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Baby Ball not feeding, need help with getting her going.

J

Jake The Snake

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One out of my 5 cbb normal balls is a hold out on food. She has eaten 1 time on 9-19, no luck since and she is loosing a lot of weight. Her current weight last night was 67 grams. Her skin was very loose and saggy so I decided to tube feed her. I mashed up 4 grams of pinky rat and tube fed her that. She is looking a bit better today but still skinny and her skin is loose.
DSC00695.jpg

This is about 18 hours after her first tube feeding.

I have since tried live mice and live rats of various sizes all left in over night will her. I got her on 8-25 as a fresh born baby, probably 1-2 weeks old.

Any other ideas before I resort to gerbil and hamster?

She has 2 hides and the temps are 93 hot side and 84 cool in a 5.4 qt. tub.
Thanks,
jake
 
Jake, I’ll contribute to this thread for the simple fact of giving it some substance with hopes that you may get some thing helpful out of my post. Just keep in mind my experience is limited at best.

First off I wouldn’t have resorted to tube feeding. IMO it was definitely too soon if she did in fact take a meal on 09-19 then it’s only been 18 days since her last meal. That isn’t enough time for me to consider force feeding. In my opinion force feeding or tube feeding if done too early before it’s absolutely necessary to save the snakes life only causes a great amount of stress to the animal which in turn will cause it to go even longer off feed. You stated she weighted in at 67grams, yes that’s very small but she doesn’t appear to be thin and I’m aware the picture was taken after you tube feed her.

A few of the babies I produced this season took several weeks before they took there first meal. One even went nearly seven weeks before it took its first meal but after that it took off like a rocket and hasn’t looked back.

My point is some take right off and some require more patience to get them going. You also mentioned you got her as a fresh hatchling which means she most likely never got to settle in before she was already in the process of switching hands which may have stressed her even more leading to the problems you have now.

This is what I would do. I would lower her temps to about 87-88 because in a 5.4qt tub there can’t be a whole lot of temp graduate. I’d set her up in her tub with a hide and leave her completely alone. I’d offer her a hopper mouse once a week at night but that’s it. If she didn’t eat I’d just try again next week. If after several attempts she still refuses and was losing a considerable amount of weight, I would at that point try to assist feed her. If her feeding response didn’t kick in and she still wouldn’t eat I’d move to force feeding but only as a last resort to save her life.

Hope this helps. Larry
 
Agreed there Larry. Tube feeding / force feeding is most likely overkill this early in the game. She will loose weight as she tries to grow without eating. The extra stress from the rougher handling required for tube feeding / force feeding can cause more stress than she needs right now.

Reduce handling and pulling her tub open. Don't sweat going to different right off. Keep trying fuzzy hopper mice. If she still won't take them when offered at night then try brown bagging her. Get a paper bag , put her in it along with the fuzzy hopper and fold the bag closed then put a paper clip or 2 on the fold. Put the bag back in her tub for a few hours to overnight.

If all else fails take an appropriate sized f/t rat pink or mouse fuzzy etc.and assist feed her. To do this you want to get the rat pink far enough into her throat to give her the idea to swallow , roughly the pink's head most of the way or all of the way into the beginning of her throat.. Some folks call it the point of no return. Once you have the rat pink in her throat set her back into her tub and see if she'll take it on her own. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen right away. Try not go really big since the food item could bloat and an her empty tummy could rupture from having shrunk.

Being that young something could've happened during transport / shipping.
 
Larry Suttles said:
Jake, I’ll contribute to this thread for the simple fact of giving it some substance with hopes that you may get some thing helpful out of my post. Just keep in mind my experience is limited at best.

First off I wouldn’t have resorted to tube feeding. IMO it was definitely too soon if she did in fact take a meal on 09-19 then it’s only been 18 days since her last meal. That isn’t enough time for me to consider force feeding. In my opinion force feeding or tube feeding if done too early before it’s absolutely necessary to save the snakes life only causes a great amount of stress to the animal which in turn will cause it to go even longer off feed. You stated she weighted in at 67grams, yes that’s very small but she doesn’t appear to be thin and I’m aware the picture was taken after you tube feed her.

A few of the babies I produced this season took several weeks before they took there first meal. One even went nearly seven weeks before it took its first meal but after that it took off like a rocket and hasn’t looked back.

My point is some take right off and some require more patience to get them going. You also mentioned you got her as a fresh hatchling which means she most likely never got to settle in before she was already in the process of switching hands which may have stressed her even more leading to the problems you have now.

This is what I would do. I would lower her temps to about 87-88 because in a 5.4qt tub there can’t be a whole lot of temp graduate. I’d set her up in her tub with a hide and leave her completely alone. I’d offer her a hopper mouse once a week at night but that’s it. If she didn’t eat I’d just try again next week. If after several attempts she still refuses and was losing a considerable amount of weight, I would at that point try to assist feed her. If her feeding response didn’t kick in and she still wouldn’t eat I’d move to force feeding but only as a last resort to save her life.

Hope this helps. Larry
Click to expand...


ditto! sounds like good advice!

live mouse fuzzies/hoppers have worked for me, and some patience. sometimes 5-6 weeks worth. :ack2:


vaughn
 
Larry Suttles said:
Jake, I’ll contribute to this thread for the simple fact of giving it some substance with hopes that you may get some thing helpful out of my post. Just keep in mind my experience is limited at best.

First off I wouldn’t have resorted to tube feeding. IMO it was definitely too soon if she did in fact take a meal on 09-19 then it’s only been 18 days since her last meal. That isn’t enough time for me to consider force feeding. In my opinion force feeding or tube feeding if done too early before it’s absolutely necessary to save the snakes life only causes a great amount of stress to the animal which in turn will cause it to go even longer off feed. You stated she weighted in at 67grams, yes that’s very small but she doesn’t appear to be thin and I’m aware the picture was taken after you tube feed her.

A few of the babies I produced this season took several weeks before they took there first meal. One even went nearly seven weeks before it took its first meal but after that it took off like a rocket and hasn’t looked back.

My point is some take right off and some require more patience to get them going. You also mentioned you got her as a fresh hatchling which means she most likely never got to settle in before she was already in the process of switching hands which may have stressed her even more leading to the problems you have now.

This is what I would do. I would lower her temps to about 87-88 because in a 5.4qt tub there can’t be a whole lot of temp graduate. I’d set her up in her tub with a hide and leave her completely alone. I’d offer her a hopper mouse once a week at night but that’s it. If she didn’t eat I’d just try again next week. If after several attempts she still refuses and was losing a considerable amount of weight, I would at that point try to assist feed her. If her feeding response didn’t kick in and she still wouldn’t eat I’d move to force feeding but only as a last resort to save her life.

Hope this helps. Larry
Click to expand...

I agree completely with Larry's post as well....some very sound advice. :thumbsup:

If you have access to them, ASF about the same size as hopper mice are something to consider trying as well. I have a couple of babies here that I was starting to get REALLY concerned about, and gave them one last try on the ASF before trying assist feeding (not tube feeding), and they both ate the ASF hoppers like reptile candy.
 
I am working on getting a couple as of now. My main concern was that she was so low on "fuel" that she wouldn't even be able to swallow a meal on her own. I managed to assist feed her today and after 20 minutes or so of playing spit up, she took down a pinky rat. Maybe this will give her enough energy.
 
You may want to try pink rats too. I've stubborn starters flat out refuse any type of mouse then fire right up on pink rats.

Do the bag in the box thing too. It helps if the snake keeps coming in contact with its food.
 
Wes, I have tried mice and rats both multiple times. No luck at all after that first feed. I'm pretty sure that once she has some more energy that she will eat on her own
 
Jake The Snake said:
Well just an update, after 3-4 meals of assist feeding, she had a nice shed and came around taking a live pink rat.
Thanks a lot guys.
Click to expand...

Good job Man!! :thumbsup:
 
Pinkies are far too small for baby ball pythons to eat. They don't leave much of a heat signature for the snake to pick up on (even thawed and warmed ones cool off within seconds), they have no fur to retain the normal rodent smell that signals that it's prey, and the live ones do not move enough to spark the snake's interest. You need to try a weaned hopper mouse, small adult mouse, or rat pup. Baby balls rely on instinct to spark their hunting mode -- those bigger prey items will be warmer, smellier, and more active.
 
Jake The Snake said:
Thats all I had on hand for live at the time besides adults. As long as she starts eating on her own, I'm good with that
Click to expand...

You did good! Dont let a newb try to tell you different!
 
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