only have to listen and answer questions to help us help you without being snippy and rude about it.
How am I being rude? I said respectfully and thank you many times. Thank you for saying that the champagne gene does not have feeding issues. I think knowing that it’s safe to believe I won’t be assisting this little guy too long. Thanks! It seems the rest of what you are saying is off topic for me. Hopefully it helps another person though. I personally didn’t ask anything about any of the other fluff. I hope it made you feel better to say it! Sometimes people have to get stuff off their chest. I’m glad I could provide a post to be a catalyst for that for you. Thanks! That does make me feel like a good person for doing that for you! Do you need someone to talk to? Do you want to start a new post to have some kind of personal conversation about something? I only had 2 very direct questions and one got answered. I should be able to use that information for the answer to the second question. Hey though, if that’s all for you I got all I needed. Thanks for spending the time to respond with the addition of all the fluff. I really appreciate you spending the few minutes of typing when it should , or could, have been just A few seconds. Have a good day! Thanks!
Exactly. I have 5 snakes haven’t assist fed any of them. One of which is a champagne BP (he never misses a meal and many other champagnes never have “issues”) though from the sound of things, the snake isn’t the one with the problem. Snakes can go a very long time without food, and if they already know how to eat (yours obviously does) then they should never be assisted in any manner. You will only stress and potentially hurt your snake in the process.
If you are not willing to take criticism or answer simple questions, then you really aren’t going to succeed in this hobby. Especially if you are having to assist feed your animals so often. Your animals are not thriving if you have to shove food down their throat. And if you can’t tell you are rude, then maybe you should work on self reflection too.
Criticism noted and do you need to get anything else off of your chest? Does My success matter to you? If it does I find that interesting.