Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I gave f / t rats a shot and my bps were not in the least bit interested. I bought a 10 count bag from a breeder at a herp show a few weeks back. This is the second time I have tried to feed them and what do I find? All the pythons and rats SLEEPING together ( HEY! get your mind out of the gutter . Now, I can not get them to eat live rats as well. FIGURES. The only characteristic of balls I cannot stand is the abnormal feeding behavior ( I know it varies from snake to snake ). Anyways, I needed to vent so anyone else currently having the same problem feel free to blow off some steam, hahahah.

Toddg
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1.1 Balls - Male het/albino, Female 66% het/albino
***Fingers crossed for next season!!!***

The snake I have is almost 2yrs old and was always fed live mice before I got him 6 weeks ago. I will never feed live and he showed little interest in f/t. I tried room temp and a heat lamp with no luck. I finally got him to take one after thawing in hot water and thought I had it figured out. I was wrong. It has nothing to do with how it's thawed and everything to do with temp. If the head is between 95 and 100 he'll take it, anything else he won't. The body can be 80 but as long as the head is 95 to 100 he'll take it. 94 is a no go and so is 101. I can't believe how picky this little b@st@rd is. Since I've got it figured out it's not much of a problem but I did waste a half dozen mice learning this. I'll probably try switching to rats later as he needs to gain some weight and I don't want to mess with a eating snake.

Come to think of it, now that I THINK I have him figured out he'll probably stop eating just to prove he's a ball python. Maybe the real reason they got their name was because we get to have a ball trying to get them to eat.