Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...but I'm new to ball pythons so I figured I'd ask.
I have a male ball who's about 8 months old. I've had him for about 3 months, and bought him from a local breeder.
He's been eating very regularly F/T all winter, and just recently stoppped eating.
He's going on his 3rd week without eating, and I'm just wondering how long these fasts tend to last, and how often I should offer food to him.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I hope this helps. My adult male was eating and then stopped for about a month and a half, then ate twice, and stopped again. He's going on 2 weeks now without eating. Ball Pythons can be finiky eaters and sometimes (from what my vet says) can just stop eating temporarily. If you offer food too often while the snake is fasting, it will just reject it and wait longer (again this is what my vet said). I usually try to offer once a week until he wants to eat again. 3 weeks is ok, don't worry too much. Here's a tip. When I got my guy to first take food after the first fast, I put him in a pillowcase in his cage and put the F/T rat in with him. I left him like that for about 2 hours and he ate the rat. The second time I did the same thing and he ate again. Third time, no luck. He hasn't eaten since and I'm just going to wait. Once a week I'll try again and offer....

Circusfan

I have one male and one female ball. I got the male first. The first year I had him he went from Dec- March without eating. I offered him a mouse once a week. When I started getting worried, I called the breeder and was told not to worry, that Balls very often go off feed for the winter and that he would probably start eating around the end of March. Sure enough, he did finally eat in March. Sometimes he still refuses to eat when first offered. If that happens I try warming the mouse some more in hot water. If he still refuses, I just give it to the female. She is a beast and has never turned down a meal. He will usually eat the following week.