Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a female Pied that refuses to eat. As much as this irks me, I know it is typical Ball Python. I also have a male Pastel Het Pied who refuses to eat. The combination is the source of my interest.

I have heard from other keepers/breeders that Pieds are notorious for their fasts and their pickiness. I would like a quick poll: How many Pied owners and breeders would consider their Pieds and Hets to be more likely to fast and/or more likely to be a picky eater over most other morphs?
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

2 het females , giants....eat ...eat well...

male 2 yr old pied ,eats well...gerbils...LOL

female pied, yr old, eats when it feels like it...mcie then ASF,then nothing then a soft fur last week...wow...

male het pied, from Pete, eats when it wants...gerbils...

I'd say they suck more than some morphs....LOL....

can't wait to hatch 8 or so out soon....

actually all balls can eat well or suck alot...

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......JY

I have a het female and a male pied. Both eat when they want but are healthy. The female het was a total disappointment for my breeding program.

Bill
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.0 Honeybee
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids (9) and (16)
0.1 Spouse (22 Years Married)
1.0 Chocolate Lab

IME with them at least

lol, thanks. If Pieds are good eaters in your opinion, I am definitely going to avoid Albinos! Thanks for the info.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

my amels grow like weeds...the hets even faster.........huge hets and have had 10 egg first clutch from het amel....

....better than pieds....
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......JY

I have a pied male that as soon as he reached adulthood he became a horrible eater. As a juvenile he would eat anything I put in there, frozen or live. As an adult, I swear he only eats 4 or 5 months out of the year and only live mice when he does.

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Don't go looking for snakes--you might find them.

Isn't it well recognized that when many balls reaching 10-12 months of age will go into the juvenile no-eat stage?

It has been very common in my experience. The hatchlings will be excellent eaters that are ready and waiting for that food item every week. Then they get close to the year mark and they start to turn their noses up to any offer of food.
Very frustrating!

Susan
SSNAKES Reptiles

Both the male and female I have started going off food long before they reached the year mark. And neither have even approached the normal 1000 gram mark when most Balls tend to start fasting. I have tried different species of food, different hides, different temperatures, different substrates, smaller cages, larger cages, handling and NOT handling, ignoring them and only offering food every other week, offering food at all times of the day, etc.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is exposing the brain of the mouse/rat, but since the female Ball gets very aggressive and defensive as soon as she smells blood, I am dubious that this will work.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I don't seem to have any problems with them. Most of mine eat just fine as babies, juvies and adults - I have one female that was a mouser when I got her and a pain in the butt feeder but I've gotten converted to rats and she eats regularly now - tho she likes to go on a 5 month winter fast which is annoying but I have a spider that does the same thing so I would just say it's her way of feeding and not anything to do with her being a pied.

That all being said I have noticed that good feeders tend to throw good feeders and poor/picky feeders throw the same. It could be that early in the pied project there might have been a picky feeder gene that got bred into the line.

Or it could be that people tend to take more notice of the feeding habits that most taunt. If it was a normal that was a picky feeder it wouldn't be such a big deal it would be a "typical ball".
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Tosha
JET Pythons
The Blog
nihil facimus sed id bene facimus

Before i post this i must say i an not the pied expert......But i have seen and heard of some of the Kahl line Pieds not being the best eaters in the world! With that being said i also know of a line of pieds that are completely unrelated to the Kahl line that to date have had no feeding problems and grow up great. The line in which im referring to belongs to my good friend and well known Ball breeder Justin Kobylka. He has the whole story on his site. So it goes with out saying that Justins line of pieds is the only line i work with and i would never cross my lines with animals who have been known to have feeding problems, oh and by the way you are not the first to express issues with your pieds not feeding. Ive been hearing this complaint for years!!!
Enjoy, Eyeball

All of my pieds have been great eaters. I have an 09 male that has bred several females this year already. I do have several pastel het pieds that can be picky, but I've never had a pastel that was a great feeder. All the pastels I've owned seem to fast extensively at around 800 grams. Even my het pied animals are great feeders. My original female het is around 5500 grams. Never experienced a poor feeding pied myself.
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www.brandonosbornereptiles.com

I don't even own a for sure het pied so can't really say anything for sure. However, it was funny that I just got a first clutch from a 9 year old possible possible het pied female. I was a bit bummed that she doesn't have the het pied belly marks like some of my 7 year old possible possible het pieds that I hope to finally get eggs from later this summer. But now that I think of it that 2001 female has grown up like het pieds are rumored to so maybe I'll get lucky even without the belly marks. Disclaimer though, I’ve been known to take as much as 6 years to get a female up to breeding size even when they aren’t in the pied project I’ve been working on for the last decade. Some day I'll have my own rodent colony again like in the early 90's when I was single.

Have you tried feeding at night about 10:00PM?

All of my adult breeder stock is fed in the evening and they feed well then. They won't take food in the daytime.

Yep, I have tried both morning and night feeding. Both of which other breeders have had success with. It could be husbandry, but I have a dozen other snakes in the same rack system and most of them are eating just fine.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

Well, I guess I have been extremely lucky in this regard. I started in 2003-2004 and purchased 5.5 het pieds from 6 different breeders. All of the males were up to size and breeding their 2nd winter and all females on their third. I have since raised up 10 of my own female pieds, and at least that many het and possible het females that I produced from that original group. All of those pied females successfully bred and produced by their third year (One of them actually on her 2nd!). I did have 2 female possible hets that took an extra season (or 2) to produce even though they were up to size and breeding on schedule. I'm pretty sure all of my breedstock are descendents of Kahl's line male pieds that were bred to high quality female normals to produce the hets I bought.
The morph I have struggled with is pastels. I bought 2 nice looking females back when they were $2500. Neither ever produced for me. I finally ended up trading a visual pied for a male pastel het pied because I totally failed at producing my own pastel het pied. I was really happy that I hatched a male pastel pied last year. I'm afraid of those female pastels!!!
Paul

I have had pieds that where picky eaters and then there are exeptions to the rule.
As you can see this girl is a PIG lol.She is over 4000Grams.
The Pied not the G/F Lmao D

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Kelvin,J,Tourangeau

www.PastelDreamMorphs.com

should have said she CAN eat sorry lol.
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Kelvin,J,Tourangeau

www.PastelDreamMorphs.com