Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know it's a hard question to answer, but any help would be great. My 550g female has always eaten fine. I keep her happy. Eats once a week, sometimes goes to 10-12 days. Eats medium live rat. She has refused to eat now for over 3 weeks. I have offered her a rat 5 times in that span. The last rat was a big medium and I was surprised she ate it, didn't have any trouble getting it down. About a week or so later she laid a log that looked human! She seems completely fine, but is not interested at all in eating. Is she still full from the bigger rat?? Should I offer a small rat??

First of all I am sorry no one responded to your question until now. This forum beyond sucks butt now, but that is a different story. Anyway, if a Ball is healthy and eating right there is now reason it should not be able to eat regularly every 5 days. I find when feeding live that every now and than a live rat can spook a BP especially if it is big. When I have a snake that is eating live and it goes off feed, I will put in a rat that is about half the size of what it was eating. I also would throw in the rat in the later evening hours and leave the snake alone with the rat for about 30 minutes. If that does not work try feeding the BP every 5 days with the smaller rat until it starts eating again.

Good Luck.
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Thanks that is what I am trying now.

thunderpaws, you had me cracking up!!! to some extent, it's true though. a lot of the threads are just people advertising :/ there are some people that give good advise and have a lot of knowledge to share though.

i agree with the suggestions that thunderpaws gave. i have gone all the way down to rat crawlers. imo, sometimes they just go off feed no matter what you do. it's a ball python and the norm. i would just monitor. if it drops weight and looks/acts out of the ordinary, then i would worry. until then, just relax. it will feed when it's ready i have had numerous bp's that go off feed at around that weight. i don't sweat it. just be patient...

jonathan

Thanks guys for all the great advice !!!!