Underground Reptiles...

I recently purchased a male het piebald from them. He was in shed when I got him and he was stunning. However, after he shed about 4 days later, he would not eat. To date, he still won't eat for me, I've had to force feed. This has been about 3 months going on. Plus, I got him professionally sexed and was told 'he' was a definite female. Which was exciting to me about how much of a steal I just got a female het pied. But, now I'm worried that she might not even be a het pied. I've tried multiple ways to get a hold of him, mostly about the feeding issue, to no avail. I'm wary about doing business with him again... Does anyone else have similar stories?

I personally have never purchased anything from them, but I dont know... something just always seemed fishy to me about them.. I don't know what, but something always was..

Personally, I do not feel you can hold them responsible for the non-feeding. I have had several ball pythons that, even after being in my care for months and moving to a new home, have kicked off food for months. It is incredibly common in ball pythons. The incorrect sex, however, would be an error on their end, and should be corrected.
On a separate note, if I do not know the breeder personally, I get genetics papers so if the animal does not prove out, you have more proof than your word versus theirs that it was purchased as a genetics guaranteed animal.

Originally Posted by JSchup

On a separate note, if I do not know the breeder personally, I get genetics papers so if the animal does not prove out, you have more proof than your word versus theirs that it was purchased as a genetics guaranteed animal.

+1 for that. definitely always get papers with hets. if they don't have papers most reputable breeders will just list them as normals and take the loss no matter how certain they are.

i've worked with a normber a snakes and BP's are definitely the most common problem feeders of them all but ive yet to see one that wont ever eat. i've taken in, or "rescued" snakes that hadn't eaten for months and they would eat within a day or two of being in my care. however i have sold several snakes and been contacted soon after saying they wouldn't eat even though they never missed a meal in my care. i think the deal is the change in husbandry, plus learning the snakes feeding habits. some snakes will only eat live. some snakes only take gerbils or ASF's, some snakes will only feed in the dark. just make sure your temps are all correct. make sure they have access to water and try feeding it after the lights are out and give it some alone time. 99% of the time this works for me.

How have you tried to contact them?

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Have you tried different feeding tricks to get him to eat. While it could have just gone off feeding after being transported it could also be that you may not being feeding the same style of food. ft/pk what have you and also just the way you feed it. Unless of course you asked them prior to buying the snake and told you what and how they were feeding. I have to agree with always requesting paperwork it is a good idea for future reference. Hopefully you can get ahold of them and get the feeding figured out but ball pythons are so inconsistant when eatings you may just need to give it time.

I know now that I should request paperwork, (this was my first time buying a het ball, usually the het burms I get do come with paperwork so at the time it didn't pop into my head.) As for the feeding thing, I've tried everything. Live pinky, fuzzy, rat pup, hopper, frozen as well. In a paper bag, over night, in a cup, with his tank wrapped up in newspaper, anything. He's in a 10 gallon with a monitored heat ceramic bulb with a hide box and everything in text-book conditions. Although, she does seem to have gotten better. I used to have to force it all the way down, now all I have to do is at least put the head in her mouth and she takes it from there.

I've tried calling and e-mails.

Also, I didn't personally buy her. My breeding partner Ash Reasor bought it, but it stays at my house and I'm the care taker, lol. The ball doesn't seem to be losing any weight so I'm not terribly worried about it. I'm just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences with them.

How long did you have the snake before force feeding? That should really only be done as a last resort. Going off food for a few months isn't uncommon for some ball pythons, especially if something in their environment isn't quite right. If it's not losing weight, you shouldn't panic. If the snake was a healthy weight when you got her, you need to consider that the problem might be the environment.

Ball pythons don't feel secure in aquariums, generally. They really aren't the best for the snake, even though we might like them because we can see them more. If you want to give her a less stressful environment to settle in with, I would switch to a rubbermaid or sterlite tub that's on the smaller size for her, and keep it out of bright light and high traffic areas. Once she's eating better, you may be able to keep her out in something like the set up you have now.