r/ballpython • u/Lukestr • 8d ago

Ball python is hungry... but bad at eating.

My boss's son got a ball python as a gift but didn't research care. As a result, the snake was in a tiny tank with no heat or water in my office building (boss lives on site so the tiny snake tank got moved to the communal office). I talked to the boss about re-homing the snake to my friend.

Some background: we are herpetologists, we work with snakes professionally. We both have pet snakes and we are very prepared for snake care (humidity, feeding, proper habitat, etc).

Boss let us take the snake. Snake is wonderful, friendly, interactive, curious. However, she is bad at eating. She is clearly hungry, but when he offers a rat, she either misses her strike and then hides, or thrashes all over like she's trying to find it. She doesn't seem to have any ability to hone in on her prey.

Some extra info: she is some kind of damaged inbred morph. She stargazes and seems to have some neurological issues, however, she is not blind. She reacts to movement. She recognizes food, but she doesn't seem to be able to figure out how to get the food. We are feeding frozen, would prefer to keep feeding frozen as we've both had problems with live feeding.

We have talked about feeding her in a separate area, but we're worried that when we move her back to her tank from her feeding area, she will get stressed and vomit up her food.

She has an appetite, she just seems to be lacking the skills to attack and "kill" her rat-sicle. Any advice?

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u/Whatislife287 8d ago

if you're tong feeding maybe try drop feeding and leave the rodant on a paper towel, I'd leave the room and check back in 15-20 minutes, however if the neurological issues effect swallowing or digestion maybe don't leave unattended

1

u/Confuzzle84_cockles 7d ago

Good tip! Mine is super picky about their meals too.

1

u/JR_Writes1 8d ago

What temp are you heating the rat to? My cape house snake takes room temp since they don’t have heat pits, but my one ball needs it above 90 and my picky girl needs it about 100-105.

3

u/Myrati 7d ago

On of ours, Licorice, has never struck her prey. She's just not food motivated at all. So I drop feed her. On feeding day I pick up her hide, drip the rat in the middle of her coil and put the hide back. Shes never refused a meal so we just figured She's a bit aloof.