Hi, I’m new to ball pythons but today was the first time my 10 month old female refused food. I’m worried she may be underweight but just wanting some options on her body condition?
10 month old female bamboo pastel. In my ownership she has had 10 successful feeds every 7 days mixture of mice and rats.
Any help welcome.
She is lean but her body condition is not bad.
How much does she weigh in grams?
She should be eating prey items that are 10% of her body weight every 10 days. Maybe her feeding frequency is too often for her now and she’s not hungry?
What are the temps in her enclosure? Humidity?
Does she have multiple places she can hide?
Do you feed Live or Frozen-Thawed?
I had a similar experience with my female when she was young. She ate f/t for me for over a year with no problems, one day she quit eating cold turkey and didn’t accept another meal from me for quite a while. I eventually gave in after multiple feeding attempts and methods to get her eating again and offered her a live rat, she took it without hesitation.
Unfortunately she will only take live now despite efforts to get her eating f/t again.
I will say that refusing a meal once is not exactly a huge concern for a Ball Python. If this snake were emaciated it would be a different story but she looks fine, I’d be more concerned if she’s gone months without a meal combined with rapid weight loss.
