Feeding troubles

Ch^4 · 10-31-10, 10:24 PM

Hello all! I have finally decided to post my question to the board and am seeking advice from your many years of experience (I have been keeping snakes ~15 years, but still consider myself a trained novice).

My 5 year old male ball python (~3.75 feet long, weight unknown but healthy) is very challenged when it comes to feeding (1 medium-ish rat per week). He has a very good feeding response, despite me changing over to F/T after 4 years of live prey (was on live because of a poor feeding response and the pet store was going to let him die). Husbandry is all in check; fully automated system, including mister, fresh and clean water 3-4 times per week, proper temps, hides, clean, etc. And he's not going into pseudo-hibernation.

Here is my problem: he has a lot of trouble figuring out where to start eating the rat. My 4 other snakes have no problems whatsoever and will occasionally eat tail-end first. However, my ball python will try to initiate ingestion at the midpoint of the body, from the tail-end, and from the head-end, it varies on a weekly basis. He just has problems figuring out how to get started, but once started, he swallows it down in a few short minutes.

*WARNING: GRUESOME* To assist with his eating endeavors, I remove the tail and legs from the F/T rat, so essentially he is eating a rat-snake or rat-sausage (pun intended on the rat-snake, but no reptilian cannibalism at my house!). Side note: they should somehow genetically alter feeder rats to be legless and tailless to simplify the feeding process for our snakes (or just for my snake if he's the only one with this type of problem).

Sorry for the long and drawn-out thread, but I know BPs can be picky eaters and I wanted to clearly explain that he's not picky, just kind of eating-impaired (I would never call any of my snakes unintelligent, but do understand they have small brains).

I do not want to give him smaller prey items, because I would have to feed him 2 or 3 and he'd have the same problems (I've tried). The whole process can take 2-4 hours and may involve reheating the prey 2-3 times. It's very tedious and I'd love a solution if anyone has one to offer, but will continue to put up with this behavior for the rest of his life if necessary (I love him to death and have already done it for 5 years!). THANKS EVERYONE!