My Snake Isn't Eating

[BQC123]

I have never kept ball pythons before, but have heard they are sometimes picky eaters.
My Nelson's milk snake has been a real PITA to feed at times. Warming the mouse, and exposing the brain worked fairly well. At times I have to give multiple, smaller prey items with the brain exposed. She will sometimes go back to larger after that.

 

[vedack austin]

my ball python

my ball python is so week, when it trys to strike, it misses or the mouse gets away. it hasnt ate in 2 months can you guys help me please

 

[kevin91172]

Live prey is the absolute WORST way to provide your caged snake, that has no escape route, a meal. I have made that mistake in the past had some large, very powerful healthy(and expensive) herps that were killed and 1/4 eaten by the time I came back to check on them in mere minutes. Including a 3.5ft male Crotalus horridus atricaudatus! Anyone who has been in the hobby for any extended amount of time knows someone who this has happened to or been through it yourself. Its a common mistake that inexperienced keepers make, and its completely unnecessary! F/T are readily available from numerous feeder companies, at local reptile shows, and are much cheaper than paying for live rodents at your LPS. I just bought 250 large mice, 100 large fuzzies, 100 small mice for 114$ shipped, thats an average of .25$ per mouse. If you think about housing, frequent substrate changing, food, smellyness etc. its actually cheaper and more efficient to purchase F/T rodents than breeding your own! So there is no reason to not atleast attempt frozen mice. Cheaper and safer and will cost you far less monetarily ie, vet bills and antibiotics, and emotionally as well. The idocy you feel after losing a pet due to ignorance and neglect is immeasurable. I have seen what rodents can do to seemingly capable animals(even venomous) in minutes and that is the reason why ALL of my herps were either switched over or have been F/T rodent eaters. Even the normally non-rodent eaters and especially venomous since alot of crotalids, and I have heard BP's, are prone to sudden anorexia from something as simple as rodent bite and the stress it causes upon the caged animal. And why would you think it was OK to let your pet be bitten anyway? That is completely irresponsible as a pet owner! If you compare a mouse or rats front tooth diameter and a cornsnakes body diameter and compare that respectively to humans it would be like someone stabbing you with a slightly sharpened, broomstick handle! Its just something to think about.

We need to talk to the administrators on Ab to see if we can just be lazy and click on "like" on comments

Like by Kevin Schneider

 

[BQC123]

my ball python is so week, when it trys to strike, it misses or the mouse gets away. it hasnt ate in 2 months can you guys help me please

It sounds like this animal needs to se a vet right away. There may be health or husbandry issues. Snakes can go off food for long periods, but the weakness is a bad sign. Will this snake take f/t or prekilled prey?

 

[vedack austin]

It sounds like this animal needs to se a vet right away. There may be health or husbandry issues. Snakes can go off food for long periods, but the weakness is a bad sign. Will this snake take f/t or prekilled prey?

yes, i assist fed him one pinkey dead of course but when he strikes at his prey he ither misses or the prey gets away easy

 

[red fury]

QUOTE=BQC123;1833427]It sounds like this animal needs to se a vet right away. There may be health or husbandry issues. Snakes can go off food for long periods, but the weakness is a bad sign. Will this snake take f/t or prekilled prey?[/QUOTE]

question for you, I have 2 Ball pythons and a blood python atm, had a few corns last year that i got rid of....(by all means no expert, but ive spent a huge number of hours researching these animals)... anyways to the question, has your snake shed since going off feeding? from personal experience with my larger of my two balls, his caps refused to come off for a while and led him to strike erratically at his F/T rats until he hit it... if the caps are off, hasn't shed since or just before going off food, drastic changes to temp, humidity, mites or visual respiratory distress signs (milky white foam/mucus around the mouth) then rush it to a reptile vet asap....