Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hallo everyone!

This weekend I purchased a baby female ball python who is just gorgeous and healthy as can be : ) I also purchased a baby male ball python who has some health issues : ( It looks like he has had some shedding issues, there are little rough spots on his scales, he doesn't have mites or ticks so I think its a shedding issue because he was in a very dry tank I would guess that the humidity was less than 20%. So I have him in a good setup with the high side of his tank at about 87-88 degrees and the cool side is at about 80 degrees. I have a bowl of water that he can soak in and the humidity is at 60%, I'm thinking of putting another little plastic hide box in with him that will have a humidity around 80% too. I'm hoping that the rough spots on his scales will eventually shed out. I brought him home on Saturday and I offered him food for the first time last night with no luck, the female ball python though immediately snatched up his rejected dinner though so I'm glad I don't have two fussy ball pythons on my hands! Tonight I tried to offer him another fuzzy, I warmed it up by letting it sit in warm water and then I tried coating it in a little chicken broth. So far he hasn't eaten it, I tried tempting him for about 10 minutes with no luck again. The pet store wasn't sure when he ate last, he's in okay body condition but he could be better. I know ball pythons can go months sometimes without eating but can they go this long even when they're babies? I'm guessing my boy is about 2 months old...

Give him at least a week of "unharassed" rest. Don't pick him up, clean his cage, or try to feed him. I would also add a humid hide as you suggested to give him a warm, dark, moist place to convalesce.

What were they feeding him? If you are changing his food type it may take a little longer for him to switch over.

Rare that even baby balls eat something as small as a fuzzy. Try a hopper mouse or crawler rat instead, even an "adult" mouse. Appropriate sized food items are as big around as the widest part of the snake's body. Get the head of the rodent as hot as you can without cooking it.

If he still won't eat f/t soon, try live to whet his appetite.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.1 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I had a similar problem recently. The scales did eventually shed out. Unfortunately, I lost mine the other day. He needed to be force fed, which wasn't that big a deal. For some reason, and I have nothing but experience and gut feeling to back this up, but I think this little guy was especially prone to dehydration. So make sure your little guy always has plenty of clean, fresh water. Good luck.

I put the humidity box in his tank so hopefully that helps and I'll try him again next Monday with a hopper mouse, if he doesn't take a f/t then I'll try him on live food. I've actually never had to feed live prey to any of my snakes before. All my ball pythons gladly take f/t so he might be my first that won't take f/t : (