Ball Python Feeding Tips

Ball Python Feeding Tips

Ball pythons get ample pet snakes in general, but they sometimes obtain picky when it comes to food. If you have a ball python that's refusing food, or if you're thinking about getting a ball python and wondering if it's hard to feed them, this article is for you.

First of all, you generally want to feed your snake plain mice and/or rats. Live rodents may bite and seriously hurt your pet, and if your ball python is archaic to eating live preys, it will be stunning hard to revert help to unimaginative ones. Also, it's a lot more convenient to thaw a frozen mouse from your freezer than it is to hold a bunch of live ones in a cage and hold care of them, or to execute a sail to the pet store every week for your snake's lunch.

If you feed your pet plain preys, though, you sometimes have to fool it into thinking that they're alive. Basically, a ball python relies on smell, body heat and movement when deciding if something is a food item or not. To invent clear that your snake eats its prey, it's best to unthaw it and then heat it a tiny by putting it in a plastic bag and then in a bowl of hot water. beget certain that the bag is waterproof before putting it in the water. You want your prey to be slightly hotter than room temperature, or else your snake might not eat it. employ obedient tongs to give it to your snake and wiggle it in front of its face a cramped if it's hesitant to attack the prey.

Whatever type of prey you decide, feed your snake preys that are as wide or a bit larger than the largest fraction of its body. Young snakes eat about once a week, adults eat once every two weeks. In general, you should recede the snake out of its cage into a different enclosure when feeding it as share of the taming process, so that it associates the other box with eating.

The first thing to do if your ball python refuses food is to seek information from its environment, as stress is usually the main factor. It needs a few places to camouflage in its terrarium. The more the better; snakes feel a lot safer when they can easily veil. Also, steal a stare at the ground temperature of the enclosure. It should be around 90 F (32 C) in the hottest plot and at least 75 F (24 C) in the coldest place. A temperature gradient allows your snake to proceed around and regulate its body temperature to what is the most comfortable. Definitely assign at least one hiding plot in the hottest set and one in the colder one.

If you don't believe that the environment is the pickle, try feeding your snake in the evening or even during the night. Ball pythons are nocturnal, and that's when they normally hunt. You can also try leaving the prey item in its cage for the night and observe if it has eaten it by the next morning.

If that fails too, try live preys. Some snakes will objective not eat monotonous animals, period. If your ball python refuses to eat despite all your efforts, feed it a gerbil. Gerbils are the closest to what ball pythons eat in the wild, so they never ever refuse them. The dilemma, though, is that they collect addicted to them, so really spend that as a last resort.

Ball pythons can rapidly for a few months without losing weight, but definitely consult a vet if it refuses to eat for a while and it leads to weight loss.