I agree that they need to switch to rodents (at least the domesticated species like corns, kings, etc.) but I too often see people trying to bend the animals to their will. Get them established on what they will eat, then work on switching them over to Euro/Asian rodents that they would never have seen in nature. If they FT off the jump great, but if not, they aren’t necessarily problem feeders.
The ball python off food thing though, people just need to take a deep breath. Why must it eat every week? It’s mind blowing how worked up people get over the animals exercising free will. If an established BP stops eating, and you run through 20 different “tricks” to get it to eat, you’re essentially trying to bend the animal to your will.
2 months isn’t uncommon for a ball. I currently have a male that hasn’t eaten for 6 months and had one in the past go almost a year. If his weight is still good and acting normal, then I wouldn’t worry about it yet. You could try changing the tub size, substrate, temp and hide. Making him think he is in a different place might get it started again. Maybe hold off for 3 weeks to get him out of the routine. Trying live weened mice would also be an option. Make sure your current setup is correct.
I can’t speak for others, but I know for myself, it required an adjustment in my thinking after mostly having worked with mammals, lizards, and fish (and a king snake who never refused a meal). In most other animals besides snakes, a lack of interest in food is often a red flag that something is wrong, and most other animals need to eat at least several times a week, if not every day. So I think that many people coming from a non-snake background can just have trouble getting their minds around the fact that multi-month fasts can be perfectly normal and healthy for many snakes.
I think sometimes it’s less about wanting to bend the animal to your will, and more genuine concern rooted in a lack of understanding that snakes are not like most other animals when it comes to food. Sometimes, even though you intellectually understand that fact, that’s not enough to override the emotional reaction of being concerned for your animal’s health when it refuses food. I spent so many years working with animals that needed to eat frequently, and had had it drilled into me that an animal refusing food was a BIG PROBLEM, that it took some time to adjust my thinking when I started keeping snakes. Even though I knew my snake wouldn’t starve to death from not eating for a month, it took some time for me to be able to shake the concern and anxiety I felt each time a snake refused a meal.
I think this summarizes the issue precisely. I don’t think it’s a question of domination. For the vast majority it really is based in concern for the animal. If an animal is sick, among the first questions a vet asks will be about the patient’s appetite. Same for a sick human. It’s an adjustment for a new reptile or herp keeper to get accustomed to feeding on an appropriate, normal schedule. I know I felt like I was starving my first new, baby corn snake when I followed the advice of experienced people and skipped his feeding when he was in shed. Same for the first time an adult male went on a springtime feeding strike. (It didn’t help that it was called a “hunger strike” by more than a few people.) My head understood, but it took a while for the heart’s impulses from years of caring for non-reptiles to wear off.
For example, I have a chinchilla, and if she goes 12-24 hours without eating, her digestive system will literally start to shut down and she’ll die if I can’t get her eating again (which normally requires force-feeding every few hours for a while…sometimes a long while). So a chin refusing food, even for a short time, is a medical emergency. Going from that mentality, to keeping an animal that can go months between meals and barely even lose any weight and not suffer any serious health complications, is a pretty big adjustment. I’ve basically had to re-train my brain not to panic when one of my snakes refuses a meal, because that same behaviour in any of my other animals could be very serious.
When one of my oldest went off food for 6 months after trying different food took him to a vet and he told me he was perfectly healthy just give him time. It happens but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I know they will go off food sometimes but it always makes me feel like Im doing something wrong. The longer I do this the more I see its just part of it, and you learn to take a step back and breath.
I now have my own story! I got my very first snake at the end of March and since then (it’s seven weeks later!) I’ve been trying to get him to eat. He’s not a Ball Python, though- I’m sure he’d like to be, hah! I mentioned earlier- He’s a Black African House Snake, which means even at several months old, he’s a little thinner than a pencil, maybe 14 inches long (?) and 6 entire grams.
He is An SMOL Noodle, as we say on the interwebs.
So I was very worried about how long he might go off his food. He’s an established eater, but I found after speaking to experienced folks, and reading up, that BAHSes can do this as young squiggles, and manage about two months or so before there’s trouble. My concern was that he’d take the entire two months and then STILL not eat… and possibly become undernourished. Again, not a Ball Python, and only 6 grams. “Surely”, I worried, “he can’t do that for very long. I have got to find something or some way he will eat!”
I tried FT pinkies like he’d had before. I tried cut up pinkie. I tried putting him in his shipping deli with one. then I tried scenting one with frog juice and offering on tongs, then leaving that for him. Then I tried frog links. Then Earthworm pieces from Josh’s Frogs. Then snail meat pieces. Then pinkie on tongs again but warmer… You get the idea.
Yesterday I brained a FT warmed pinkie, and left him with it in a Noodles N Company deli (black sides) and covered the whole thing with a cloth. The first hour, he seemed to spend examining it to figure out if it was edible. At the end of the second hour I checked again, and HE ATE IT. The little baby had a Food Lump!
Finally. Punk shoelace.
So apparently braining and being given time alone with it is His Squiggliness’ preference.
My female ball python used to have an aversion to eating albino rats. I had to find solid or multicolor varieties. Taken some time but she’s gotten over it.
My male ball python refuses to take a rat below 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes I’ve also had to brain them or expose part of the inner abdominal cavity (small incision). Lately I’ve had to do freshly pre-killed. He’s an odd one.
My watermelon conda hognose wont eat off tongs or food left in her house. I have to hold the mouse out to her and she takes it from my hand. Which sometimes can be a pain as she decides she wants to come from the side where my fingers are so it becomes a dance to place said mouse in her mouth while I try to keep my fingers away.
Male normal hognose will headbutt and hiss at me when I place the mice in. They have to be brained and he refuses vitamin dusted. They have to be left on this specific yellow plate or he won’t touch them.
Thankfully my only other snake currently, a lavender hoggie is a dumpster and will eat anything anytime anywhere anyhow. Lol.
Trial/Error also some input from Jeff Galewood @ JMG reptile and a buddy of his Tim Jasinsky whom of which does wildlife rehab helped a bunch getting some of the oddballs I keep eating regularly again.
Never hurts asking around for input from others and I’m really enjoying reading everyone else’s stories too. We learn and grow from eachother. This is one of the reasons I love this community!
I have a female Ocelot Sib Carpet Python who was a failure to thrive baby. The breeder never gave up on her and after force feeding, assist feeding, button quale finally got her on rodents an offered her for sale as a pet only snake. Minerva is the nicest carpet python ever, she doesn’t strike or bite.
She will only eat frozen thawed/killed off of tongs. She opens her mouth when she see’s the food coming and waits for it to come into her mouth. She will then bite down and eat. She never coils or strikes her food.
I am so glad her breeder spent close to a year keeping her alive and teaching her to eat, she is the best pet Carpet Python anyone could ask for, beautiful , gentle, and completely socialized.
We have one ball python that would not eat white mice… any other color was fine. Now that he’s on ASFs, color doesn’t matter to him. We also have one BP that doesn’t like ASFs yet.
Have a young L.leonis that ate fist pinky,f/t like I 'd been told she ate. Then refused for over a month. Finally got her eating again after senting with sheds from my other snakes. Since then only refused once. I’d been getting worried mostly because she’s still a baby.
Have a male cornsnake and a male sand boa that only eat about once or twice a month at the moment but they are older older so it doesn’t worry me much.
We also have one BP that doesn’t like ASFs yet. 