AboutBPC Expertise My area of expertise would be snakes and reptile genetics (again mostly w/ snakes). Although I have dealt w/ almost all species of reptiles commonly sold in the US.
Experience 15 years keeping, breeding, selling, and teaching about reptiles.
Organizations Past board member of the Central FL Herpetological Society
Expert: BPC Date: 7/18/2008 Subject: Royal python feeding
Question QUESTION: Please help?! I purchased 1 male and 1 female royal python, CB08. The reptile shop told me they are feeding fine, so I left them alone for about a month just changing water and offering food. But niether have taken any food. Any way I can make them feel less stressed? Or any way I can get them to feed? before force feeding. Many thanks for your time
ANSWER: Gary, NEVER EVER buy a baby ball w/o either seeing it feed or getting a written guarantee. But as that horse has already left the barn... What are trying to feed them? Many people make the mistake of trying to feed them pinkies rather than an appropriate sized prey item. They should start on "hopper mice" or "fuzzy rats." Basically you are looking for an animal as big around as the snake is at it's biggest point, do not worry about the size of the snake's neck. If that fails you could look for an African strain of mice/rats or try gerbils or hamsters. What does the reptile shop have to say about it? Also where do you live and how much did you pay for the snakes?
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QUESTION: Yes got caught by that one!! Thank you for your reply. I live in Norfolk, England. I am feeding on hopper mice. Tried strike feeding, and leaving them in the vivarium. They both seem very active, and are always out at night. I have had a ball python off them before, and she feed fine. But I lost all of my animals in a house fire in December. I haven't spoken to pet shop, as they will just say "they were feeding fine when they left!". I paid £55 each. which from shopping around the few places we have seemed about right.
Thanks again
ANSWER: Gary, if it's been a month since they supposedly fed, I would go ahead and force-feed them. Baby balls can't go more than 4-6 weeks w/o food. So at this point we're into that time frame, if they go too long they will never recover.
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QUESTION: How do you go about it? And what size? I'm confident enough to do it, just want to make sure I do it right!!
Does this stress them out even more? and end up a vicious circle?
Many thanks.
Answer With a baby ball I would use a fuzzy mouse. Preferably frozen/thawed. I usually use a large sexing probe as the "implement" but a cotton swab or similar "non-pointy but still small enough" rod will work. I've even used the backside of a plastic ink pen before, so something like that... Use the mouse's head to force open the snake's mouth, and then then use the implement to gently force the mouse just slightly down the neck. The implement should not go beyond (or at least not much beyond the back of the mouth). Go slow, don't rush this. Once it's in the throat lay the snake down gently and back away. Usually the snake will go ahead and finish swallowing. If not, there's not much else you can do.
Yes, this will stress the snakes, but as I see it, at this point you have nothing to lose. Starving and dead vs. stressed and dead still equals dead. And in my experience at least 60% of successful force-feeds eventually get the idea and start eating.
