Hi There

I am currently having grief getting my male to eat too. He is fed on thawed out jumbo mice or weaner rats usually, although he is only interested if i actually dangle the thing in front of his hide as though it was alive. When he seems to have lost his appetite a bit i find that squeezing the nose or even crushing the head under some paper after heating the prey up in a plastic bag submerged in hot water helps, I guess the heat & the aroma of freshly squeezed brain is like strawberry's and cream to a ball python.

I am really against trying to force something down his neck though, I have found that by stressing out a snake does not help them. In fact it puts them off more.

I spoke to a guy who is really experienced with dealing with problem feeders and he suggested getting a box that is about 50cm x 30cm x 15cm and filling it with straw (and a bowl of water of course), putting the snake inside and letting it stay more or less undistubed for a couple of weeks. The snake will tunnel through the straw and feel very secure, then introduce a rat (dead or alive) and wait for the srtike. Continue to do this untill it feeds regularly and then introduce back into the larger viv. The box should obviously aslo have the proper hot/cold ends.

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