Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a young ball (200 grams 18in)which would only take live. She decided to skip her weekly meal and I gave her a thawed to see if she would take it and she did. She never struck at it only sniffed it, bit it then ate it. Is this wierd or do your snakes not strike at dead prey?

That's a good thing if you want to feed f/t. Most other snakes (kings/ratsnakes etc.) eat like that all the time.
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Dale....dgoins222@yahoo.com
www.LibertyReptiles.com

When mine eat F/T they rarely strike at it first unless I wiggle it.
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1.2.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, Periscope, and dah bebbies)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Lizard (Freckles)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 mice (Cute Girl Mousy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
0.0.1 chupacabra (it ate our chickens)

jenny.thegreenes.org

I have noticed with mine that if the mouse is not quite warm enough they will not strike at it only bite it. I have a young red tail boa who is extremely difficult to feed because he knows it is dead. On the other hand one of my female ball pythons could care less(and balls are supposed to be harder to feed lol). Sometimes thawing the mouse in hot water can get the mouse warmer than just under a heat light. Also, you might have a shy snake, my boa is more likely to eat if i just lay it near his head and walk away. So i would just try different things, depending on the size of your snake you could also try feeding live occasionally to spice things up.

Courtney