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Too fat?

darkbloodwyvern

darkbloodwyvern

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My new-ish adolescent female has been fasting about two and a half months. She is healthy and feisty (hisses at me when I clean the cage and calms easily, strikes at FT rats but stops once i quit moving them with hemostats).
How fat is fat for a BP? I have tried switching her schedule and cage arrangements, feeding different times of day, bleeding the prey, using live etc.. to see if something was wierding her out, but I don't want to make her stressed by making too many changes.
sorry to ramble, but any advice is welcome. I am not worried about her starving just yet, she is really quite plump and active enough, but any advice would be helpful. Is she just fat enough that she can fast for a while? She does look a bit chubbier than most balls her size. Should i exercise her more, or just see if she can burn off some gut? :hehe: I have never needed to be a personal trainer for a snake before.
thanks!
 
Jessi, if you have a snake that's refusing to eat, the LAST thing you want to do is keep switching things around on her. Once you have things set up the way you need them, make sure she has all the right temps, humidity, hides, etc, then don't change anything, and don't handle her or bother her at all, other than necessary routine maintenance (spot cleaning, filling water dish, etc).

Do you know exactly what she was eating before you got her? Start with that, and only offer food once a week. Once she starts eating, if you keep her on a weekly schedule and only feed her a normal amount, if she is "chubby" she will grow out of it.
 
I have yet to see a fat ball.

As far as not eating, the FIRST thing I do is change hides, bin size or location. I can't count how many times I've knocked an animal off of food by placing it into a bigger enclosure or moving it to a different slot.

I wouldn't worry about 2-3 months of fast, one of our albino males just decided to eat after a year and a half fast.
 
As far as not eating, the FIRST thing I do is change hides, bin size or location.
Click to expand...

Well, I just figured since she's been rearranging and switching things around for over 2 months and it hasn't worked....now would be a good time to try to stop moving things around, lol. :shrug01:
 
Well I agree with Cat_72, its just my opinion, but when one of my animals won't eat, I leave them alone completely, besides routine maintence. I put food in, if they don't eat it, I take it out after a little while. If they seem to get flustered by the fact of people walking by their cage, I put newspaper on the glass to cover it all up so they chill out a bit. eventually they start eating and I then work on making them more comfortable.
 
I agree with Cathy, make sure temps are right and leave her cage alone. Leave it setup the same way and don't move stuff around. When I clean cages everything goes right back in the same spot. Ball pythons like routine, feed at the same time and day every week. If they don't eat, wait and offer next week at the same time. Whatever she ate for you in the past is what should be offered. When they strike and don't coil, it is usually a defensive action. It usually means they are scared of what is happening.
 
i'd have to agree with bill and cat . i would just make sure everything is right temp and humidity wise and only go into the cage for water changes and cleaning . i only try to feed stubburn snakes once a week , if they dont eat then i try again in another week . a couple months isnt that long for a bp , i had one years ago that went 14 months without eating . when he did finally start eating again it was on a light brown mouse . sometimes color can be very important to a snake .
 
sounds good

I have been leaving her alone for the last couple weeks aside from changing her water and such. I appreciate the advice, I will keep her on the schedule I've been doing. The room is pretty quiet and she has newspaper on the front and sides of the cage, so i think she's fairly secure.
Thanks!
if i can get a decent pic of her without bothering her, i will, but i will probably just try and find the picture the breeder sent of her.

markface-was the snake that stopped feeding eating something other than brown mice? I have tried a couple different colors, and they all get the same reaction. thanks again!
 
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