Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys, I have a female ball python that is at least a year old and she weighs 900-1,000 grams on empty. The past five weeks she has only eaten one small live rat for me and shows no interest in her usual med frozen thawed meals. She is housed in a rack with a younger female and a young male blood who are both eating like champs. My temps are 90-91 hot spot, cool end 78-80. They are housed in 41qt. sterilite tubs on aspen with humidity at ~50-60%. I am sure it is not a husbandry issue as nothing has changed and my other pythons are still feeding. Is there anything I can do to entice her to eat? Or do I just have to be patient and offer a weekly meal until she takes them regularly again? It's just stressful, she was such a great feeder up until now, 97grams when I got her at the very beginning of the year to almost 1000 now. Any and all advice is appriciated. Thanks.
-Bryce Clendenning
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0.2 Normals
1.0 Sumaritan Blood
adding more soon!

Welcome to balls. It always figures that the females go off before the males. At least here it does. You can still try to offer food
to her, but be prepared for a long fast. It never fails that the girls you really do not want to go off always do. I have a female about the same weight and she also has not eaten in two weeks. As long as she is not losing a noticable amount of weight she should be fine.

You shouldn't be worried. Look at it this way...its just 1 more mouth you don't have to feed for a couple months. I wouldn't offer food every week, at this point I'd wait every 2 weeks if you are still offering food. When my adults go off feed I don't even bother trying to feed them again for a couple months.

Jason

Same with me. I look at their behavior. If they act like they are hungry, I try to feed. Otherwise, it's settle in for breeding time.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Your temps and humidity are right. If she is not stressed out, then she is probably just stopping for the breeding season. I would just try a small live rat weekly. She will pick up again. Dont' be stressed. I have been keeping balls for over 7 years now, so I am used to it. You will be to, in time. Hope this helps, and good luck.

Thanks for the replies guys, I think I will wait a couple of weeks between offerings, just to save on throwing out uneaten rats. I have been on kingsnake for over a year now and have seen post after post on balls fasting, but until it happens you are just like "not my snakes" you know. I am sure she will be fine and while she isn't stressed I think that I am a bit, but hey that's balls as someone mentioned! Thanks for the replies guys.
-Bryce
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0.2 Normals
1.0 Sumaritan Blood
adding more soon!

You should get a Monitor, all the Rats my Ball Pythons dont eat my Monitor sure does that way nothing goes to waste.

LOL Yup, it's always good to have a back up garbage pit . My Colombian Boa is mine.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

Feed live, then you don't have to throw anything out!

Jason