HELP!!! (feeding problem)

[neocatlove]

I got my ball python about maybe 3 weeks ago and I love her to death but I am not sure on her age but she is maybe a little longer then a foot long. She has eaten once before after waiting like a week and a half or something like that after getting her. And now I am trying to feed her again! But she won't bite I tried maybe half a week ago and she was sniffing it and then going away from it and now she looks at it and then goes right past it as if she doesn't even see it! I would love any advice the mouse is small and the same size as the last one she ate. I made sure it was warm and it is frozen so it won't hurt her plus be easier. I tried wiggling it and it even had some blood on it when i gave it to her (for scent). So if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear it as long as it isn't force feeding or cutting open the mouse.

[EL Ziggy]

Some snakes will go months without eating and not have any issues. If your temps are dialed in, and the animal isn't losing a lot of weight and doesn't show any other signs of illness, then one missed feed is nothing to worry about. Snakes will refuse food for lots of reasons and BPs are notorious for taking long unexplained food breaks. I usually offer food every 14 days if any of my animals refuse a meal but you can wait a week and try again. If she refuses a second time then wait 10-14 days before offering more food. If she doesn't take the food from tongs you can try leaving the feeder in the enclosure overnight. Don't worry, she'll eat again when she's ready. Keep us posted.

[TRD]

And then there's this too...

Observations of the way in which pythons behave under
relatively bright light lend support to the idea that vision plays
an important role in the ability of P. regius to capture prey.
Such observations are relevant since P. regius in the wild is
often encountered sunning in bright light (Cansdale, 1961).
Diurnal activity may, in fact, be common amongst pythons,
since the diamond python Morelia spilota basks on sunny
winter days and, although it feeds at night, moves about
primarily during daylight hours (Slip and Shine, 1988a).
Studies on captive reticulated pythons P. reticulatus, under
lighted conditions, showed that a visual stimulus is absolutely
necessary to elicit a strike although an infrared stimulus serves
to guide the strike (de **** Buning et al., 1978; de ****
Buning, 1983). Such visually dependent behavior patterns are
consistent with the retina of P. regius. Even in the absence of
a specialized region of high cone density (Walls, 1942), the
rod:cone ratio of approximately 10:1 found in P. regius reflects
a cone density of approximately 45 000 cells mm−2. This is less
than the cone packing density in the central retina of the owl
monkey (78 000 cones mm−2; Ogden, 1975), but substantially
greater than the cone density in the area centralis of either the
North American opossum (8000 cones mm−2; Kolb and Wang,
1985) or the cat (27 000 cones mm−2; Steinberg et al., 1973).
Strictly on the basis of cone packing density, it would not be
unreasonable to conclude that the photopic visual resolution of
P. regius should be better than that of the cat. Jacobson et al.
(1976) found the behavioral visual acuity of the cat to be
approximately 9 cycles degree−1, which is nowhere near
the photopic acuity of the human (approximately
60 cycles degree−1) or the wedge-tailed eagle Aquila auda
(approximately 138 cycles degree−1) (Pettigrew et al., 1988),
but should still allow formation of a very useful image.
As is the case for P. reticulatus, alertness and orientation to
a prey item by P. regius, followed by an approach and, finally,
an accurate strike undoubtedly involves the combined use of
photoreception and thermoreception. Input from the heatsensing
and visual systems is probably very well integrated,
because neurons from both these systems are known to synapse
on the same dendrites in the optic tectum of P. regius
(Kobayashi et al., 1992, 1995). In the optic tectum of
rattlesnakes, the only heat-sensing snakes other than boids,
there are neurons that are activated only when they receive
input from both the thermoreceptors and the photoreceptors
(Hartline et al., 1978). It is certainly reasonable to expect the
presence of similar tectal neurons in the boids.

From: THE PHOTORECEPTORS AND VISUAL PIGMENTS IN THE RETINA OF A BOID
SNAKE, THE BALL PYTHON (PYTHON REGIUS)

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/je.../1931.full.pdf

[Andy_G]

Since you didn't ask for in depth scientific literature on how lighting can affect feeding behaviour and you just want to make sure everything is ok with your pet snake...I would just follow El Ziggy's advice. Although very interesting, there's absolutely no reason to make things so complicated.

[TRD]

Yea I know, I was just reading it through and saw the post come by It's an interesting read, would suggest it to anyone keeping snakes