Different types of food to feed your ball, opinion?

[Morgan says]

So for the last four months my ball python would not eat anything at all. The first time he was starting to become picky to eating after two weeks he ate almost three small mice! Then he did not eat another one for a month. Yesterday he finally ate a gerbil. I was wondering if a gerbil had the same nutrition as a mouse or a rat? I know they are the closest thing to their natural food source so I am curious about it.

[Lankyrob]

Royals go off food all the time, best bet is to keep with one type of food item and offer every couple of weeks until he takes it. Four months without eating isnt THAT long as long as the snake is not losing weight or condition.

[alessia55]

Ball pythons are picky eaters and can go a long time without eating and without losing weight. I'd stick to one food source (preferably rats).

[youngster]

It's pretty typical for BPs to go off feed for the winter, I would stick to rats.

[Morgan says]

Well he did loose a little weight and that is why I became concerned. Durring the middle of the "hunger strike" I unknowingly brought home mites to him. I touched another snake at a pet store and it had mites..... I was not pleased at all. I went on vacation and when I came back I found him with a horrid mite issue. I have since then taken care of all of that and he is happy now.

I would buy small rats, and mice about once ever other week during this time to try and see if he would go for it. I had been told that some of them do stop eating. What concerned me was that he had never been a finikey eater prior. Yesterday I was told to coax him into feeding with a b12 shot or get the gerbil.
I got the gerbil and sure as all get out he perked right up and gobbled it up in no time! I had not seen him act that way to food in a while!! It was amazing. I know gerbils are dangerous due to their teeth and that they could harm my snake badly. But I snapped his neck so he was still alive when feeding it to Mooshi.

If he wont eat small rats again if I kept feeding him the gerbils would it be okay? I get them for a discounted price as well so it's not hurting me any.

[alessia55]

Well he did loose a little weight and that is why I became concerned. Durring the middle of the "hunger strike" I unknowingly brought home mites to him. I touched another snake at a pet store and it had mites..... I was not pleased at all. I went on vacation and when I came back I found him with a horrid mite issue. I have since then taken care of all of that and he is happy now.

I would buy small rats, and mice about once ever other week during this time to try and see if he would go for it. I had been told that some of them do stop eating. What concerned me was that he had never been a finikey eater prior. Yesterday I was told to coax him into feeding with a b12 shot or get the gerbil.
I got the gerbil and sure as all get out he perked right up and gobbled it up in no time! I had not seen him act that way to food in a while!! It was amazing. I know gerbils are dangerous due to their teeth and that they could harm my snake badly. But I snapped his neck so he was still alive when feeding it to Mooshi.

If he wont eat small rats again if I kept feeding him the gerbils would it be okay? I get them for a discounted price as well so it's not hurting me any.

What qualifies as "a little weight"? 5 grams? 100? 400? How much weight did he lose?

As far as nutrition of rats vs mice vs gerbils, here are a few good reads:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/WholePreyFinal02May29.pdf (scroll down to the tables at the end of the article)
Nutrition Feeder Mice | Nutrient Composition of Feeder Animals (http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp)
Nutritional Value of Mice, Rats, and Chicks for Snakes (http://www.leedspetshops.co.uk/index.php?main_page=page&id=69)

[Morgan says]

I did not weight him but I would say maybe close to 300 grams... to 400 this last month. I was not worried about it till then. :/
Thank you for the links.

[alessia55]

I did not weight him but I would say maybe close to 300 grams... to 400 this last month. I was not worried about it till then. :/
Thank you for the links.
400 grams in 4 months? that's worrisome... I don't think ball pythons can even lose weight that fast unless something was seriously wrong with them... Mine went 4 months without eating recently and hardly lost any weight at all.

[Morgan says]

Again, that is a very rough and defiantly unknown estimate. To me it might have looked that way just because I was worrying so much about it you know? I had him checked for worms yesterday and they said that he did not have any soooo I dont know... :/
Might have been the stress from the move we made in feb. plus the mites........

[infernalis]

I still find it amusing that people think jerboas and Gerbils are similar.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Four-toes-jerboa.jpg

Even though the word "Gerbil" was derived from Jerboa, they are completely unrelated rodent.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Gerbil.JPG

[Lankyrob]

Next time he misses a meal weigh him, then you have a starting point to know whether he actually lost weight. My royal also rarely eats between november and march each year, tho he started eating end of january this year. But has no noticeable issues.

[mykee]

I can only basically regurgitate the same information that everyone else has given you; stick to rats.

From my experience though, many moons ago I had an LTC female go off food for 23 months and then she decided she wanted to eat again no worse for the wear.