Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 1 yr old ball python that I have had since November 07. He was 62g then and now weighs in at 82g. He has never once willingly taken food. I never forced him to eat until he was down to 48g. (end of Dec) Since then I have had to force him to eat every meal. I have tried rats and mice, alive, dead, babies left in overnight, over day, f/t, I even tried a baby gerbil as a last resort. He flat refused- even when I tried to force him to eat it! I have 14 snakes total right now. Everyone else eats great. The temperature and humidity are great, his bedding is clean. I have tried him on various substrates, different locations in the room, different hides, I even take him outside on nice warm days and let him crawl around the yard which he seems to relish greatly.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I am out of ideas.

Delilah

when i saw the title of your post i thought it would be no big deal, but this is! if the rest of your collection is fine, and your having to force feed, there is something very wrong going on
good luck and keep us posted!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

Actually, he has been to the vet! The vet was sure that the snake was just fine and kept telling me that there must be something wrong in his environment. I asked him to do blood work, but he didn't at all think it was necessary! ...I should go smack him! I need to take him back in and insist on that blood work-up.
I've been reading through the posts and found the suggestion of African soft-furred rats. I'm in the process of looking around here to see if I can find someone who has some. Maybe he'll eat one.
We've come to call him "our vegetarian" saying maybe he might eat some lettuce! *giggle* It almost looks like he wants to be friends with his prey! If I leave him overnight with a live mouse baby, the next morning he's curled around it. If I try to take his mouse away, he tries to hide it and push me away! I am not kidding! Come to think of it, I should video this behavior. I have never seen anything like it! ... yeah, I'll have to do that!

id get back to the vet or find another one, you could try other food, (id be careful leaving with live foods!) like hampters (they bite bad) or a girbil, its not the norm for a ball, but ive had to trick some snakes into eatting by rubbing a lizard on the food, or if you have to try an anole or something simalar
a vidio would be good, and double, triple and then again checking the husbandry!
keep us posted!!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!