ok, age old "my Ball won't eat"..please help?

[Gillian]

Hi all,
*grrrr* My favorite pet of all, Othello, is on his tear again. He can and usually takes small-large rats, but now takes NOTHING.
I haven't tried gerbils, what have you, yet. (it would take an inordinately large amount of these, as he's close to 5 feet long)I'm not opposed to using a razor blade (for delicacy's sake, I won't go into details. Those who have had to, know what I'm talking about.)
He is acting hungry, but once I get him in his feeding tank, nothing. A small amount of interest, then he pulls away.
To make things easier, here's how I usually feed him;
* Put Otho (his nickname), into feeding tank, while dinner warms up.
* After dinner is thoroughly warm (warm to the touch), get a cup of very warm water.
* Get tongs or hemostats. Dip face of food item in hot water, hold it in front of Otho's face, being careful not to bump him with it. (If I do, he pulls into a frightened ball)
* Hold still while he checks it out.
* After he strikes and takes it, leave the area, making sure its dark and quiet.
* Go back after he's done, lifting him gently, putting him back in his aquarium.

The room he's in, stays about 80 to lower 90's. I have turned off his heat source, as it gets REALLY hot in there, if its on.
Thanks in advance..and, I'm sorry to keep asking for help..forcefeeding will never be used again. That was extremely horrible to witness..
Peace,
Gillian

 

[skinheaddave]

Gillian,

I would try the following things:

- feed him in his normal enclosure
- get his faeces checked for parasites
- try scenting a rat with a gerbil

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Bry]

In addition to dave's post, I don't know what sort of substrate you use for Othello, but if it's a loose substrate, I would put down newspaper or paper towel to put the rat on to prevent Othello from ingesting the substrate and causing other problems. I would also try dropping the rat in, and leaving the room for a few hours, or overnight if you can. Or you can simply cover up the cage to reduce the amount of light that gets into his cage.

Bry

 

[atavuss]

some people say to put the snake in a paper bag with the prey item, you would have to find a HUGE bag to put your snake in......I would just wait a week and try again. I finally got my BP to eat two medium rats last week and the last time it had eaten was last fall! I am trying to get it to eat as much as it will take to put some fat on it.
Ed

 

[Gillian]

Guys,
Thanks..
Otho is kept on shredded aspen. However, I have access to LARGE amounts of newspaper at work, so will change him over to paper.
As for the scenting with a gerbil, all I need do, is sneak a gerbil in the house..in fact , a friend of mine keeps a gerbil as a live "scenter". He takes it out, and rubs it on the food.
Tomorrow is visit the petstore for food day, so I'll get another rat, and try again.
Thanks...
Gillian

 

[atavuss]

Originally posted by Gillian
Guys,
Thanks..
Otho is kept on shredded aspen. However, I have access to LARGE amounts of newspaper at work, so will change him over to paper.
As for the scenting with a gerbil, all I need do, is sneak a gerbil in the house..in fact , a friend of mine keeps a gerbil as a live "scenter". He takes it out, and rubs it on the food.
Tomorrow is visit the petstore for food day, so I'll get another rat, and try again.
Thanks...
Gillian

I doubt if a substrate change will get it to eat, as a matter of fact, it might prolong its fast due to habitat changes IMHO.
for what it is worth I have been using a pelleted aspen product for my BP and other large and messy herps. it absorbs odors very well and has a fresh scent of its own, it has very low dusting also.
Ed

 

[belewfripp]

Has he done this before? If so, how often does it occur and how long does it usually last? I have three adult snakes, one a ball python, the other two are rat snakes (florida yellow & leucistic texas), and all of them, usually during the summer months, will at some point during the year go on a lengthy fast. In my male florida yellow rat I suspect it is connected to the breeding season. In the others, unsexed, this may or may not play a role, one thing I have found is that with a snake that previously would eat frozen food but now won't touch it, try feeding fresh killed. If you don't want to have to kill it, see if a pet store employee will do the honors for you. My ball python refused frozen rats for a solid month but then I offered a fresh killed rat and the snake took it.


Adrian

 

[Phillip]

Part of what may be the problem...

I honestly don't feel that feeding the ball in question in the tank it lives in is any more likely to cause feeding than removing it for feeding will. One thing I have noticed people do over the years is try and tease the snake into feeding my moving the prey in front of it which you say has worked but this method fails a lot also.

Balls are shy snakes and often they will do better if the food is simply placed in an empty sterilite with them and they are left alone overnight to find it on their own.

The big thing to getting them eating on a regular basis is patience however as most all of them will come around if given enough time and enough freedom from handling until they settle in or get over the non feeding periods that they sometimes go through.

Phil

 

[belewfripp]

Phillips post reminded me of a couple of other things that may or may not be of interest. With my adult ball there have been a few occasions when I have had to dangle and 'jerk' the rat for as long as ~ 2 minutes (I didn't actually time it) before he/she would lunge for it. Sometimes I have also found that the snake will be bothered by the intrusion and simply seek to get away from the rat without really, I think, knowing what it was. Once he/she did eat a thawed rat that was left in overnight. And lastly, one thing I have tried with a small degree of success with all three adult snakes is, if they seem interested, tongue flicking, continuing to look at the prey item, but never actually grabs the prey and maybe kind of stays back from it a little, and this goes on for a minute or two, to suddenly drop the prey (I usually dangle it an inch or two above the tank bottom). Now, with a ball, this may frighten it if the prey is too close to the snake, but if the snake seems really interested but just doesn't go for it, you might try it, I have had the sudden drop trigger a 'lunge and coil' in this snake and in my two rats. Like I said though it is a small degree of success, maybe 3-4 times it has worked out of 10-12 tries. And if you think it's an intrusion/shyness think causing this, you might not try it, but it is another option that maybe might work to get the ball (no pun intended) rolling.


Adrian

 

[Wade]

I've used chicken broth to scent rodents when feeding baby Burmese pythons. Many pythons have a prefrance for birds, but I'm not sure if that's the case for balls.

Wade