If your ball python is about to shed, then it won't be eating until it is all done getting rid of the old skin. Signs your snake is about to shed include an ashy appearance to their skin and milky eyes. Stress is an often overlooked reason why snakes won't eat. New enclosures, other snakes in the enclosure, or too much handling can cause your ball python to get stressed out and not want to eat. Differences in prey will also cause a picky snake to stop eating. The smell, the size, whether the prey is alive, freshly killed, or frozen and then thawed, the kind of prey and even the color of the prey can all determine whether or not your snake is going to take in his meal.
If you've already explored the reasons why your ball python isn't eating and make any possible changes including the kind of prey offered or increased the temperature in the enclosure , there are some things you can do to get your snake to eat. But make sure you are feeding your snake in a feeding container separate from his regular enclosure and are covering that container with a towel to prevent your snake from being distracted while he should be eating.
First, if you recently acquired your ball python and he hasn't eaten for you yet make sure you are feeding the same kind of prey item as the previous owner, pet store, or breeder where you got your snake from. Subtle changes in the prey can deter a snake from wanting to eat it. Second, if the prey is pre-killed, make sure it is warm. You could achieve this by placing the prey in some hot water for a minute or two if it was not freshly killed.
If your ball still doesn't eat, try cutting the pre-killed prey open to expose the blood and entice your snake with the scent.
Using long tongs, hemostats, or feeding forceps to dangle and wiggle the food in front of your snake can also be helpful, especially if your ball prefers eating live prey.
Soaking the pre-killed prey in some warmed low or no-sodium chicken broth can help add an attractive scent to the food as well. If you've tried all of the above tricks and your ball python still won't eat, get him checked out by an exotics vet. Baby ball pythons are growing the most of the three groups and need to be fed accordingly. Feed her weekly or even every five to six days. Juvenile ball pythons are between one and three years on average in captivity. In the wild, they can take four to five years to reach adulthood due to inconsistency of meals and parasites.
Ball pythons are full grown at four to five feet. Once they have reached this adulthood, it is recommended to feed the snake once every two weeks. You may find adult mice are no longer big enough for the python. If this is the case, you may want to move onto rats. Rats follow a similar size chart as mice.
Rat pups are generally the same as weanling mice and weanling rats are the same as adult mice. Adult rats are a big range, anywhere from an extra-large mouse to rabbit size.
Sometimes you will discover that the python has left his meal untouched for several days. Shedding is a natural and regular process for snakes. While shedding, snakes can be at a higher level of stress and will typically refuse to eat just before and after this process. Just wait it out before attempting to feed again. Digestive or other possible health problems should be discussed with a reptile vet who can expertly offer guidance on how to proceed.
Check the temperature and humidity levels. Are they at the optimal place? If not, correct this and wait till the cage has adjusted before feeding. If you are still unsure why your ball python is not eating then visit with your reptile vet to see what could be causing this extra stress. The initial cost of a snake is just the beginning. Whether you use pre-killed, freshly killed, or live mice, the cost will be something to consider for your pet.
Mice are typically purchased in bulk so distributing the cost into a weekly amount can be difficult. Rats are about three-fourths more expensive than mice so that will need to be taken into account if you ever need to upgrade from an adult mouse.
I found a good option on Amazon of a bag of the smallest mouse- the pinky mouse which is only a day or two old and a half inch to an inch in diameter. This pack is competitively priced and keeps its cold temperature well during shipping. The next size up is a fuzzy mouse which is about a week old and has developed a fur coat, hence the name.
This product comes in a pack of You can find this pack here. The size goes from 1. This bag is from the same company as the pinky mice bag.
They use dry ice to keep the mice frozen which lends a hand to their well-received and valued brand. There is a risk of developing nutrient deficiency over time even when you buy your prey items from the best breeders.
Use a calcium supplement that contains vitamin D if you are not using UVB lighting. Weigh weekly for best results. An imaginary cross-section of a healthy ball python would look a bit like a melted Hershey Kiss, round on the sides with a gentle peak at the top the spine. Obesity is a rampant problem among pet snakes, and especially in ball pythons.
For more information and a helpful visual, go here. There is no feeding schedule in the wild, which means that ball pythons need to be opportunistic predators if they want to eat. That means active hunting and not refusing what they manage to find.
Will erratic feeding make your snake more aggressive? Their ability to fast helps them to survive a period of drought or incubate their eggs. However, just because these snakes can go without eating for long periods, does not mean they should. It is your job to feed your snake prey that provides good nutrition without under or overfeeding. The best way to make sure your python is getting the right amount to eat is to use a feeding schedule. Schedules will help to make sure that your python will not go hungry, but also lets you easily keep track of and adjust the amount you are feeding to prevent overfeeding.
Knowing when your snake last ate helps alert you to any feeding abnormalities such as refusal. Young pythons will need to eat more often than a mature male who is growing very slowly.
Younger individuals need a lot of energy to put into rapid body growth. Feedings needs even differ among fully grown pythons, depending on whether or not they are gravid or getting ready to breed. Exact feeding requirements vary between individuals, but there are guidelines for how much the average python needs to eat based on its size and age. Hatchlings can be started off with pinky mice, while adults may be able to eat large-sized rats.
Hatchling pythons grow very fast! Females can grow up to 12 inches within a year and males can grow eight inches per year. To keep up with their growth hatchlings need to eat a lot.
They should be fed a hopper mouse every five days for the first four weeks of their life. This is also the time when you should make sure their feeding response is strong and that they are able to strike at prey accurately. Pythons under one-year-old are considered to be juveniles. Juveniles are still growing at a tremendous rate. To sustain this growth, they need to eat a small mouse or fuzzy rat every week. At six months old your python should be between 20 and 27 inches and have a good appetite.
You can now offer a larger prey item over longer periods of time. One rat pup or adult mouse every ten days works well for most individuals. By now, male and female ball pythons will start to differ in size. Females grow consistently bigger than males. This size gap means that you may need to feed male and female pythons different prey. Smaller males can have adult mice and larger females can have a rat. A small, 1-year-old female may not be large enough for a rat yet, or an especially big male may swallow a rat without any trouble.
It is also the age at which males reach maturity. You can now start spacing feedings out to once every two weeks and slightly increase the prey size again. Larger snakes need larger prey, but less often.
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