Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a female baby ball which refuse to eat the teprature is o.k and i dont know what to do...
please help

Hi,

I just went through the same thing. My kids have gerbils, so I scooped out a buch of their used bedding and put the food item (a live mouse in my case) in the bedding for 3-4 hours. When I put the mouse in the tank, my ball went for it like a rocket.

Balls eat gerbils in the wild, so gerbil scent is a natural feeding trigger. Either feed a small gerbil or ask your pet store for some used gerbil bedding.

Good luck and happy herping.

Need a bit more info:

What are temps and humidity readings?
How old is she?
Is this your first time feeding her?
When is the last time she ate?
What has she been eating (live, prekilled, frozen/thawed)?
What are you trying to feed her and how?
Has she lost weight? If so, how much?
When was her last shed......

Can't tell you what to do different until we know what you have been doing. If you post more info, you're likely to get more advice.

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0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"

Welcome to the wonderful world of keeping Ball Pythons. Balls will do that in the winter, it is just the way it is. They will usually get back on a solid feeding schedule around end of February or March. Don't be discouraged. You can continue to offer food, but I would only offer once every 2 weeks, just to save some money on food.

Good Luck,
Jason

Don't be discouraged, it happens.

the tems is 29 c
i dont know the age she is about a 50 c"m
she ate twise in her last tank and after i moved her she ate once the last time she ate was a couple of days ago a very small meel she eating only live mices she didnt lost a lot of weight she didnt shed since i got her about 3.5 weeks

hope u can help me now
by the way i am from israel
thanks dean

you said she ate a few days ago. ball pythons especially during winter months can go weeks, even months without eating. she might be refusing to eat because its about to shed. i wouldnt worry about it until it starts to lose weight. if it does you can leave it in a brown bag overnight with a thawed rat to see if it will eat. if worse comes to worse you can force feed it a liquid solution.

i wouldnt worry about it. one of my snakes has refused food for the past two weeks.

give her time to digest her last meal. Leave her be for a bit. She may also be about ready to shed - watch for these signs. Some ball pythons do go off feed or eat less this time of year. watch her weight - if she doesn't lose weight I wouldn't worry. maybe try to feed again in a week. in the meantime, just keep an eye on her. make sure the temps on the warm side are correct and the temps on the cool side are correct. no need to worry at this point.

Good luck!
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0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"

When I first got my ball python, it was very young, about 15inches long and refused to eat. I contacted the seller, Jungle Mist Reptiles, and they gave me this advice.
Put it in a small container and put the food in with it. The container I used was about 6 inches long x 3 inches wide x 3 inches in height. This keeps the snake in closer proximity to the food. When I tried this the first time, the snake ate. I think that this may trigger the fight or flight instinct in the snake. Since it can't move away it instinctually strikes at the prey. I have continued to use the feeding box method with good success. I now use a shoebox size container to feed in. My ball python is now about 9 months old, 27 inches long and 430 grams.