Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My ball has not eaten since November. She shed in one piece in February but two rats have been refused since then. When should I start to worry? Is it normal to fast for six months?
Thanks.
Barb

It's quite normal with Balls once they've reached sexual maturity, and on occasion before. From about November to late February or early March is their breeding season and Balls, male and females, typically go off feed during this time. The females, if allowed to stay with the eggs once they are layed, will not eat till they hatch. Which is another 60 days, in general. This can add up to six months or more for the females. I have a female who is about 13 years old and usually doesn't eat 6-7 months out of the year even if she doesn't lay. As long as it's not loosing alot of weight it should be nothing to worry about. Just offer it something once a week till it decides it's hungry again. Hope this helps.

Quig

...very common for BP's to fast, particularly females...from my experience, the better a female feeds during the first year, the more likely she is to go on a prolonged fast in the second year...

....some of my females will quit feeding in July or August and not resume until this time of year...feed for 3-4 months, quite heavily, and then go into another fast...this is common for young adults, in the 2-5 year class...once a female has a little more age, 6-7 years and more, they seem to be less "tempermental" and feed more consistently, although this varies with degree of cycling for breeding...

....bottom-line is that BP's are confounding feeders, IMHO THE MOST of any commonly kept snake species......

SJM

Depends how your animal looks. If they look healthy, and aren't
losing a lot of weight, I wouldn't worry. When you start getting
around the 9-12 month range, you can start to worry. I would
suggest trying live/fresh killed/frozen thawed rats and mice.
If that doens't work, you can try getting them from a different
source...they will have a different scent due to diet/substrate/etc.
If you feel like you must get them to eat, you can also try
things like hampsters, gerbils, etc. However, I wouldn't
recommend it as it can be quite expensive and sometimes they
develop a taste for those things and it could be hard to get
them back on rats!

If you want to be proactive, you can take your snake to your
vet and have them take some samples. It is always possible that
your snake could be sick.

Here's a little story for you that hopefully demonstrates that
your animal is maybe just being stubborn. I purchased a possible
het adult female in 10/03. She didn't eat for me until June 2004,
and that was just one small rat! Then, she didn't eat for me
again until Feb 2005!! It was interesting...in about Jan '05 I
was looking at her and I thought to myself, "Wow, for an animal
that has only eaten one rat in 14 months, she is still looking
very good!" She had only lost about 200g the entire time.
Then, she decided it was time to eat again! She is now putting
away 1-2 small/medium rats a week aggressively. Summary: Ball
pythons (...healthy CB that is) will choose when they want to
eat! When they are interested in eating, I always make sure they
get plenty to eat (...never know when they will stop again).

Hope this helps...good luck!
Chris Simone
www.SimoneReptiles.com

Same, same here, my female goes 7 months or so on a regular basis. Once she went 12-13 months, but when she's hungry she gets anything she wants as often as she wants. It works for her so it works for me.

Quig

Doesn't mean it doesn't make my hair turn gray!!!!!

These animals can really humble you when they want.
Who's in charge??? I think they are.

Best of luck,
Chris Simone
www.SimoneReptiles.com