| BALL
PYTHON FEEDING PROBLEMS
Most ball pythons in the pet trade are imported
from Africa. In Africa, they do not eat mice;
they eat gerbils and other small mammals that
smell nothing like the mice and rats we buy to
feed carnivorous reptiles. They simply do not
recognize mice as being food. They are crated
up and shipped off around the world, the hatchlings
sent off before they've even had a meal. They
get dumped into pet stores who know little about
them and will cheerfully sell them saying "Hey,
it's a great eater!" when in fact the animal
has never eaten. Of late there also seems to be
a disturbing tendency for some reptile breeders
to buy imported balls and pass them off as captive
bred...either that or they are doing a lousy job
quarantining new stock as I've been seeing a number
of "captive bred" balls who are loaded
with ticks. Compound this with the fact that the
animals are stressed and heavily parasitized and
dehydrated, and you have an animal that may well
die unless it gets into the hands of someone who
knows what is going on.
Force Feed
Never force-feed a dehydrated animal. If the
skin is bunchy and wrinkly, soak the snake in
water a couple of times a day, and leave a humidity
box (plastic container 3/4 filled with damp sphagnum
moss, with an access hole cut in lid or side)
in the tank for it to use. Check with your vet
on the degree of dehydration; fluids may need
to be administered by injection or by mouth.
When the snake is ready to be force fed, mix
and dilute with Pedialyte or 50:50 Gatorade/water
Hill's a/d for dogs and cats. Put into a syringe
with a steel feeding tube and gavage, ideally
2% of body weight q 24-48 hours.
If you try to force feed whole prey, you will
stress the animal out and it will burn more calories
fighting the feeding than it could possibly hope
to net, so the gavaged slurry is preferred.
Trick into Self-Feeding
A healthy ball may be tricked into eating
in a couple of different ways:
- Provide a dark hidebox for it - an inverted
flower pot with a hole in it, a cardboard box,
half log, hollow log section, ceramic cave -
whatever works. It is okay if the snake's body
touches all the sides when it is inside - they
feel more secure this way. Dangle killed prey
(use forceps) in front of it.
- Feed at night, not during the day. These are
nocturnal snakes and may be uncomfortable feeding
during the day.
- If it takes the prey but won't eat, or won't
take it, drop the mouse inside, and swathe the
enclosure with towels to block the snake from
seeing anybody or anything and leave it alone
for 24 hours.
- If gerbils are legal in your state, try feeding
stunned, then killed gerbils. If it takes them,
start rubbing killed mice on gerbils to scent
them, and offer the mice (a killed gerbil can
be used repeatedly if kept frozen and defrosted
when needed for scenting). Try hamsters if you
can't get gerbils.
- Try multicolored or colored mice. There are
no albino mice in the wild - at least, not enough
for any animal to imprint on them. The prey
wild balls eat are various shades of brown,
so select brown or multicolored mice for feeding.
- Dip the prekilled mouse in warmed chicken
broth.
Parasites
Worms more than protozoans infect wild balls,
so if you are going to treat prophylactically
without testing, use fenbendazole (Panacur) at
10-25 mg/kg rep 3 q 2 weeks (Klingenberg) or 50-100
mg/kg rep 2 q 2 weeks (Funk, in Frye).
If you can't get a fecal for testing, a cloacal
wash can be done by a vet.
The snake feeds but regurgitates the prey later...
If the ball regurgitates, wait a couple of days
and try again - with smaller prey. If the ball
strikes at prey that it misses and the prey bites
the snake or the snake bangs it's head on the
tank walls or furnishings, the ball may become
afraid of the prey. Wait several days, then offer
a smaller prey item.
Temperature and Lighting
Make sure the enclosure is warm enough (mid
70s on cool side up to mid-to-high 80s on warm
side). No snake needs UVA or B, and while a week
of direct sun (with shade!) or proper UVA/B lighting
will help a reluctant diurnal corn snake to start
feeding, it generally has little effect on nocturnal
species. Do make sure the room gets a normal photoperiod,
with a distinct daylight period (lights on and/or
windows uncovered for natural daylight to come
in) and night time (dark) period. Keep any heat
lights used in the tank to nocturnal reptile lights
or other non-white light emitting lights, or a
ceramic heating element safely blocked off so
that the snake cannot touch it.
Caresheet by Melissa Kaplan.
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