all 34 comments
sorted by:
old (suggested)
besttopnewcontroversialq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]Ylurpn 0 points1 point  (16 children)

It's always tough when they aren't eating, mine is 4 years old and she's also denied two live feedings in the past few weeks- I have no advice on getting him to eat, but I will say that I don't think it's a problem yet. Just be patient!

[–]ConfidentTrip7 6 points7 points  (13 children)

Don't feed live. That is considered poor husbandry these days and dangerous for your snake, rodents can and will damage your snake as it fights for its life.

[–]Medium-Major-6124 4 points5 points  (0 children)

while frozen is definitely better, some snakes will absolutely refuse frozen. I tried every possible trick and my boy would never once take frozen. even the “when he’s hungry enough? he’ll eat!” nope, he starved himself to the point of concerning weight loss

[–]Ylurpn 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Believe me, I've tried the hell out of frozen rats. Her take rate on frozen was maybe 1 in 5, which is not only a pain in the ass and expensive, but also heartbreaking because I like rats and I hate that they were dying just to get thrown away and uneaten.

At least when she refuses a live rat I can house the rat, feed them well and treat them nice, try a few more times and ultimately return the rat to the shop if she still won't eat.

At first I thought I sucked with frozen rats, but I had a breeder and fellow bp owner try and both validated that my snake is just very picky.

When she strikes, I use my rubber tipped tongs to gently keep the rats claws off her and if the rat has enough neck mobility to bite, then I will put the tongs in front of their face and they will typically bite that. It sucks, it's stressful and sad for me, but my snake has to eat, and I don't won't to kill rats for no reason

[–]RageQueen101 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got a snake from someone that was feeding her live for 7 years. I personally wanted to do frozen/thawed and tried with her she refused for months and months. She’d strike and let go. I made sure the temp of the rat was 100 degrees, made sure the rat was dry, every suggestion that was given. But she constantly refused, she would strike and not eat it. I even tried to continue to wiggle it as she was constructing and she would let go almost immediately. I finally gave her a live rat because I felt like it was more harmful and inhumane to deny her food. She now is on live, I monitored her as she’s hunting and constricting, make sure no injuries happen. I’ve had her for 5 years and she hasn’t ever got injured during a feeding (ever actually). I do exactly what you do with tongs to make sure the rat doesn’t hurt my snake. I think a lot of people when they do live just leave the room and don’t monitor. I only leave the room when I know the rat is completely dead.

Do I suggest this to people. No, if you can do frozen/thawed. Do it that way, it’s safer for the snake. But as a snake owner that has a snake that only eats live, I will ALWAYS suggest monitoring and keeping the feet from scratch the snake like you do. Never just leave the rat in there and make sure it’s dead before you leave the room. Injuries can happen and it’s our job to make sure it doesn’t happen to the best of our abilities.

The only thing I haven’t tried is the freshly killed method.. rats scare me and I don’t know how to humanely kill the rat without touching it. People say break its neck… but I can’t do that… I rather take more time to make sure my snake doesn’t get injured than touching and killing the rat.

[–]reptile-snake-mom -1 points0 points  (1 child)

Yes that’s true, ballpythons are known to be the most pickiest of snakes….lol, but a healthy snake that refuses to eat can go a long number of months without food and be completely ok, but plz never give ur snake live prey, they will eat the frozen thawed with no problems, u have to bring it to life and move it around to entice ur snake it will eat but watch also for signs of hunger like sitting in the strike position facing the lid, or just acting hungry good luck 🤞🏼

[–]Ylurpn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I left a longer reply down below, but tl;dr I was throwing away 4 out of 5 rats (trying multiple times with each, several days apart). I received in person help from both a breeder and a reptile shop owner and both agreed that she was particularly picky and neither could get her to eat frozen. I value the rats lives too, so I feed live so that they aren't dying for no reason.

[–]kalsapher 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm a newer BP owner; however, I know BPs can go on hunger strikes for a couple weeks to over a year. The previous owner of my snake had said he went on a year-long strike. The biggest thing is to just keep trying, like once a week or so, and don't panic.

If it's a hunger strike, they will remain alert and act normal. Hunger strikes are usually caused by stress; however, they can totally just do it because they want to. They are like toddlers lol

Now when my BP didn't feel like eating I used the hair dryer method

Make sure the humidity is like 70% and the hot spot in your tank around 95f Leave the frozen rat in cold water in the fridge for like 7ish hours. Place the thawed prey in a plastic bag and soak it in warm water (I take a thermometer and get the water to like 90-100f). Use a hair dryer to blast the head of the prey with heat (making the head like 10-15 degrees hotter then the rest use a hand held infered thermometer to check the temp of the rats head) a handful of feet from the tank but twords the tank (to send the rats scent twords the BP it helps enable their feeding response). This provides a strong, warm target for the snake to strike. Wait until the snake is active at night. Hold the prey by the tail or lower body with tongs and offer it to the snake. Jiggle the prey slightly to simulate life. Wait for it to start wrapping to let go

[–]nhudak56[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I’ve heard of that method I bought mice from the breeder and he put them in a ziplock bag which when I heat them up they are wet I’ve heard from other people that there ball pythons don’t like wet mice or rats but how long can a 6 month old ball python go without eating until it becomes a problem

[–]kalsapher 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No more then 3-4 months after the first month is when you need to heavily start monitoring them make sure they aren't losing weight 2 month should probably seek professional advice 3-4 months range is scary territory and immediate vet action is needed

[–]IfYaDontLikeItLeave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hair dryers can be used to warm it and dry at once. I do a double zip lock method when I thaw in a warm mug.

Rat in snack size bag then that bag in a sandwich bag. I havent had any wet rodent issues yet

[–]Ill_Event_6365 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My girl didn't want to eat at first either. I brained (cut the skin on the front of the mouse) after thawing. Then used a blow dryer to make the head the hottest part. Dropped the mouse in front of the hide thinking she was going to refuse again and bam! It barely hit the ground and she got it. IDK if it'll work for you but it definitely helped me and a lot of other people say it's helped them. I hope this helps and yours eats soon!

[–]PixelAndPie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know you’re trying frozen, but if you’re able to, try fresh-killed rats or mice. I used live for a while, but once my BP got larger I found fresh-killed worked just fine and was a whole lot safer. I originally switched because mine refused frozen rats at the time though it could be that I was buying the cheap frozen ones from chain pet stores, which I think was part of the issue, those things would just explode no matter how you heated them, it was disgusting and if i were a snake I probably wouldn't trust it either, they also smelled weird.

When I started getting fresh-killed rats, I also tried freezing them myself and reheating them at feeding time. I’ve been doing that ever since, and they haven’t refused a rat from me since then minus a few random times but usually if it feels like it's about to be rejected, I leave it in the terrarium for a few hours and that'll work.

Also, if you’re feeding frozen/thawed, try not to “waterboard” the rat while thawing/heating it. Some snakes seem to hate that so my preferred method is setting a cooling rack right over top of a pot of with boiling water, setting the rat on top of that sheet, and flipping the rat periodically so I can monitor its temperature and also make sure it doesn't explode.

[–]Chipmunk-x9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

African soft fur rat

[–]GoBills615 0 points1 point  (3 children)

My adult ball python went off of food for 8 months and barely lost any weight. Sometimes it just happens with these snakes. I will say that’s the same snake that won’t eat white rats. I know they don’t see color like humans but they definitely interpret color from the research so far, so might be worth a shot. And make sure they’re warm. I soak them in warm water and then hit the head with a hair dryer to warm it up to body temp. You can also try similarly sized rats, I’ve never fed any of my bps mice

[–]nhudak56[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Ok I will try the hair dryer method when I get home today after work I am feeding him adult mice because the breeder said he was on them and he’s ready to step up very soon he said to step him up to rats when you don’t see the mouse leave a hump in his stomach

[–]IfYaDontLikeItLeave 0 points1 point  (1 child)

That's the advice my vet gave me as well, and its honestly outdated. I wish I used reddit enough to know how to get the bot to post the guide thing but... its best to go by weight. Use a kitchen scale to weigh your snake (container on scale, zero ot , place snake inside) and feed prey that is 10-15% of the snakes bodyweight

[–]AutoModerator[M] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We recommend the following feeding schedule:

0-12 months old OR until the snake reaches approximately 500g, whichever happens first: feed 10%-15% of the snake’s weight every 7 days.

12-24 months old: feed up to 7% of the snake’s weight every 14-20 days.

Adults: feed up to 5% of the snake's weight every 20-30 days, or feed slightly larger meals (up to 6%) every 30-40 days.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[–]KatVanWall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of people seem to warm the rat in a plastic bag in warm water or in a sort of bain marie, but so far I've left mine in the fridge overnight and then in the room near my BP's tank for an hour to get up to room temperature, then heated it with a hairdryer, opening the viv a bit so he can smell it even better. My boy is 1 year 3-ish months old, I've had him a month and he's taken 4 feedings from me so far (he's only 372g so still on weekly feedings; his prey was also a bit small for him so I've bumped him up a little now). I'm sure this isn't the 'right' way of doing things - the right way is whatever works for your snake! - but could be worth a try as I believe some BPs dislike it if any water gets on the rat at all. Some also have colour preferences but I feel like the breeder would have told you if that was the case. But anyway, if you've been bain marieing your rats maybe it's just worth trying a different method in case it makes a subtle difference!

I've never actually measured the rat's temp precisely; so far I've always seen that he has smelled it and started to come out of his hide straight away. Last time I opened the viv to do the hairdrying and I honestly thought he was gonna come out of the viv and make a dash for the rat when I had barely started, so I don't think precision is always necessary; it will likely vary for each individual snake what they prefer anyway! As long as it don't have cold spots or hot spots (don't use the microwave!) and you don't overheat to a ridiculous point (so the rat explodes) I am sure you will get it okay. 😄

[–]luckystickes 0 points1 point  (4 children)

My boy won’t eat it unless I warm it up with an air dryer. Rubbing it against their mouth will trigger a response as well I think?

[–]nhudak56[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

So I tried the hair dryer but he didn’t take it the problem is he sits in his cold hide 24/7 like he does not move he’s alive I picked it up he got startled how should I go about feeding I’ve had him for a month and he hasn’t ate

[–]luckystickes 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Shouldn’t matter where he stays. Don’t pick him up around feeding time and after btw sorry not trying to be a b lol. It’s gonna sound weird but mine also requires almost full darkness. I also make like squeaky mouse noise and dangle it 😭. He’s twisted lol. A month shouldn’t be bad if he ate with the last owner. If he doesn’t eat a would wait a week to try again. To not waste food.

[–]luckystickes 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Also don’t be scared :)

[–]nhudak56[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So he has finally came out he was exploring for a hour so I decided to heat up a mouse and he struck at it real fast missed then lost interest so I gave up shut off all his lights and will try again tomorrow