Can ball pythons go months without eating?
Despite having a regular supply of food, it is not uncommon for captive ball pythons to go anywhere from 2-7 months without eating. Often, hunger strikes occur during the winter months and are completely normal. Don’t be alarmed if your ball python starts refusing to eat during the winter.
How long can a ball python go without eating?
Generally speaking, healthy ball pythons can go weeks without eating. And if your snake is an adult who already had a healthy body weight, it would likely take months before he’d start to suffer health problems. A handful of ball pythons have been documented to refuse food for longer than a year without starving.
When is the best time to feed a ball python?
I have one that typically refuses meals for about two months out of the year, while the others basically eat year-round. Something to keep in mind! Offer a frozen and thawed rat of appropriate size. Offer the meal after sunset, when the snake is more inclined to eat (ball pythons are mostly nocturnal).
What to do if your ball python won’t eat a mouse?
If the snake won’t eat the rodent, leave it in the cage overnight and then check in the morning. You might find it gone! If after all of this your ball python still won’t eat, you may want to scent the mouse or rat with gerbil litter (from a cage that contains live gerbils).
Can you feed a ball python with a blow dryer?
No: After placing your ball python’s prey in a plastic bag, then running the bag under warm water and leaving it to thaw for one hour, upon taking out the prey, try warming it with a hair dryer for a few minutes before feeding it to your ball python. If this is the problem, the blow dryer trick should resolve the eating issue.
Is it normal for a ball python not to eat?
Yes: Ball pythons don’t normally eat before they go into shed. Wait until your ball python has finished shedding, then offer him/her food again. No: This doesn’t explain why your ball python won’t eat.
How can I get my ball python to eat a rat?
Snakes experience the world largely through their sense of smell, which means that it is often possible to entice them into eating a non-typical prey species, by making it smell like something more appealing. You can often do so by simply rinsing off a domestic mouse or rat, and then rubbing it on the animal you’d like it to smell like.
Can a ball python starved itself to death?
The Ultimate Ball Python Feeding Troubleshooting Guide. That being said, it is only in very, very rare cases that ball pythons have ever starved themselves to death, so while it isn’t ideal that a ball python is not eating regularly, this is very unlikely to be fatal to your pet.
What happens to a Python when it stops eating?
In the wild, and with many captive keepers, they will go through a period called brumation, which is similar to hibernation. They will become inactive and stop eating for a few months. After brumation, most snakes will take at least a few meals, but some may begin fasting again as the breeding season commences.
How long can my ball python go without eating?
Almost every ball python can survive for a minimum of six months without a single meal. Many individuals can go much, much longer.
