Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My ball python is acting incredibly strange.

I forgot to feed them last week so she should be hungry. I fed them (I also have a milk snake) three days ago. The Milksnake jumped on his food, literally, the ball python kept sleeping.

She hadn't eaten a few hours later so I took the rat, her usual meal, out and put it in a bucket with some food.

Long story short:

It's been three days since I fed them and she hasn't eaten. It's been almost three weeks since she ate.

Her color is great. She constricts appropriately when picked up. Her eyes aren't glazed. She's not about to shed. Her substrate was cleaned two weeks ago. She's very active at night.

The only thing I can think of is that her cage is too cold but when I had it at the right temperature, she slithered as far as she could from the heat sources and stayed there for days. I turned off the light, left the pad on and she became active again. I haven't taken her out since feeding day but prior to that she wasn't acting strange or different when we interacted with her.

I actually don't know what to do.

Sorry, forgot to mention, I put the rat back in everyday since for several hours and she doesn't touch it.

Also, I don't know what to do with the rat. When the milksnake is fed too close to a shed and doesn't eat, I just give his mice to the cats. They're both indoor cats, they can take down a mouse, not a rat.

Your snake is probably fine, many BPs stop eating during the winter. This is normal. Full grown adults are the most likely to not feed during the winter breeding season. Just make sure she has water and let her be. If she acts hungry (watching any movement intently, sitting in the S coiled and ready to strike position) offer her food. Be prepared for her not to eat till spring. As for the rat, just wrap it in plastic and put it in the trash out side.

A
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1.0 normal BP Nicodemus
1.0 BP Moufasa pos vanilla, fire, cinny
0.4 Cal Kings 3 alb 1 het Dora Queen Ace Pearl
2.0 Alb Corn Bizaar Elixir
0.0.1 Rev Alb Nelsons Oden

Just my $.02, but if you are putting a live rat in your snakes tank for a few hours a day for multiple days in a row. You are probably stressing your snake out. I would definitely give it a week or so without interaction to relax, then try a food item smaller then usual. Ball pythons can go longer than you think without eating and still be good.

I have a ball python that used to only eat mice as an adult. Talk about aggravating. Then, one day he (or she....not quite sure) went off food. Didn't eat for 16 months straight. Drank water, shed, but didn't eat. I was sure it was going to die.

But it didn't. Seven years later it's still going strong. Will sometimes go off food for a month or two now, but not long stretches like that one time.

Then again, I had a male pastel that refused food for the firs time ever last year and was dead the next day. Never can tell.

In both cases, they had clean water, clean cages, and optimal temps. Still can't figure it out.