Feeding Response

I have gotten into a schedule of feeding about 3-4 hours after lights out. Waking them up during the day hasn’t been really successful for me. I ended up getting the rats out to thaw pretty late last night and fell asleep. I got up a few hours later about an hour before lights on and decided to get them warm and try and feed. I had snakes comming out at me that normally don’t. They all seemed to show an increased response. Wether it be just the shock in pattern to them or they spent the night looking for it and it finally came. I might start switching times around randomly,. I’m pretty consistent with Feeding once a week on Fridays but I stretch that out to even as far as Sunday night. I’m strictly frozen thaw for the time being so I don’t have that to stimulate any stuburn eaters.

  • How does everyone else schedule thier feeding and have you had obstacles in feeding on your own schedule rather than the snakes?

For reference, I currently have three young BPs, and only a few months experience under my belt. Two I have had since August, are in their own Exo Terras, and established eaters. The third I just got Tuesday and is quarantine in a separate room, so hasn’t fed yet. As of right now. I feed on Sunday, throw the frozen rats in the fridge during the day to thaw out. The lights turn off at 7pm, and shortly after the BPs are actively out in their enclosures. Around 8:30pm, I get the rats out of the fridge and stick them in warm water. Then around 9pm, I empty the water out, and use hot water. BTW, the rats are in ziplocks to keep them as dry as possible. One of them I have been experimenting with, and put cardboard down over the substrate and noticed an increased alertness for food when I do that. After 10 minutes, I pull the rats out of the ziplocks, and pat dry, and they both take them with no hesitation. The one I am experimenting with, seems to understand that when I put cardboard down in his enclosure, that food is coming to him shortly, so he stays in his hide with his head out in strike position.

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Remember ball pythons are nocturnal. You will have better success feeding your ball pythons during the night when they are active. Waking them up during the day will result in a stressed snake and a less successful feeding response. The snakes most likely displayed an increased response because they were able to smell the thawing rats in the air. I notice a difference in behavior and activity of each of my snakes when I have rats thawing in the same room. I am a consistent feeder feeding every 7-10 days. I use that range to change up the routine slightly and depending on the size rat I feed. For example if I feed a smaller rat this week, I will feed 7 days later, If the rat is bigger I will feed 10 days. I feed frozen thaw and have been pretty successful. Just make sure you get the rats up to temperature for their heat pits to sense. If they are a little cooler, the feeding response isnt as good.

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I feed mine any time I want, but since I breed rats and don’t have a ton sometimes theyll either wait for wean sizes to grow then eat or sometimes ill substitute adult mice and feed those until wean/small rats are ready to go.

Because of the way I feed, mine will eat whenever I offer if they’re hungry or not in shed.

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mine is friday, saturday, sunday and sometimes monday, i also have a snake that has refused food for 5 months so ya know. maybe schedule is important lol