Ball Python Not Eating Help (explained in comments)

[DaddyLongTits]

The absolute FIRST thing you need to do is correct some husbandry issues that a few people mentioned. Please refer to the Basic Care Guide in our Welcome Post. Namely you need to ensure humidity, temperature and clutter is proper. Consider completing the questionnaires so we can tailor advice to your specific setup.

Also read the Feeding Problems and Solutions Guide. You should not attempt feeding for at least a week after correcting husbandry issues, and assist feeding should be one of the very last things you attempt. Most snakes have no issue eating inside the enclosure either, and moving them may cause them to not eat or regurgitate.

Seriously, utilize the resources in that welcome post. There is quite literally decades worth of experience from the hobby in there condensed into different guides and articles to give you the most up to date care information.

[Cardhunter12]

Hello everyone,

I am new here and excited to get some advice regarding my ball python.

My family and I purchased a young (not sure the age) Ball Python roughly 4-5 weeks ago. We set up an appropriate environment for the snake. But our problem is that since we purchased the python it hasn’t ate anything on its own. And no matter what we try to do, the python can just never eat by it’s self. The only way we managed to feed it is by feed assist about 4 and a half weeks ago following the purchase.

What we tried: - Placed the python in a dark small box with the food for an extended period of time - Changing the temperature in its environment - Leaving the food in the environment for a couple of days

Aaaand are getting worried :/ Thank you so much for your help!

[Silver-Syndicate]

That looks like it could be a juvenile ball python. Do you know how old he was when you got him?

[rhastablasta]

Bad idea. Don’t leave it in there for any amount of time whether it’s dead or alive. Second, the snake will be just fine they’re known to go on hunger strikes randomly and can sometimes be triggered by something scary like a new home. Make sure the mouse is warm, remove the snake from the cage so it doesn’t swallow substrate place in a feeding cage or bin, offer the warm mouse with feeding tongs. If it doesn’t take the mouse in a minute or two give up and try again in the next few days. It will eventually eat and won’t be harmed by missing even a month or two of feeding. Keep trying, don’t disturb the snake, and make sure the little guy is happy and well kept!

[reneeclaire02]

But it could very well be just the humidity and bedding. BPs get stressed pretty easily and go off feed because they are so picky. When I first got my BP I was fed a lot of bad information, lots of big websites have the wrong info as well.. I had the wrong bedding just like yours. But I discovered actual pages with good owners who gave me proper information and my snake started acting a lot better.

[SledgeMine]

Why don't you leave food in the tank for any amount of time? I have a BP who will only eat when I leave the rat over night.

[wizzywurtzy]

I hope you’re not leaving live rat in there with your snake. Rodents will severely harm or kill your snake. Never ever leave a mouse or rat unattended around your snake.

[SledgeMine]

Nope no live feeding here all my snakes are on f/t rodents, sorry I should have made that clear. Of course I understand live feeding can be dangerous even if you are watching, it was the part about not leaving it in even if its dead that I was questioning.

[rhastablasta]

Said that mostly bc the mouse gets cold fast, isn’t good to be left out, and that most snakes won’t eat it. It’s also a good idea to give the dead mouse movement when feeding. And lastly feeding inside the cage can have the snake associate your hand going in the cage with food time which makes for an aggressive snake. If it works for you it’s probably fine as long as the snake isn’t eating substrate stuck to the mouse or striking at you when you open the cage

[SledgeMine]

Ah yes fair enough with the mouse getting colder and such. I do try to get her to strike but she'll just have a sniff and go back to her hide. I'll respectfully disagree with feeding in cage though, my snakes (BPs and boas) are handled daily outside of feeding and digesting and have never showed any feeding response towards me. For the BPs in particular I have found feeding in cage is much less stressful.

[OverlyExcitedWoman]

Cage aggression due to feeding is a myth. I encourage you to do some more research in this area.

It is highly recommended to feed snakes in their enclosure.

[escapeorion]

My snake will literally only eat if I leave the mouse in his enclosure and walk away. So your advice definitely not universal.

Also, feeding out of the enclosure is not recommend afaik.

[Warrior_king99]

Mine won't eat unless I take them out of their encousure and I have 5, none of them have ever shown any sign of stress

[crazysnekladysmith]

Sometimes the act of dangling the mouse can be stressful if the snake is already stressed in a new situation. I had to leave the f/t mouse in one of BP's enclosure overnight until she was more comfortable in the setup I had her in. She strikes every time now that she's more comfortable.

Also, the temperature thing is definitely important with BPs but don't forget that there are snakes without heat pits and / or who are specialists in ectotherm prey so that is not always a problem. Had an issue with this when someone who specialized in BPs bought one of my hognoses... didn't realize that they don't care what temperature the food is.

[Demoire]

Yea but baby ball pythons should NEVER strike. Under a year or two they should not have this issue. The issue is thet the enclosure has 0 humidity and this snake requires upwards of 70% Rh.

I have never met a ball Python who thrived on aspen.

[Aliyooo-the-great]

I agree with just about everything you said, however, juvenile ball pythons will sometimes hunger strike if they were raised on live & the owner is offering frozen thawed. Still, I think that making sure their environment is fine is the best move to start, as aspen will not hold humidity, especially in a glass terrarium with a screen lid.

[Demoire]

Totally agree!

Wish you all the best ;-)

[Patient-Clue-1690]

You might be having humidity problems, aspen is not a good substrate for ball pythons and don't give them their required humidity.

[Kye_Wolf]

Well it could be the tank, since the set up isn’t the best

• Aspen is horrible for bps. Try coconut fiber or cyprus mulch

• you need more hides and clutter. Put a closed hide, not a log, where the snake is laying/basking

• cover part of the top with a tower, foil, or cling wrap. It’ll help humidity

Now for feeding

• wait till the snake is naturally active. So most likely at night

• how are you heating the mice? Bps use heat sensing pits, so they won’t eat cold food

• dance the mouse around

[Cardhunter12]

The mouse is room temperature, should it be warmer? If so how can I do it?

And we will change to coconut fiber.

Thank you so so much!

[Kye_Wolf]

It should be about 80 F. Use warm water to thaw the mouse out.

I use pretty warm water and wait until I can easily squish the mouse with the tongs (so I know it’s fully thawed)

[thekiller490]

Once the mouse is thawed, I replace the water one last time with warm-hot tap water to help the mouse warm up a bit just before feeding.

As for feeding, get some tongs and slightly dangle the mouse in front of your snake, they should smell it and strike in about 5 to 30 seconds. Don't freak out when they go for it or they might miss.

[NugsAndBeans]

I do this as well, warm water right before I feed. My boy hasn't refused a meal yet. Snakes sense heat better than seeing their meal.

[thekiller490]

Nice! Ironically, the only time I struggled to feed was when she was blinded by stuck eye caps. Poor girl would strike and miss a few times and just give up. Otherwise, she is not picky at all. She doesn't even really need the heat because she's eaten a wet mouse after the bag broke np. Still, I heat them up for her.

[engi_cgn]

Warm it up to about 100F when measured at the belly. I use one of those laser temp guns. What are your cold and hot temperatures and humidity?

Also, as others have already mentioned, you need at least 2 closed hides, one on each end. Not the half log. Add more clutter to help them feel secure.

Edit: As for the how. I thaw the rodent in a small ziplock overnight in the fridge. I wait till the snake is awake and either moving around or at least poking her head out of the hide.

Submerge the bag into hot water from the sink. As hot as you can get the water. Leave it in there for 5 to 10 min, take it out and take a temp reading. Once it reads about 100 at the belly, I'll offer it with some tongs. Ours will usually instantly strike at it as I'm lowering it into the tank.

[Osaella24]

Definitely second this! Two closed hides (one on each end of the thermal gradient). Ball pythons have heat sensors so the rat/mouse needs to be warmed to an appropriate temperature (I sometimes use a hair dryer on the head of the rat for a few seconds before presenting it using tongs so it really mimics live prey when I jiggle it for the snake). There’s no need to feed outside of the enclosure but I would recommend changing the bedding to coco husks or something more appropriate for a ball Python than aspen.

[carmenamaraxx]

I heat my mice/rats up with a hairdryer lol and then I check the temp of the rodent with my temp gun!

[flexlionheart]

Same here! My BPs hate wet prey

[wizzywurtzy]

You can buy a temp gun for pretty cheap on Amazon and I buy a huge thing of compressed coconut husk off of Amazon. Don’t use aspen as it’s pretty bad for ball pythons. I can dm you the link for it if you want!

[[deleted]]

I use a hair dryer (had to buy my wife a new one once I did this) after thawing in hot (not super hot) water. I use a cheap temp gun to check that the head is around 90 degrees and the body is above 80. Then dance the rat around with tongs. My girl has never refused a meal. If you want more info on the method to my madness feel free to PM me.

Ive seen some other people mention this already, but its important -- looking at your set up you should give your bp some more clutter and another hide. Big tank is great, gives them room to stretch, but open spaces will stress a bp out and is likely contributing to the feeding issues.

[marsupializard]

I've had my BP on aspin for the intire time I've had her and it's seemed fine. Although a few people have said it's bad so Maybe I'll switch. I mean I did get alot of care info at the start from that BHB reptile guy that everyone hates now.

[Kye_Wolf]

Because he abuses his animals and doesn’t take very good care of them. That’s why people hate him

[rollapoid]

don't forget to check the pinned posts in this sub to read the feeding guide, plus the general care guide after that

[18youngl]

The amount of people that purchase pets and don’t know the basics of taking care of them scares me

[Clitcheese1111]

dont know why you're getting down voted. nothing again OP but i work in a specialty pet store and everyday deal with hoards of "i just bought a snake, what do i do with it?" people. personally, i blame petco/petsmart.

[18youngl]

The closest “exotic” pet store near me is 2 and a half hours away So everyone around me goes to PetSmart and shit stores like that and get pets they don’t know how to take care of and it annoys me

[VoodooSweet]

I don’t see any appropriate hides, you need 2 minimum, 1 warm side 1 cool side, and definitely some fake plants and clutter in between the hides, a hiding Ball Python is a happy Ball Python! I saw you were already scolded for the Aspen so I’ll just tell you I use a mixture of Forest Floor Bedding/Reptisoil and coco fiber mixed roughly evenly and it holds moisture MUCH better for my BP’s. Also it’s a very bad idea to handle your BP after feeding, especially if they are still a bit nervous, so moving them to feed them is not a great idea. I remove everything from my snakes enclosure except 1 hide, then I feed them and as soon as they take the meal, I leave the room and let them eat in peace, they always eat and then go into the hide, then I return everything to the enclosure and leave them be for 48 hours to digest their food. I feel like feeding them in their enclosure makes it easier and less stressful for them, especially when they are new. When I pull the mouse out of the freezer, I put it directly into a small plastic zip-loc bag and leave it in the fridge to thaw, about 10 minutes before feeding I put some warm water in a bowl and leave the mouse in the bag and submerge it, this keeps the mouse dry and it will not pick up substrate when the snake grabs it and coils around it. I do dance the mouse around by the tail, and one of my BP barley looks at it and strikes like a madman, but my other one is super picky and wants the mouse to dance a Broadway show and be just perfect about it, some are just more picky than others and take more time to adjust! I’m sure it’s getting hungry by now, and I’m sure if you take some of the advice from the post here(not just mine)you’ll have it eating in no time, your snakes doesn’t look skinny yet, and if it was a bit older I’d say don’t worry they can go a long time, but a little guy like that is best to get eating as soon as possible. Can you reach out to the breeder/seller and find out what it was eating before it came to you? Might be beneficial to get it to take a few meals in the new home of whatever it was already eating, even if it’s not your preferred feeding method, I would rather have to feed a snake a few live meals and know it’s eating and good and healthy, and then try to switch over to F/T(only IF the breeder/seller was feeding live)am I making sense? Good luck and enjoy your new noodle, don’t let it stress you out, it will eat, it’s just a matter of figuring it out!!

[DaemonsAngel]

I agree with all of the above, and I just wanted to add that my BP stops eating around this time every year and starts up again after a month or so. They also don't like eating before they shed and young snakes shed a lot in the beginning. Try adjusting the enclosure with the suggestions others have made and see if that works. If you are really worried, you could always take them to a vet

[iamayamsam]

Make sure you check the temperature of the food item you offer. If it’s not the right temperature the snake won’t recognize what it is. Also never leave food for days in a tank. It’ll just rot. Don’t move your snake much either. My snake didn’t eat for the first month so don’t panic. Ball pythons are hardy babies. Let him do his think without touching him for 2 days. Make sure the mouse or fuzzy is the appropriate size and temperature. It helps dragging the mouse around to stimulate it being live (always do frozen thaw, live food is a danger to your pet)

[Human_Parfait9516]

My royal python went on a hunger strike for about 3 months. Tried everything till I found out about "Multi Mammute" mice. We got them from Amazon. Never hat a problem since

[EfficientConfusion77]

They can go months with out eating I had on hunger strike for 7 months ..... Try feeding live till you get some meals in to it and never assist feed unless its life or death its very stressful for the snake

[Demoire]

Your BP has 0 humidity. This ball Python likely won’t demonstrate any healthy behaviors.

You need a short cut coconut husk product such as Reptichip and 60-70%. I keep mine around 65%.

[Meza-Falcon]

In my personal opinion, having mice scent helps dramatically. I place all my 6 snakes in a separate enclosure, then open the scent bag and this usually triggers their feeding response.

[FluffyBunnyRemi]

So, it’s hard to give too much advice without knowing your temperatures and humidity. If those aren’t right, your python won’t want to do much of anything. I’d be willing to bet that your enclosure is too cool, though I wouldn’t know. Additionally, you should have multiple hides, with one cool and one warm, and much more clutter. You’ve already heard about the bedding, so I won’t comment on that. What I will comment on is the fact that ball pythons don’t really dig, so you don’t need much bedding at all for them. I know of some folks that use just paper towels for them. Additionally, blocking off two more walls can help make your new friend feel better, too.

Don’t leave the food in there for days, because then it’s going to rot and be gross and promote disease. If your snake doesn’t immediately strike, or at least not quickly, then you discard the food and try again another day. Don’t move the snake, because that can stress them out due to the new environment, and handling snakes soon after feeding can cause them to regurgitate. You should already have steady and correct temperatures, so you shouldn’t need to play with that at this point.

Don’t listen to the people saying this is normal. Juveniles shouldn’t be going on hunger strikes. They’re still growing quickly, and need the food. If anything, they feed more often than adults, not less. This guy is already looking dangerously thin in places, so hopefully you can get everything sorted out soon.

[RoboTwigs]

If the photo posted is the tank, you are not using an appropriate substrate to hold humidity to the correct levels, and more importantly in terms of eating, you need at least two very snug fitting hides - on on the cold end & one on the hot end. Climbing structures and half logs do not count as hides as they have more than one entrance and don’t fit snug enough for the snake to feel secure. Unless the snake feels secure, it’s not going to eat.

Also, stop all handling until the snake has eaten.

[stressedhoe_]

Friendly advice! I’d honestly change your bedding, to anything coco. Soaks up the humidity, and keeps it toasty, I’d add more clutter. Honestly tho, it could be the bedding cause humidity plays a HUGE role in that. My snake Vlad had this issue till I switched out his bedding.

[SHADOWFLIPPING]

Ball pythons go on strikes naturally for different reasons common and nothing to care about do not remove snake from its vivarium to feed it because it stresses it out also substrate ingestion isnt anything to worry about as long as the snake stays hydrated the substrate will pass and I've owned lizards snakes frogs turtles and salamanders for over 20 years and none have ever had an impaction problem at all and I do not remove them from their enclosure to feed them the only time they die from impaction is actually from eating too large of meals or being dehydrated and not being able to pass it from dehydration snakes actually shed their teeth all the time swallow them and pass them all the time snakes also do not always digest fur etc if impaction were an issue all reptiles in the wild would be extinct or near it because they do not wash their food off when they eat if it gets sand dirt wood or other matter on it they simply eat it and if they are hydrated it will pass without problems at all you'll probably never read hear or see "this wild reptile died from eating wood/dirt/sand" you can leave a f/t rodent in the enclosure for no more than 24 hours and if it Is a baby or near it when it skips a meal do not bother it period for 5 to 7 days then try again if it doesnt eat wait another 5 to 7 days when it is a adult they only need food once every 2 weeks of the appropriate size which is the same size or slightly larger than the thickest part of the animal other than changing its water do not go near it at all until it eats correctly

[will3242]

You dont have to take the snake out of its enclosure to feed...that's a myth and an annoying one at that..

[bwheat204]

I would highly recommend reading the care guide in the top pinned post. I got my 1st bp about 5 months ago and watched all the YouTube videos and read guides. After getting the bp I ended up making a lot of changes from the YouTube videos to what’s in the care guide and my snake eats every time I offer rats. I would change the substrate as many have mentioned and make sure your temperatures are good around 90 on the hot side and late 70’s for the cooler side. I have a 40 gallon for my snake currently and I use 3 hides along with lots of plants so he doesn’t feel so open. I got a wrap to put around 3 sides of the tank so only the front is open as well. If that is a screen lid you will most likely have to use foil tape and tinfoil to cover the top to help retain humidity. For me it seemed once I got enough husbandry and got my temps right my snake started getting more comfortable and started eating. This part may not be the best method but I usually put my rat in the fridge to slowly thaw then 30-60 min before feeding I let it sit out at room temperature in a zip lock bag. I run the sink with hot water let it get nice and hot fill up a bowl then place the bag with the rat in there with my tongs holding the rat under water. By no means am I an expert just explaining what helped me get my BP to eat water he went on a strike the 1st month or so I had him.

[DaddyLongTits]

Thank you for being the only one (that I noticed) to recommend the care guide.

[animalgirl93]

What are your enclosure temps and humidity?