Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have boas and now a ball phyton. he is 2 weeks old and after one week he shed and ate a thawed pinkie at the breeder. now he is at me and set up nicely. he has been 5 days and i feed him a large thawed pinkie which he refused. since he ate thaed i am not keen on getting him used to live and don't want to try live pinks yet.

should i repeat the process in a few days time? should i try thawed rat pinks? when should i resort to freshly killed or live pinks or rats or mice? what the best time to feed? he likes to stay on braches hidden in a fake plant.. where should i leave the food?

thanks a lot... i really want him to make a great pet.. it took me years to decided to get one ( due to their feeding habits)... hopefully he's grow up to be a big thawed eating piggy ball!!

when I first got my ball he had some trouble with eating. He refused the first time I gave him a live fuzzy mouse, so I waited a day, and then tried the "paperbag" feeding method. If you are not familiar, you take a small brown paper bag (lunch bag) and place the prey inside, then with the bag on its side I introduced my BP. After he was fully inside the bag I closed it up and put a staple in the end to seal it. I came back after 20 minutes and he was in the process of swallowing the fuzzy.

Ever since then I have had no problem with him feeding on a regular schedule. He has eaten every thursday evening for the last 6 weeks, striking and contricting the mouse the instant I introduce them. In fact, last thursday I dropped the mouse out of a tuperware container about 7 inches above the floor, and my BP struck and caught the mouse before he even hit the ground. Pretty amazing.

Good luck with your new BP