Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just bought our 7yr. old son a ball python. We got the snake from Petco, and the guy at the store said they are about 6 months old. We handled the snake yesterday, and it seemed very calm. The petstore said that they are feeding on live mice and not frozen ones, he said that they have tried frozen ones, but will not eat them. I am reading very different opinions of feeding live verses frozen. What should I do? Also, do I feed it in the cage, or take it out and put in it a paperbag to feed it? HELP PLEASE!!! Also, this morning my son went in his room (where the snake is), and turned on the light, and just openend the cage. The snake was still under its log, and I went into the room, and reached into the cage to get the water bowl, and the snake struck at me. It did not get me, but do you think it was just scared because it was not awake yet? After we gave it a few minutes, it calmed down and we were able to pick it up and change its papertowels.

>>I just bought our 7yr. old son a ball python. We got the snake from Petco, and the guy at the store said they are about 6 months old. We handled the snake yesterday, and it seemed very calm. The petstore said that they are feeding on live mice and not frozen ones, he said that they have tried frozen ones, but will not eat them. I am reading very different opinions of feeding live verses frozen. What should I do? Also, do I feed it in the cage, or take it out and put in it a paperbag to feed it? HELP PLEASE!!! Also, this morning my son went in his room (where the snake is), and turned on the light, and just openend the cage. The snake was still under its log, and I went into the room, and reached into the cage to get the water bowl, and the snake struck at me. It did not get me, but do you think it was just scared because it was not awake yet? After we gave it a few minutes, it calmed down and we were able to pick it up and change its papertowels.

Firstly I would try the easiest thing first and then work to other stuff for feeding. I would try a thawed mouse or rat pup of the appropriate size. I would leave it in the cage overnight, NOT on the heat pad and see what happens. If it is a no go then worry about more complicated means of feeding.
But, first, leave the snake alone. Change water, clean the cage, but don't handle it until it has eaten a couple of times for you. This is going to have to be a lesson in patience and what is best for the animal for your son, but necessary. Even though the snake is mellow it is stressing it to handle it. Let it settle in for a week or two and then feed it. If it eats great, if not, go on to the next 4 or 5 days then offer food again.
Get back to us.
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Sonya

>>will not eat them. I am reading very different opinions of feeding live verses frozen. What should I do?

You'll get varied opinions on this and I would look at previous posts to catch up. My order of preference:

1) F/T
2) F/K
3) Live

>> Also, do I feed it in the cage, or take it out and put in it a paperbag to feed it? HELP PLEASE!!! Also, this morning my son

Again, you will get varied opinions. I have done both and find no difference in feeding attitude. That is with BPs. I have noticed differences with other reptiles such as chondros and some of my larger (now gone) boas.

>>went in his room (where the snake is), and turned on the light, and just openend the cage. The snake was still under its log, and I went into the room, and reached into the cage to get the water bowl, and the snake struck at me. It did not get me, but do you think it was just scared because it was not awake yet? After we gave it a few minutes, it calmed down and we were able to pick it up and change its papertowels.

Give the snake time to settle in.
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Jay A. Martin

ok first thing you should wait aleast a week befor handling.that strike was out of being scared.for eating i would try fresh kiled buy it live then put it in a garbage bag and slam it a couple times.that should work.until ure son has had some time to handle thye snake befor he just comees in and takes the snake out.i have 2 ball pythons i also got one frome petco.well thats my advice.
with all due respect
josh

As the others have said, it may not eat until it has settled in. One thing I noticed when I got my ball python is that if you move too quickly around it at first it will feel threatened. That's the first thing that came into my head when you said that you reached in to get the water bowl out. Maybe you just moved too fast?? The snake may see you as a preditor of some sort and doesn't know if you're going to hurt it. Therefore it may strike or just curl up in a ball.

Have fun and good luck with your new pet.

-Drako

Congratulations on your new pet! It's so great to see responsible parents educating their kids about reptiles so early! I'm sure you don't want your son's new bp to starve itself to death, or strike and possible bite him though, right? So, although having your first snake is very exciting, and you/he probably can't stop observing, it will go a long way to just let it be for a while. Make sure that you have the tank all set up very well. You didn't list anything that was in the tank, so I hope you haven't made the same mistakes that most new reptile owners make. You should have a good digital thermometer to monitor the temeratures accurately. How are you heating the enclosure? You have a log hide and a water bowl which is good. Make sure you have at least 2 places for your bp to hide in. It'll probably spend 95% of it's time in one of them, so you should offer several in a variety of temperature zones within the enclosure.

Now, after you confirm that everything is set up ok, just let your snake be alone for about a week. Right now, it's whole environment is new to it and is probably scared of anything that moves...too scared to eat, most likely. The more you pick it up, the less likely your snake will eat. After a week or two, try throwing in some food. You will find that most people feel strongly against feeding live rodents because they will eat your snake if given the opportunity. However, since Petco fed live, and that is what your snake is used to, and your goal is simply to get your snake to take its first meal....go ahead and throw in a live adult mouse. The mouse can't do much damage anyway, and by then, your snake should be good and hungry. Once your snake eats, then leave it be for about 2 days, otherwise it'll throw up a half digested mouse! You don't want that. Make sure that your snake has eaten 2 or 3 times before you really start to work on handling. And once you do start handling, remember that although it may seem like your snake enjoys it, it probably doesn't...so be gentle, move slowly, don't touch it's head...just let it crawl over your hands until it feels comfortable....don't let your 7 yr old drape the snake around his neck...shouldn't be a problem, but your snake will soon be larger than your son!

Good luck!
Jeremy

Hey! You just bought one of my babies! We ship b.p.s to Petcos across the country, so you might be interested in knowing about your little guy. He was started on a diet of live fuzzies, and then maintained on a diet of small adult mice for several months. He probably has a very high feeding response due to the fact that, while he was with us, (which was probably since he was just a couple of days old)he was only bothered to be fed or have his cage cleaned out. He was not ever handled or socialized. They quickly learn to strike whenever the cage is open, as 50% of the time, they were rewarded with food.

The advice given by everyone here is very good, and I don't know what they told you at Petco, but they usually hire know-nothing kids, so don't believe everything that they told you, ask here.

As for this little guy in particular,follow the advice given (all though I'd be willing to bet he'd scarf a mouse right now!) If I were you I would feed him/her in a seperate container. (But the first time, feed it in its cage so that it doesn't freak out!)Some snakes, (and this one already has) will learn to associate the cage being opened with food if they are not regularly handled. You should probably handle the snake the first few times by yourself, as he may bite. If your child gets bitten, he may become afraid of the snake. We don't want that.

Please tell us how you have him set up, as, like I said, people at pet stores don't always know what's best.

Enjoy!

I hate Petco, but sometimes I go in there because the darn price of the good petstores are somewhat expensive. But I guess if you sell it to them, they would be getting healthy snakes...instead of getting sick ones from a breeding farm or something. I bough mine from my zoology teacher. He had bred corn snakes sucessfully like 2 years back. He even show it to the class when he was feeding the parents. Now he breeds ball pythons. it's not for profit, though, he's doing it for fun. I bought it from him for $ 39.99.

The only reason I bought from Petco, is because they had them on sale for $29.99. They were originally marked $79.49. I thought this was a good buy for the size of the snake. He is about 14" already.

In the future I would suggest that you look elsewhere than petco for your animals as they are notorious for poor keeping. That being said all of the advice given was god except i notice one member said that you could throw a live mouse in and see if it feeds. This is fine if it was eating live before except in other posts they said to leave the food in overnite. I wanted to clarify that in no way should you leave LIVE MOUSE in the cage overnite. That post was referring to a prekilled food item. Just thought id mention it for your snakes safety and your knowledge. Also i recommend that you go out and purchase the Ball Python Manual. It gives tons of great information on the specifics of Ball Pythons and should be increasingly helpful as you find out little quirks about your new acquisition.
Have Fun
Joe

Maybe this Petco takes better care of their animals. This snake seems fat for a snake, and the store guy took several of them out for us to look at, and none of them tried to stirke or anything like that. So maybe we got a healthy one. It has a 15 day guarantee on it, so if I can't get it to eat for me by the second week, I will for sure take it back, and get my monies back, and get one else where.
Thanks

I have him in a 35 gal. aquarium 12"wide by 24" long, it is a deep aquarium. I have him a hide log, and a water bowl. He has artificial grass for the carpet, and 75watt basking light bulb (Is this too high wattage?) to put in one of the round clamp lights that I already had at home. We have had him out a couple of times, and he doesn't seem to mind. This was before I got the advice from yesterday. I put the light under the cage yesterday, because I dont have and undertank heater yet. There are two thermometers, one inside the tank that has a suction cup on it (which he knocked off last night) it is reading 86-90 degrees. There is another one on the other side of the tank, on the outside that is reading about 82 degrees.
Do I feed him for the first time inside or outside the cage? If outside, how do I do that? My son wants to watch him eat for the first time.
Thanks to everyone for such great advice. I'm sure I will have several more questions.

I would change the 75 watt bulb for a 40 watt spot light bulb with a guard cage over it so that the snake doesn't burn itself by accident. You should get a heat mat and a thermostat/ministat too - this is more important than the light bulb heating. I assume you have the light on a timer so that it switches off at night!! I wouldn't let the temperature get over 85 degrees, it's not necessary.

The python will outgrow that vivarium in a couple of years.

i always liked to feed in another box so when he hit the box he knew it was dinner time and the next thing in was dinner . and i always feed live and i got towhere i could tell in seconds if he was gonna eat or not. if not i just kept the mouse and fattened him up. if your snake refused f/k or f/t you've wasted a mouse . either way don't stress the feeding the thing is snakes can go months without eating.he'll eat when he's ready. good luck and keep us informed

I personally wouldn't buy a ball python for a 7 year old.

However, I find that it's best to stroke the back of my ball python with a long tong to let her know that I'm going to pick her up or move her things around. She soon leaves her striking 'S' position and I know that it's safe for me to enter her space. In the future regular handling would do away with the need to use this tong method.

I think you should have bought him a cornsnake instead!