I bought one of my adult male ball pythons back in Feb. the breeder, a person I’d bought 2 other snakes from before said he was eating anything offered.
He was around 1100g upon purchase, and today is closer to 1000g.
So, I waited 2 weeks and offered, and surprise, he didn’t eat. And then I offered weekly for 2 more months, and, he took a f/t rat that I’d left in overnight.
I’d offered him the same up until this week, which I offered a live adult mouse and he took that!
Btw, I love the breeder and all the snakes I’ve gotten from her!
Just a lesson, don’t give up! 4 months is nothing to an adult ball python!
And, a picture of the brat, lol, his names Elrond.
Thank you @zer0stark7 for posting this! I needed the moral support! My BP girl Wrenn is around 2 years old. She was eating, voraciously, a ft medium rat weekly. Her last meal was March 6th and she has turned up her nose at everything I have offered her since then. She weighs 820 grams and is nice and thick and healthy looking. I have tried live as well as ft fuzzies, small, medium, and large mice. Also I have offered rat fuzzies, pups, and small rats. She acts like she is afraid of any size of live.
I am thinking she is at breeding age? Or she is thinking of breeding? Or just traumatizing me for no reason?
So I am going to keep repeating “They will eat” over and over to myself! And hopefully soon!
I’ve heard of people saying females go off food at 1000g, haven’t experienced it myself but I don’t think I’ve raised up enough females from babies to that point.
Hmmmm I have never heard that but I am hoping it is true. I just started weighing her as of late. I would hate to think she has lost 180 grams since she went on strike. I had my reptile vet check her out a few weeks ago and she said there was nothing to worry about and that Wrenn was still nice and plump so….
That’s a LOT of food for a 820g snake, I’m surprised she hasn’t gone off food sooner if you’re feeding that heavily. I’d strongly consider either sizing down or spacing out meals more when she starts eating again soon
Yes I do so agree with you. I am glad you have confirmed what I have realized as way too much food being the problem. I am going to feed every two weeks when she starts eating again. I feel badly that I have made this mistake with her.
Hopefully she will come back around sooner than later…….
This is going to sound bonkers but it seems as if I have one male and one female that only like certain color rats/hoppers. My juvenile bp will make friends with bi-color and white hoppers but grey ones are wrapped up within 10 seconds usually. My subadult female has jumped at the tongs and snatched the red beady eyed white ones before they even made it to the bedding. And she makes friends with bi-colored and gray ones. Like I watch each snake until it wraps up its food then if the rat/mouse gets friend-zoned I take it out right at 30 minutes and move on to next in line. I probably try too hard to force coincidence into correlation based on my tiny and insufficient sample size. The others happily take whatever I give them.
Here is an option you can try.
Pick up some “reptile electrolyte soak” follow the directions but soak for 30. The process I did was soak, day off, soak, day off, then fed. The one I had that went off food for a year started eating. I did feed it something very small and live, just to get it started. Then I moved up the size slowly, but still kept soaking for 3 months. Then soaked before the meal and eliminate the first soak, before stopping the soaks all together.
But it looks healthy. Keep tracking its weight. Also don’t try to feed every week. If this does not work, keep soaking but skip a month of feeding, then try every other week. Hope this helps.
I’ve actually noticed this too with a few snakes. A few babies from last year never would take black/brown mice and seemed to prefer white. Though, that was only 14 babies to survey that on!
No not just you! I have heard this a lot over and over. Ball pythons can be extremely picky and I think some of the reason is they seem to be more prone to maybe not stress exactly but just easily made more cautious by changes. Environmental changes, the way the food is offered/looks, decorations of the cage, ect. So you are definitely not crazy, @gina5678 it happens!
This is and is not a “thing” this has happened to me and others regularly when mine are around the 700-900g sub adult size personally, for no obvious reason. No changes in cage or environment. While I don’t power feed or push my snakes. I do try to feed some of my “hopeful breeder” weekly sometimes and I think they just get to a point where they are like ok I’m good just gonna stay at this size a while! While it’s frustrating, they always seem healthy and don’t lose much if any weight before they go back on food. I know some people on here that rarely experience this when they’re feeding every other week, so that could be a good place to start.
I wish I had weighed Wrenn in March when she went off feed but did not do it. She has taken all colors in the past and I have tried soaking her as well. My vet told me to try a live fuzzy a few weeks ago but she ignored it. I don’t try to feed her every week. Usually now it’s one or twice a month……. Who knows! Lol!
@caron Who knows is right! To me sometimes it’s as if they are in that teenage phase. They know they should do what you want them to, but since it’s you, their like “you don’t know what’s best for me, not gonna do it” I just had one sub adult female go back on food for me after a few months, it was all my fault though I moved her to a larger cage. What was I thinking!
Ball pythons they frustrate you, but you can’t help but love them!
