Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been posting message on this forum about my female ball not eatting and tonight when I went to turn the lights off in her cage I found her dead. She had not ate in 2 months and I was told on this site to feed her a adult mouse once a week witch I did and she ate one after a lot of work but soon stopped eatting. I posted the message on this forum about that and I was told it was normal and not to worry too much. Last week I tryed going back to the old size food because maybe an adult mouse is too big and ate it no problem so i thought that now should be fine. That was a week ago and tonight when I went to turn the lights off in her cage I found her dead. I want people to know that a aduld mouse is not the right size food for all baby balls and I hope no one has to lose because of that.

Brandon

I am very sorry to hear of your loss. I know it's a sensitive point but have you considered a necropsy? It might give you a more complete answer regarding the circumstances of the death. I wish you the best of luck when you get another ball, if you choose to.

Sorry for loss. I don't think feeding your snake a mouse is what killed it. Could it be possible the snake ate a forgien object (substrate). Its death was probably not related to eating at all.

she was very skinny when found her. She had been getting skinny the past few week and if she didnt start eatting I was going to take her to the vet but she started eatting again so I thought she would be fine. Tonight when I picked her up felt very skinny a lot skinner than the time I held her. There was no firmness like she had when been eatting before or like my male has. It has been at lest 2 months since she ate.

Brandon

I am also very sorry for your loss. Number one though I would have to say that a snake going without food for 2 months would not kill the animal unless it had a diet deficiency before you purchased the animal and it was unhealthy to begin with. Where did you purchase your animal from? Wild caught Balls usually do have a problem with eating. At times it can come to the point that it will stop eating and will eventually die. Just 1 meal may not have been enough to offer her the nutrients required to help boost her health status. I have been feeding adult mice to baby balls for quite some time and have never had a problem. Of course you will have the exception of a mouse that might be abnormally larger than others. I once again am sorry for your loss and I hope that you might still purchase another ball and try again. I hope you have better luck with the next one.

Chris

I'm sorry that that happened, its very hard to lose a pet. But, on the point of feeding a baby ball an adult mouse, I feed mine an adult mouse and a hopper every week and hes only 5 months old. He's doing fine.
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1.0 ball python (vakker)
0.1 dogs
2.1 cockatiels
1.1 chinchillas
Coming soon... 1.1 corn snakes
0.1 axanthic ball python

I got her at LLL reptile in oceanside in may and she may of had diet deficiency because I was feeding her too small of prey for a long time because of tips from a friend and a few weeks later she stopped eatting. About getting another ball I have a male I got a month before I got her and was going to try and breed someday but didnt know you should not keep 2 in the same cage and was saving somemoney to get another cage so I think I will get another ball when but not till get another cage.

Brandon

Was the ball python shipped to you? Because I know they do alot of across the country shipping. Furthermore whether it was captive bred or wild caught can also play a major role in whether your animal will thrive in captivity. I honestly don't think that the size of the mouse had anything to do with the problem. In fact I had this guy come into the store tonight with a somewhat similar deal. He usually feeds his Ball 3-4 adult mice. But recently the ball has stopped eating them all together. Basically went cold turkey on mice. They are just not that appealing to the snake anymore. I told him to try a small-medium rat. He took it home and called back within an hour and said that he took it in a heartbeat. Sometimes (not all the time) the snakes kinda choose what they want to eat. We have 12 foot burms in there that refuse to eat a rabbit. But the second that I grab the rabbit and go rub it around in the rat bin a little bit and throw it back in there it will take it like it has never eaten before. I wish you better luck with your other animals and future ones. I hope any information I have provided my come to some use for you in the near future.

Chris

I lost a girl this year to a quadruple-whammy of impaction (apparently from swallowed substrate, though I kept her on paper towel. Go figure! I can't always account for conditions before they get to me!), protein/vitamin deficiency (babies can't go as long without food as adults), dehydration, and bargain hunting (when you buy captive-hatched babies, you have to expect a certain level of losses. Losses this year were much higher than last year, both from my experience and that of others I've spoken with).

When you keep live animals, some are going to die on you. It kind of comes with the territory. We do everything we can and hope for the best, but sometimes that just isn't enough! Sorry for your loss. I'll give you a good deal on some normal cbb babies next year, assuming I don't slug out again! Contact me next April or so.

I'm sorry for your loss but I have to agree that feeding an adult mouse to a baby would not kill it. I have fed adult mice to baby ball pythons for a long time with no ill effects. However, if she was WC or CH then she probably came in with parasites that you were not aware of. This would explain the drastic loss of weight. Parasites can cause the diet/vitamin deficiencies that were spoken about by the others. On top of that, a bacterial infection usually follows an unchecked parasite infestation.

My advice is to also get the other BP checked out since they were housed together.

Some other things to concider:
Over the years, I have a had few animals drop dead for mysterious reasons. A necropsy can be a wonderful thing. For example: My kenyan sand boa had an intestinal aneurysim. We recently had a Chondropython drop dead. The necropsy showed a huge amount of blood in his stomach, possibly a bleeding ulcer.

I have also found that many baby ball pythons will not eat if housed with other baby ball pythons.