kooky idea

[snakehunter]

i bought my bp w/o know he was a wc, and he will not eat on his own. if he saw another bp eat do you think he might get the idea, or should i keep assist feeding till he catches on? could he also be stuck on gerbils?
-jacob

[BoidKeeper]

No seeing another BP eat will not help. And yes they can get stuck on gerbils.
Trevor

[JeffT]

Just try a live mouse. Then that can get him back on feeding FT. It worked for me.

[BoidKeeper]

There's a lot of things you can do before going to live, and it's rats you want to be feeding not mice. Go to any search engine and type is "ball python feeding tip and tricks" or something like that and you'll get a lot of reading material. A copy of the ball python manual is a good idea too. There's just too many other things to try before going to live, live is only a last resort thing.
Good luck,
Trevor

[BurmBaroness]

You want to be very careful about assist-feeding. Forcing the issue may very well turn a problem feeder totally against eating. assist feeding and force feeding are last resorts when it comes to feeding BP's. They stress very easily. ALso, if it's a baby, most BP's have to be started on live. Offer live BLIND (as in eyes still closed) hopper mouse or appropriately sixed rat pup, also with eyes still closed. after 2-3 feedings, switch to prekilled. After 2-3 feedings on prekilled, the snake will usually switch to F/T with no problem. Never leave even a "blind" mouse or rat alone with the snake, and after 10-15 minutes, remove the prey, wait 3-4 days, and try again. If the prey item has by that time died or has it's eyes open, whack it and put it in the freezer for future use, and go get another prey item with the eyes still closed.

****I in NO way advocate feeding live, but it sometimes has to be done this way with W/C or baby ball pythons. I have had plenty of them here, and this method has never failed to work.

[MontyPython]

Is assist feeding the same as holding the mouse or rat in front of the snake and then wait for it to strike and swallow it or is it something else?

[Andy_G]

What you described is just normal feeding Monty. Assist feeding is, I think but am not totally sure so don't hold me to my word, is when you simply open the mouth of the snake and place the food in and the snake does the rest. Force feeding is actually putting it in the snake's mouth and shoving it down it's throat.

[Mike177]

if you want to try feeding live witch i have done converting my burm to f/t is try wacking it hard enouph to disorent it so by the time the prey can fight back it will be dead. aslo keep some big hemostats or twesers near by so if the snake dosent get it on the head you can use them to prevent bites to the snake. just feed live untill you can get him on prekilled.