a lot of questions

[ckarnuth]

i recently acquired a ball python that is about 24" at the beginning of the month. The person that i got the snake "snakey" from only feeds her snakes once a month. Since i have had snakey, she has eaten 5 mice. 1 when i brought her home, 2 the following week, and 2 last week. She is still acting like she is hungry. This is the first ball that i have had, and want to make sure that i am not over feeding her. any advice?

[kronic2005]

You should be feeding your ball python, an appropriatly sized mouse/rat approx. every 7 days. The size of the mouse/rat should be about the same size of the thickest part of your snake. You should try to switch him over to rats so when he is older you wont have to be feeding him so many rodents. If your feeding live, try to feed fresh killed or frozen then thawed, Its alot safer for your snake. I hope this helps.:thumbsup:

[ckarnuth]

thanks, that will help. I have been thinking of going to rats, instead of mice. I have tried to feed fresh killed and snakey shows no interest. She likes the hunt. As soon as I put the mouse in the tote, she attacks it. The previous owner, has fed only live since birth. I have to edit my picture, it is 10kb's to big to post. I will get it posted soon though.

[kronic2005]

Sounds good, but just cause your snake didnt take it the first time, doesnt mean he wont. Its just a matter of playing with your snake to make him think it is alive. You should use a pair of tongs and dangle the rat/mouse in front of the snakes head, move it around on the ground to best get the snakes attention. Sometime you wont even have to do that, i can just lay a frozen thawed rat in his rubbermaid, and hell smell it within seconds and come over and constrict it. Sometime when he first starts constricting it, i grab the mouse thats in his mouth and just twitch it a bit, so the snake thinks hes struggling, and he'll constrict it even more. Its pretty cool.:medskelet :medtoothy

[galad]

If you still have trouble with the wiggeling method which i find does not always work. ( I work in a pet shop so I have to feed a variety of snakes some which are trouble feeders)

Anouther method I tried with a JCP at work is to feed a small live mouse first then, as soon as its half way down the body feed a small freshly killed mouse. This worked the first time with the JCP and has been eating f/t ever since without any problemes.

If this still doesnt work you can try braining the freshly killed mouse. With a sharp razor blade carefully make a cut into the back of the mouses skull into you reach the brains cavity and gently spread the skull open abit. Put open head infront of snake and see if she goes for it. (its pretty graphic i know but hopefully youll only have to do it once.)

Hope this helps.

[ckarnuth]

thanks all, i will try all of the suggestions and let you know if it works.

[ckarnuth]

this is the only picture that i was able to shrink to meet the 24.4kb size limit

[crankyboy]

My ball was converted after only one feeding of a freshly killed mouse, and he eats really well. But I've noticed that if the mouse gets wet (usually by accident in the thawing process) , he goes NUTS!! he loves it, and gobbles it down with more gusto than normal. I have had a few other harder to feed snakes and have tried them wet, seems to work everytime. I think it may even be the fact that it amplifies the scent, but not sure.......try it and see

[kronic2005]

Ive noticed that to. When i fed mine wet rats, he seemed to notice them faster, and if i moved it away he was right behind it. Hes quite funny. I think for sure the smell of the rodent is increased by being moist or wet. Try it.

:firestart

[ckarnuth]

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[kronic2005]

Awesome snake dude. Best of luck.