We have a 3 year old female ball python and we bought her from a pet store in which we later found out sells unhealthy animals. The sales person said that she was farm raised and that she had eaten once during the time that they had her. We have had her for 6 1/2 months now and she hasn't eaten anything yet. We have tried frozen/thawed and live and she wont take either. We have tried to force feed her a frozen/thawed mouse and she wouldn't take that either. We are wanting to try to feed her an at home recipe that we found in a ball python manual. In the book, it says to mix a jar of chicken baby food, a crushed up tums tablet and a small jar of gatorade or pedialite. We were wandering if we could use ground up liver, fish, or ground beef since it has a higher protein level. Does anyone know if either of these is safe to feed a ball python?
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Force feeding a ball python...?
Replies (4)
First get a fecal done to check for parasites. Alot of times they will start feeding after a couple of doses of Flagyl and/or Panacur. Once you have a clean bill of health, it is usually just a matter of time till they take something to eat. I do not get fecals done on my imported Balls, cuz it's almost 100% guarantee that they are loaded with all kinds of nasties, so I just start treatment as soon as they arrive. Go to a vet, and get a fecal done, and you will see it is probably loaded with bugs/bacteria.
Good luck,
Chad
Posted by: bachman at Mon Jun 14 00:59:24 2004 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]
First get a fecal done to check for parasites. Alot of times they will start feeding after a couple of doses of Flagyl and/or Panacur. Once you have a clean bill of health, it is usually just a matter of time till they take something to eat. I do not get fecals done on my imported Balls, cuz it's almost 100% guarantee that they are loaded with all kinds of nasties, so I just start treatment as soon as they arrive. Go to a vet, and get a fecal done, and you will see it is probably loaded with bugs/bacteria.
Good luck,
Chad
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definitely good advice......ive also had luck getting balls to eat when placed overnite into a small container with a pre-killed rodent (usually mice)....they seem to eat better in a "close" environment...
my $.02
A W.C. Adult female that the Farm's in Africa keep until they lay there egg's.Then there shipped to the U.S. for sale's in the pet trade.Like the previous post said your gonna have to get it treated for parasites.After the treatment it will most likely be a problem feeder.She is use to wild prey of Africa, Try gerbil's black one's or brown ,and you can use the gerbil's to sent mice/rat's.
Have A Good One ! !
Kenneth
>>We have a 3 year old female ball python and we bought her from a pet store in which we later found out sells unhealthy animals. The sales person said that she was farm raised and that she had eaten once during the time that they had her. We have had her for 6 1/2 months now and she hasn't eaten anything yet. We have tried frozen/thawed and live and she wont take either. We have tried to force feed her a frozen/thawed mouse and she wouldn't take that either. We are wanting to try to feed her an at home recipe that we found in a ball python manual. In the book, it says to mix a jar of chicken baby food, a crushed up tums tablet and a small jar of gatorade or pedialite. We were wandering if we could use ground up liver, fish, or ground beef since it has a higher protein level. Does anyone know if either of these is safe to feed a ball python?
If it were me I would do as has been recommended, get her treated for parasites. Then I would get a weight on her. Then you know if she is actually losing weight. If she is actually getting THIN and the vet thinks it is totally necessary, then force feed her. Otherwise you are just gonna push her further away from eating for you. Your goal is to get her to eat well, not just to get food in her once or twice. My adult WC pair doesn't eat for 8 months a year. They have been treated but I am beginning to think they would maybe benefit from another hit. At the same time they don't drop more than a few grams. They are just very thrifty.
After you get her treated I would leave her entirely alone for a couple weeks. Then try a prekilled or frozen thawed gerbil in front of her hide right before bed. Don't know what else you have tried. But force feeding is something I wouldn't try with an otherwise healthy adult.
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Sonya
Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron
