Pumping her up!?

Skeet · 08-10-05, 08:47 AM

I finnaly got jezzy eating regularly. the only problem is that she'll only eat live, but she's good, and goes right for it as soon as i drop it in. she ate like 2 times in two moths before i got her eating normaly. it been a month and she's eaten every time i offer her live, but she's still really skinny. i have been feeding her a small rat every 7 days. can i speed the feeding up to 5 days? she only poops durring her sheding. so she only poops like once every three to four weeks. i'm afraid to offer her a second live rat incase she's not interested(i had a bad experience with giving her a live one when she didn't want it, basicly i got bitten by both the rat and her and she still didn't eat it.)
anyways any help would be appreciated.

BallPythonLover · 08-10-05, 10:24 AM

well every 5 days for a snake of her size is considered power feeding this happen to my garter and i tried to get her back to weight and ended up dieing.not that i am saying that your bp will died i am saying it is risky.. and in stead why not feed it a medium sized rat every 7-10 days. and how old is she.. how much does she weigh how log is she . tell me those details and i might be able to help you

Skeet · 08-10-05, 10:40 AM

she's just about 2 feet and a little over a year old. i don't know how much she ways because my scale doesn't go that high, but she's deffinatly skinnyer then when i got her. she was eating a live mouse a week before i got her. i tried a pre-killed medium rat once and she got it half way down and threw it up, but i think it was more from he betting herself in a bad position and not being able to get it down, but i'm not sure and don't wanna risk stressing her like that again, especialy since she won't go near another pre-killed.
I've had to power feed corns, with no ill effects but she seems to retain meals alot longer then they do.

Jeff_Favelle · 08-10-05, 01:19 PM

Every 5 days is not power feeding. As long as she has access to 90F 24 hours a day, feed her every 5 days, 4 days, whatever. Ball Pythons are MASTERS of pulse feeding for a couple months, then stopping for 6-8 months. Feed them while you can!!!

sapphire_moon · 08-10-05, 02:51 PM

if she's eating regularly and still LOSING weight, that just doesn't sound right. Maybe have her fecal checked for worms or something (can bp's get worms? it's nothing i've really thought about!)

Skeet · 08-10-05, 05:58 PM

she's not still losing, weight....she's gaining it back, i just want to help her gain it quicker.

nita · 08-11-05, 10:52 AM

Take Jeffs advice if you are only feeding her smaller items go with every 5 days if she will take them. I have a mouse eater that will only eat one mouse at a time. I now offer her a mouse on Thursday, a mouse on Sunday and a mouse on Tuesday. She has been accepting every time she doesn't care live or ft wich works fine by me. The reason for my days is thursday is the day I thaw out for all my FT eaters, tuesday is the day my live come in and sunday I offer the babies again so she just get when ever I'm feeding basically and now is finally over 500g, she is an '04 baby.

EDIT:: It is only power feeding if you are feeding them items that are too large or to many items and upping the temps to make them digest faster I believe.

Kathy Shaw · 08-15-05, 01:10 PM

Feeding twice a week is not power feeding.
If she got something half way down and spit it out it was probably to big.
You can try chain feeding, that is feeding what she likes to eat and just as she finished the first one drop in a second of the same thing. Some bps will only eat one prey item at a feeding some will do multiple. I had a girl who would only eat mice but she would do 4 or 5 in one feeding.

Getting live prey out of a cage when unwanted is a problem. If the snake is aggitated and striking I just have a rubbermaid lid that I stick inbetween the rodent and the snake as a shield. Then I grab the rodent and put it back in its cage. Pull out the shield lid and secure the cage.

Skeet · 08-15-05, 02:37 PM

[QUOTE=Kathy Shaw.

Getting live prey out of a cage when unwanted is a problem. If the snake is aggitated and striking I just have a rubbermaid lid that I stick inbetween the rodent and the snake as a shield. Then I grab the rodent and put it back in its cage. Pull out the shield lid and secure the cage.[/QUOTE]

good tip....i'll deffinatly use that one.
she's been doing well though lately, so i've just been sticking w/ a live small medium rat every week, she's been taking them out really quickly and even chased one down (was great to see her take an active effort to get that one).
She's also starting to look much better i'm not even worried about her weight anymore, but thanks for all the input.
next step is to get her over to f/t but i'm gonna start w/ pre-killed.

nita · 08-16-05, 11:50 AM

I have found the ones that are used to eating live are really good at it!! My normal live eaters tend to nail them right on the nose everytime. Also I can tell when they aren't interested in eating. LOL, I open the cage can tell by the way they are sitting that they aren't interested, still just in case I'm wrong I dangle the mouse by the tongs so they know it is coming in and then drop it in and watch them curl up and ignore it. One of these days I'll start trusting myself on that, but I'd rather offer and know they aren't hungry then not offer when they might eat it.