Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm sure there's a ton of posts about ball python feeding issues but I'm new to ball python care so please bare with me. I got my snake from a guy on craigslist back and December. The man had been feeding him live rats and after doing some research I decided I want to try and switch him to F/T rats. The first time I fed him was right after I got him so I fed him a live rat just to make sure he was settled in enough to eat. He took it just fine. A week or two later I attempted to feed him a live mouse to be followed by a pre-killed, he was interested in neither. He continued to refuse both live and dead prey for a couple weeks, when finally I read that putting the snake a brown paper bag overnight with a thawed rodent can work, this did the trick! Since then my snake has refused to eat for weeks to months at a time but will then eventually take a F/T mouse in the bag over night.

The problems are
A) I do not think one frozen mouse every 2 weeks to a month is enough for my python.
B) I have been wasting a lot of frozen mice by offering them every week and having them refused 2/3 of the time. I hate wasting and it's not exactly cheap.

What is the best way to try and fix this? Should I give up on F/T and start offering live again (which I would really rather not do) or should I stick it out and hope he gets less finicky.

Some details on my snake:
He's around 7 years old, don't know a lot about his history since he came from craigslist. I keep the cool side of his tank around 70-73, the warm side around 80-85. He has a large water bowl at one end providing humidity and i mist the tank around once every other day. He also has a large hide that he spends a lot of time in. The last time I offered a rat was last night, which was 3-4 days after he shed so I assumed he would be ready to eat.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Like I said, I'm new to this and I really want to give this guy a good home since he came from not the best situation.

It's the time of year when adults go off feed aka breeding season, especially males.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

www.youtube.com/reptilenexus

When does the breeding season begin/end? How often should I be offering food during this time then?

Other things you could try:
Different temperatures of the F/T prey items. All warmer, all cooler, head warmer than the body, etc.

The ZOMBIE DANCE! Sometimes a snake likes to hunt. Make that little dead mouse bounce around for a bit and maybe he will become more interested.

Have you tried F/T Rats yet? He might have a taste for rats that mice doesn't fill. If you still prefer to buy mice, you could buy just a few rats to keep in the bag with the mice and see if that would scent them enough.

Wait him out. Adult males don't need many calories, they don't grow as large, and are usually happy waiting for the PERFECT meal.

Let me know if you find a great way to get him converted! I am working on a large batch of snakes at the moment that I need to get to F/T. Best of luck to you!
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26 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma, 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 1.0 husband

Thanks! I did try one F/T rat and ended up having to throw it away I feel so horrible doing that. I have tried making them "dance" a few times haha, he never seems even mildly interested. I've been skipping doing that and just going straight to the bag method since that seems to be the only thing that works. But perhaps I should try again.

If he is eating "fine in the bag" that sounds to me like there is a security issue with his caging. Maybe a little more info on how old he is, how big and how you have him set up and how you are trying to feed him.
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Tosha

nihil facimus sed id bene facimus

He's in a tank that's a bit too small for him right now. He is around 7/8 years old and housed in a 20 gallon. This is what the guy I got him from had him in and currently I don't have room for a larger tank as I live in a small apartment. In the summer I'll be getting a house and getting him into a 40/50 gallon as soon as possible. Could this be part of the problem?

There is only really room in the terrarium for one hide, I keep it on the warmer side but not right under the heat lamp. It's a rock cave just slightly larger than he is, he spends a lot of time in there. He has a large water dish and a branch on the other side. I keep the setup around 70-73 on the cool side and around 76-80 on the warm side.

I also wouldn't say he's eating "fine" in the bag because it really only works probably one out of every 6 times I try it...which ends up with me wasting a lot of mice/rats