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I have some baby balls not eating and I need some help

kylescott Sep 23, 2004 03:07 AM

I received 5 cbb baby ball pythons from a breeder a month ago. He told me that they had ate 3 times on f/t rats. I have 3 that are eating and I have 2 that are not interested slightly. I have tried offering food every 5-6 days on the two, but no luck. I have tried feeding w/ tongs and the paper bag thing and nothing is working. The two balls were around 72 grams when I got them, now they are around 48 grams. I really need these balls to all be eating f/t, but If it comes down to them surviving I will have to feed live. When should I feed live? I don't want to wait to late and have them die on me. Any help would be great, thanks.

Kyle

Replies (6)

glkherp Sep 23, 2004 07:14 PM

Kyle,

I would say with the amount of weight lost already you should try live right away. Even if they were eating frozen thawed previously the change of environment could intimidate them and put them off feed, the movement of live could stimulate them to eat. What temps are you keeping them at, also what size inclosure? You can switch them over later but I would worry about getting some weight on for now.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

kylescott Sep 24, 2004 02:05 AM

I have each one in a 15 qt tub (rack). At this moment, I really don't care if they are eating f/t, I just want them to be healthy and alive. My temps are perfect, 90 on the hot side and low 80s on the cool. I had them on cypress mulch, but I figured I am going to have to offer live and leave the rodent w/ them until they eat. So, the two are on paper towels w/ two hides and a water dish. I will get some rat fuzzies from my rodent breeder tomorrow.

Kyle

snakelvr Sep 25, 2004 11:01 PM

Please try live soon!! You can always swith over later. But listen to my similar story. I hatched 4 babies out July 5. Only 1 of them ate from the beginning regularly. One of them ate once the first week after the initial shed and never again. Two did not eat at all. What has come of this??. I tried everthing like you. I realized I was trying too hard feeding them and disturbing them all the time. I was panicking because they were now 10 weeks old with no food! Two of them I gave to a friend to try and feed because I could not deal with the stress of all of them. He is babysitting until they get eating. I tried assist feeding them with no luck. They were just so turned off by food. There is one non-eater, I managed to assist feed.(9 weeks old at 67 grams). Once I got the pinkie in his mouth, he took it down himself. (Exactly 1 week later, I put a live fuzzy in his tank and bam! He took it right away!! Then, he looked ready for more so I defrosted a frozen. And again!!! He took this one. Someone explain that to me!!! A non-eater taking live then frozen. Anyway, It has been only days and he sits there waiting for more food. He has taken 4 more frozen/thawed. It is as if he finally realized who he was. Sadly, I am not sure if he finally got hungry because I got food in his belly the week before by assist feeding, or if it was finally just a timing thing. My other two have been assist fed by my friend and I am hoping they follow the same course. Sorry to babble but the whole feeding thing really got to me. No one could answer my questions about how long a baby can actually go without eating before its borderline unsafe. People say nature takes its course, but I think the assist feeding helps stimulate thier appetite.

Another thing is you really don't know if they ate already or not. You can't take the sellers word unless you actually saw them eat before you purchased them.

Good Luck!
-AS

kylescott Sep 27, 2004 02:07 AM

One out of the two ate a live fuzzy rat (over night). The other I offered a pinky over night and it didn't eat. I will give her 3 or 4 days and do the same thing again. The one that ate, I tried her again tonight and I checked the tub after a few hours and the fuzzy was gone. So, she has ate twice, but the other one Is very scaried of everything, thats why I tried the pinky first. Do you think I would have better luck w/ still offering a live pinky or fuzzy w/ the one that hasn't eaten?

snakelvr Sep 27, 2004 08:33 AM

Keep trying with the live. Try both live fuzzies and pinkies. They have lost way too much weight. If the non-eater continues not to eat, and is looking really skinny then I would try assist feeding within a couple weeks. Do you know how to do this?

kylescott Sep 27, 2004 01:10 PM

no, I don't know how to force feed. I am hoping it will not come to that.

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