He wont eat!!!

[BallPython13]

I baught a snake 2 days ago and the owner of the petshops said they still have not fed the snakes for two weeks.She gave me frozen fuzzies to feed him si I thoughed them out and all the snake did was sniff it.Ive tried it twice.The snake is 17 inches long and she told me that they are all bred by a breeder instead of being wil caught.My question is,should I try live small mice???

[Linds]

I moved this thread from the Food For Thought Forum to this forum, I do believe you are talking about your new ball python???

Regardless of whether or not it is a BP, you shouldn't attempt to feed or handle your new snake for 7 days. It has undergone a lot of stress with being mvoed and all and will likely refuse. Just give him some time to settle in first.

If it is indeed a Ball Python, then he may not also want to eat something so small. Hatchling BP's are born being able to take hopper or adult mice, or rat pinkies. Its best to start them out on rats since you will eventually have to change them over when they get bigger, and the longer they stay on mice the more difficult this can be, but since your guy is obviously been started on mice go from there. Did your snake come with a feeding card at all? Has it fed for the store since they have had him? General rule of thumb is to feed your snake one prey item that is the same size as the largest part of the snakes girth. If your snake has taking prekilled or frozen then by no means should you offer him live. Live is one of the last resorts, once a ball goes back on to live it may never want to switch back over again to prekilled or frozen. Snakes can go quite a while without food, so no need to worry yet.

[Corey Woods]

Try him on live hopper mice in a small enclosure. If he won't take the mouse after about an hour kill it and leave it in the enclosure overnight. Try feeding him whenever you want (you don't have to wait 7 days).

Corey
PS Your little guy maybe CH so getting him eating maybe a little trickier.

[BallPython13]

What is CH?

[killaclown]

Its eggs were brout from africa then hatched here or the parents were WC. The first rule about buying bps is make sure they eat. Ask the pet store guy to feed it if that one dosent eat get another one then another one after about five of those dont eat give up. I wether buy a wc or a ch that eats then a cb that dosent,im not a tree huger or any thing its beter being with me thenin the wild. Just as many die there then here. But you wont be finding me gathering them up in africa. I love animals and i will never do that to them

[depressor86]

corey is it safe to leave a live mouse with the bp for an hour?

[killaclown]

im not corey but helll no, always watch your balls eat. Ther not like corns that eat everthing they see sometimes there just lazy

[BallPython13]

Do you all have anytips on feeding them dead rats?My bp is 17 inches long how big should a live rat be for him to eat it?