Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi i obtained a royal python from a friend who kept his snakes in a racking system ,he never handled any of his snakes and fed them rarely,he is now in jail for something else which is why i took the royal,now the royal is adult about 4 foot and male,i have had it for about 3or4 months and been unable to get it to feed at all ,i have been told that he was feeding it on fuzzies but i cant even get it to take them,he would just open its tub and throw the food in and if it didnt feed it fair enough,i put in 3 fuzzies last night and it eat 1 which is good to me but is still terrible due to its size,i have tried warming the food up and putting it in front of it but it seems really scared of the food,will this snake ever take bigger food,or any
thanks in advance for any advice given
graham

A 4ft ball python should be taking something much more larger than a fuzzie mouse! My hatchlings eat fuzzie mice as their first meals. Try to give him some adult mice or jumbo mice.

describe his enclosure so we know if there's anything you need to tweak as far as husbandry. Assuming everything is correct. Try feeding live. It sounds like you're trying frozen. Fuzzies are real small so get a live weaned rat so it's less of a threat than a full grown small rat, but not as skimpy as a fuzzy. You can also try gerbils i believe gerbils are part of their natural diet. If you are giving frozen try making it move for the snake. Some of them want movement to get em to bite. Try holding the small rat on foreceps by the mid back area so the head is free to bob around. Bring it right to it's nose & try a quick jerk to the right or left. At times if the jerk doesn't work I had good results with bringing it nose to nose with the snake & I hold it as still as possible. After a min or so your hand starts giving out & producing a wiggle. To some of em that wiggle I guess seems more realistic because they slam it the second that starts happening. Try feeding at night in the dark or maybe leaving it in front of it's hide spot.
Hope I helped. let us know your setup!

also if you want try a live small rat that has been "stunned"....take a small rat & either give him a good thump on the hear with a blunt object or put it in a bag or pillow case & give it a quick hard slam against a wall. Do it hard but now with all your might, you are looking to just knock it out not kill it. If it's dead it wont move. When they are stunned they are still breathing & producing other movement (twitching etc.) this could stimulate the feeding response as well. You maybe having a prob with fuzzies bacause they are too small. I agree with the other post 4 foot ball should be eating small rats I would say at the minimum. Fuzzies prob smell different from full grown rats too.

don't give it gerbils, some snakes become "stuck" on gerbils, so unless you want to be spending 6 bucks everytime the snake wants to eat, and getting about 4 gerbils everytime he has to eat, it will get EXPENSIVE.

Try a small(very small) rat, firt f/t try heating up some water in the microwave (without rat) for about 6 minutes, then put the rat in a baggie, and put the baggie in the water, take a spoon or something and hold it down under the water.

if you squeeze it slightly you should feel NO coldness, infact it should feel quite hot to you.
now take the bag out of the water and take it to the snakes cage, use tongs, and get the rat out of the cage, by this time the rat should be cooled enough that it won't burn the snake while eating it (if it eats).

wiggle the rat a little to the left or right of the snake, not the front (heat pits are to the sides a little). Don't touch the snake, as this startles some snakes and they will just ball up.

If that don't work try dipping the rats head in the still (should be) steaming water for a few seconds, then, dripping wet, let the water drip near the snake, this always works for my picky female.

f/t tricks

braining (take a tack, or needle and open the skull up a bit)

cut the nose off

let thaw out in mouse bedding

put in a paper bag with f/t item over night (put paper bag in original enclosure just in case of an escape)

if house on news paper or paper towel leave f/t item infront of hide that the snake is in.

leave a live rat pup in overnight (make sure it does not have it's eyes open, something a little under 2 wks old) they wiggle around alot more than pinks/fuzzies, and about the size of a SMALL mouse.

and as someone already asked, what is the cage like

how are you providing heat
what are the temps
how are you measuring temps
whats the humidity
whats the size of the cage-snake
how many hides
does he have a water bowl big enough to soak in
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

just out of curiosity how long does a rat take you to thaw with that method? I have yet to perfect how to thaw my rats & it's pissin me off..lol I have had alot of different responses to this & most people said not to use water hotter then like 80 to 85 degrees..but six minutes in a microwave will creat much hotter water. Most responses said to not use to hot this way the rat doesn't pop or get mushy etc. Does this happen to you? So I guess just if you can let me know how you thaw say 6 small rats at a time . It's been taking me hours to thaw them at room temp & if I can get it dont quicker I would be real happy.

thanks

Put a live adult mouse in a brown paper bag with the BP.

Leave it alone for 30mins.

As far as I know something about the bag/mouse combination seems to work fairly well for stubborn feeders.

Good luck!
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-Iman

1.1 Sugar Gliders (Gizmo and Nema)
2.0 Ball Pythons (Spot and Speck)
0.1 Colombian BCI (Belle)
1.0 Colombian Rainbow (Rex)
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow (Just arrived!!!)

Loving to Learn
Learning to Help
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Stimulate debates, stifle arguments.
Please be nice always.

Future Project Wishlist:
0.2 BP
1.0 BCI
0.1 CRB
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1.1 ARB, GRB, DB & JCP

Ian's House of Herps

NEVER PUT A ADULT MOUSE UNSUPERVISED in with a snake, the mouse can seriously harm or even KILL the snake. One good bite is all it takes.

It takes a 3wk old rat that is COMPLETELY frozen about 10 minutes to completely thaw. The worst I have had happen is when the snake strikes, it ends up taking a piece of skin instead of the whole thing, or the tails fall/rip off.

to do 6 I would lay them out and do 1 or 2 at a time, maybe even at the most 3.

I put each rat in a seperate baggie as well. And while I am waiting for the water to get hot, I put the rats in baggies, and put them in a bowl of hot water, holding them down with a spoon or something (I personally usually leave the hot water running, but that is up to you.)

I don't know what other people say, but doing it like this got my picky female to eat (she had been off feed for about 6-7 months and was eating ONLY live mice)
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood