Strike but misses

[ewertb]

I'm looking for some advice on feeding techniques for frozen/thawed mice as my male ball seems to be strugling a bit... Doing the 'dance' with the warmed up mice clamped with tweezers by the neck does not get any response. I've also tried leaving the warmed mice alone with him in the tub without any success. Dangling the warmed mouse in front of him by the tail however triggers strikes but he never manages to grab hold and coil. After 2 or so such missed strikes he usually then shys away.

I'm not sure what else to try. The female took it while doing the tweezer dance, no problems. She is however preparing to shed so I can't practice on her at the moment...

[TonyK]

You need to read its body language a bit.If you see it sticking its head out of its hide that is normally a good sign that it may be interested in feeding.It can be difficult to open the enclosure with out disturbing the snake but try and present the item to him while he is still in that S shaped feeding position.With my pythons I can usually tell if they going to accept food by looking at their body position and the way they are coiled up.Hard to describe but generally head and a bit of body out of the hiding spot.If the head is raise off the substrate they going to grab that rat for sure.Good luck and don't give up .

[ewertb]

Been almost 2 months now that he hasn't accepted any food. Tried feeding again tonight but he was more interested in slithering out of the feeding box and off exploring than eating...

Ended up weighing him before returning to his tub and he lost 3 grams (was 508 grams previously) in body mass in the past month of not feeding. Still looking very good and bright eyed though.

[Savu]

For me,ball pythons can be very frustrating snakes. They will eat like demons,and suddenly stop for months,then suddenly start again. Like Tony K says,just by looking at the body language of all my snakes,I can say with 90% if they will take or not. I have various other pythons which I have hatched,and have bred themselves,and ball pythons of the same age not even reached 1 kg yet,because of their irregular feeding habits. This however in the old days was very well documented that ball pythons fast for many months on end. So I don't think its anything to worry about,its just frustrating

[Tars]

I recently bought a little ball python again and forgot how difficult they can be sometimes.

With his first feeding he also just struck the mouse as if he was agitated, but he never really held on to it so he can actually eat.

I then left a fuzzy of which the eyes just opened (small enough so it does not have teeth as yet to harm the snake, but big enough so it can walk around and attract attention) overnight in its tub, the next morning the fuzzy was gone...

Last night I fed again, at first it did not want to take the fuzzy of the tweezer, so I just left it in the tub while feeding my other snakes, 5 minutes later he was eating the fuzzy, then the second one he took of the tweezer straight away.

I do not prefer live feeding, but in this case it is just to get him in that routine of taking it of the tweezer, thats why the mouse is small and cannot harm the snake.

Try that and see how it goes, good luck though!!

[krah]

Any chance your male BP is a spider? They can be a pain to feed from tweezers if they have a visible or noticeable head wobble. I have never struggled with males, but I had a female who didn't eat for months and months, her weight fluctuated by about 50 grams and only now (8 months later) is she eating mice regularly. 5 grams isn't a concern in my opinion, so don't stress yourself out (easier said then done).

You can try a few things if youre really worried:
1) leave him in his enclosure totally undisturbed for a few weeks and try again.
2) clean out and scrub the entire enclosure to remove all scents. (read this online and it worked for me)
3) pump the temps up to 33c/33.5c and it might get a response.

Good luck!

[ewertb]

Glad to report that he finally ate last night!

Con advised I leave him in his tub for feeding with a live rat fuzzy instead of removing him and trying to feed in a separate tub like I do with the female. Well, it worked...

[ewertb]

Glad to report that he finally ate last night!

Con advised I leave him in his tub for feeding with a live rat fuzzy instead of removing him and trying to feed in a separate tub like I do with the female. Well, it worked...