Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok,
I am trying to help someone.
There is a new pet store chain in town....PetLand or something like that. I have been looking at all the pet stores at the snakes lately, and getting ready to get one for myself. I stopped at this PetLand, and started asking questions about her balls. What are they eating...

She says so far she has not gotten them to eat. She is in charge of the reptiles, but is a lizard/amphib fan, and knows little about snakes. She was willing to listen to advice and do whatever, as she wanted them to be healthy and was concerned that they had not eaten.

I am by NO means an expert, but I tried to help. Here is what I found out, and what I recommended...and I am supposed to stop back on Friday to see how things are going. They have 3 baby balls in a pretty good sized aquarium. Prob like a 30 breeder, but turned on its side so it was more tall than flat. there was some branches, water bowl, and hiding spot, and bark substrate. The balls were very young, among the smallest I have seen. She said they got them in 16 days ago. She has tried to feed them pinkies, and a lil fuzzy mouse, and they dont seem interested at all. She does move them into a separate container to feed. The only glaring things that I saw wrong was heat. durring the day there is a repti-glo UV bulb, but no heat. She says at night they do have a blue heat bulb....but I am not sure that it is directly part of that setup or more of a general bulb. I told her to get them warmed up, that could be one reason...she was putting a heat bulb on them when I left. I am also wondering if she should try a bigger mouse...is a fuzzy to small to be interesting to a baby ball?

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

I feed my little BP (9 weeks) hopper mice of small adult mice. The breeder where I got here from started with hoppers on their first meal. So they can handle that easily.
I don't now what she feeds (living or dead prey) but maybe she can give them a live hopper. They seem to start eating faster if they get live preys. After a few times you can start giving them dead prey.
Naara.net

Hello.
I am the person in the story that he is talking about. I have three baby balls that won't eat. The owner of the store tried live fuzzies (when I wasn't there), I have tried frozen (but warmed up) pinkies, live fuzzies (they had most their fur), and now live pinkies, and these guys don't even pay attention to the mice. I am more than willing to admit that I do not know much about snakes, but I am learning and will take any advice I can get. Someone told me today to force feed these little guys, but I don't think that is the best solution, expecially for me, someone who knows so little about snakes. I have put a 75W "Repti-Heat" bulb (by Exo-Terra) on the snakes and I am going to wait until Thursday night to feed them. I also tried giving them an appetite stimulator on Friday, but it doesn't seem to have worked. They are starting to molt, but half the people I talk to says that doesn't stop them from eating. I don't know what to do. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me!!!
~Angela

Are the snakes brand new hatchlings? Baby ball pythons won't be interested in eating until after they have their first shed. Try feeding them a day or two after they have shed. They really shouldn't be offered for sale until they are established eaters (at least three meals IMO).

>>Hello.
>>I am the person in the story that he is talking about. I have three baby balls that won't eat. The owner of the store tried live fuzzies (when I wasn't there), I have tried frozen (but warmed up) pinkies, live fuzzies (they had most their fur), and now live pinkies, and these guys don't even pay attention to the mice. I am more than willing to admit that I do not know much about snakes, but I am learning and will take any advice I can get. Someone told me today to force feed these little guys, but I don't think that is the best solution, expecially for me, someone who knows so little about snakes. I have put a 75W "Repti-Heat" bulb (by Exo-Terra) on the snakes and I am going to wait until Thursday night to feed them. I also tried giving them an appetite stimulator on Friday, but it doesn't seem to have worked. They are starting to molt, but half the people I talk to says that doesn't stop them from eating. I don't know what to do. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me!!!
>>~Angela

Couple of things that jump out to me is
You are harrassing them an awful lot in 16days. They need to chill for a bit or they are gonna get worse first.
When you say offered how did you do it? I would personally keep them in three separate tanks, tens is fine. Proper heat day and night, check their temps, don't guess. When you do offer do it by putting a prekilled or F/T fuzzy or hopper outside of the hide they are in and leave for the night. Lights out, no peeking. Check in the morning. I would also be monitoring weights on an accurate scale. Don't panic unless they are dropping weight. If they refuse then give them three or four days before trying again. I personally wouldn't have them out of their tanks till they eat three or four times for you. That sucks for a store but the added stress is just gonna counter your attempts to feed.
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Sonya

Hey, I found out that I don't work on Friday, so if you could stop in on Thursday, that would be great. No pressure, though!
Thanks - Angela @ Petland