Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know that feeding with ball pythons is sketchy sometimes, but when is it time to give up on switching an animal on food whether it be live to f/t or mouse to rat?

About three weeks ago I switched three of my snakes from mice to rat pups. Two of them are pounding them down, but my albino is every other week, but I haven't lost all hope on him. He has never missed a meal for me when he was on mice except when in shed. I think week one was just that he hasn't had a rat yet. And it's hard to tell on the albino, but he could be in shed right now... He's pretty do anyway and he doesn't eat in shed and all the rest do. Please give me some insight or opinions on what I have done or what I can do.

Secondly I have a female pinstripe that was just introduced to my collection four weeks ago. Her first feeding was the week I switched all the others over to rats. She was never a f/t eater she's a year and a half old and has eaten live her entire live, but at the first feeding she took a f/t weaner rat without a single problem. But the last two weeks she's show no interest what so ever.

I understand that feeding ball pythons especially when switching food tends to be a work in progress. But I'm slightly paranoid. I don't think it's that either of the animals absolutely WILL NOT eat the food which I intend to give them. I feel it may be more of a preference thing maybe.. And I guess my big question in this case is IF it is a preference thing if I am more stubborn than they are will they eventually start to give in and eat the food I give them or am I better off to give in and feed them the meals they prefer? I hope not I really don't want a shoestring albino and I really prefer not to feed live especially rats and the pinstripe will be ready for small adult rats soon. Please give me some insight and ease my anxiety.

Thanks Again,
Mike

the deal breaker with ball pythons is simple, you have to be willing and able to feed them what they want to eat. I have had thousands of ball pythons and never once needed to feed them anything crazy like gerbils or asf's. Every ball I buy, breed, hatch out, etc., eats either mice or rats domestically bred here in the USA. Some will eat dead, some will eat frozen but since the majority of my adults prefer live food, I just assume they all will need live food and get enough every week to cover them all as much as needed. I see it as a treat when a ball eats dead or frozen thawed, a bonus if you will, but I never expect it. There are just too many that will only eat live.
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Evan Stahl Reptiles
www.evanstahl.com

Right and I don't have a problem with feeding them live, but when do you know it's time to give up and just get them live feeders? And the thing I don't understand is if they ate it before why stop now? If it's just a preference thing I would think that they'd give in eventually.

cant take the instinct out of nature. Ive had a friend that had an eastern diamondback that would eat f/t. it would still strike it as if it was killing a live rodent. Id say just get live and run with it. Just keep an eye on them when you feed.

This is kinda the wrong time of year to be judging how ball pythons are going to feed and what they will feed on. Right now more than half my collection is off feed and the other half is sporadic at best. They will eat when they are hungry, I have had animals that are picky when young and go WILD and eat everything in sight as they mature and also the opposite. This time of year they have other things on their mind. Once you get used to them not feeding certain times of the year (and it changes with every animal and in different stages of their lives)
Most of my stuff that hatched last year are eating well but after about a year, they go into a schedule that you will figure out as you gain experience. As long as conditions are right, let them feed as they want. If they go very long.... 3 months or more, without feeding, I will "bump start" them on ASF's and of the ones I have done that to, ALL of them have gone right back to regular rats.
Remember one thing, these animals do not eat every week in Africa, they may not go on hunger strikes there but that is probably because they have a lot less chances to feed there. I have noticed that if I feed heavily from day one, there will be a point that they cut themselves back, usually the year you hope to breed them. Those that eat less regularly tend to not go for long periods without feeding. There are always exceptions though, I have garbage disposals that are 3000g and have never missed a meal. With time you will worry less and like the fact that this time of year your rodent bill drops significantly.

By the way, I prefer feeding live rats right up to small sized rather than live mice. Live mice are vicious bastards and in my opinion, more dangerous then the small rats. Smaller rats rarely bite a snake, mice are different, they will bite every chance they get.

my first amel male...mice for a few years then gerbils for 4 or 5 years now?

his son left here....mice few years then gerbils for 4 at elast

pied male...mice for a year or two...gerbils for years now...

african rat eating females all over the place...

never had an amel that was a rat eater...period...and I had a hundred amels...?...

YB male...from Africa...rat eater for years for other people ...didn;t eat a rat here for 4 years...then stopped eating anything a few months ago...

baby newborn pastels het clown...01's...ate a mouse a time or two.....then female...africans only...

mice make big fat healthy females.....period...use thousands of mcie here every year...and I have females at 5 foot and FAT...it's all cool...

...this could go on for pages...LOL...

good luck...don't give up...some people will tll you NO ball will just starve to death...it will start to eat , eriod...what you want........I say...they will starve to death and not blink at doing it....

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........JY