feeding question?

My girl friend is a little jealous of my geckos and has been looking at ball pythons. Iv been doing some research about there eating habits and have read a lot about balls not wanting to eat. Is this a normal thing that all balls go threw or just a few here and there?

I don't know that all balls do this but many do. As hatchlings we feed mouse pinkies, then hoppers, then regular mice, then ex-breeders, as they grow up. Size appropriate feeders weekly. At some point they are switched to f/t. Then on to rats. If they are close to shed, sometimes they won't eat. Some folks like to switch to rat feeders as soon as possible. Some balls have trouble with the change. It's good to keep them well fed on a regular schedule so if they do go off food for a time, their health won't suffer.

I saw an ad on craigslist one time for a ball around a year old, the pathetic owner said how easy it was to feed, just 1 mouse a month. We took in a rescue ball that hadn't been fed for 8 months. They do enjoy having regular meals at least most of the time.

thank you for the information still looking at possabilaties of different snakes. I messed up and was lookign at gtp when my girl got home and she asked price. Since there the same price as the ball she wanted the pies we mite end up with a gtp enstead. who know women and there wants change all the time.

i will be real honest here. and it is probably gonna bug some "ball people"... i used to keep and breed balls, i had over two hundred of them. if you are willing to feed live, most will eat OK, if you want to feed frozen thawed, and want a good feeder...forget it! there are balls out there that will eat well, consistantly on frozen thawed, but this is the exception,not the rule. even good eaters will just quit eating for no apparent reason. this is why i will NEVER own another ball python. plus they always seem to get sick when cycling them for breeding, especially the males. if you want a good feeder, i would suggest something else, just saying. i have over 23 years experience with boids, so before you post an arguement here, this is my own personal experience...and i have a few really good friends who still breed balls, and they have some of the nicest ones i have seen! ...but they too have the same issues with them and are often frustrated...they are just too "on and off" for me. another thing about balls that alot of people dont realize is...if you handle them constantly they stay pretty mellow...but in a breeder rack with not much handling, they seem more deffensive than ANY retic or boa i have ever kept! they will bite alot! i know most snakes will bite some if not handled, but in my experience, the balls were the worst ones! lol i know they get a bit bigger than a ball python will, but you really cant beat a boa constrictor! and they will eat a pop can if you rub a mouse on it! they never refuse food if they are healthy! NEVER (again, this is my opinion based off of years of having and breeding these animals, and there is ALWAYS an exception!)and once a baby boa realizes you are no threat it will probably never bite unless you make a mistake. hand taming almost ANY boa can be done with gentle handling and persistance within a couple weeks. and even a bitey baby will calm down once you have it in your hands...as long as you dont give it a target! keep them away from your face(target) and allow them to cruise, and they chill pretty quickly. any healthy snake will only bite you because of two reasons...(1) they think you are going to harm them. (2) they think you are food. so if you dont give them either of those reasons, MOST snakes will not bite! keep in mind that a normally mellow snake may get deffensive if it has a health or stress issue. if you have a normally calm animal that suddenly starts biting, chances are something is wrong...and once the issue is solved the snake will go back to its normal mellow self. again, there are always exceptions.

and i would not start with a green tree python. i dont know where you are finding one for the same price as a ball python, but this is not the case. even a farmed baby chondro is gonna run you around three hundred. and i would NOT buy anything but a captive bred green tree! sure you can get an import cheaper, but by the time you replace it a couple times, and spend the money on a vet to get rid of the internal parasites it will probably have, you will spend as much as you would have on a captive bred animal! and then once you have that issue dealt with, there is the feeding issues....a captive bred animal will have NONE of these problems! and they are not a beginner snake at all. they are very sensitive to environmental changes and stress...especially as a baby! i have kept and bred these also and they would be better for you after a few years experience with other types of snakes! for sure. maybe look into some carpet pythons! they are morelia just like a green tree, but easier to keep and you can handle carpets alot more(as green trees are better display animals). carpets can be a bit nippy as a baby, but they chill into very nice impressive captives. plus they display very nicely and like to lay out in the open if given the proper environment! the irian jaya carpets are among the most beautiful of the natural races of carpets and stay around six foot as adults. check out anthony capponettos website! he has some amazing carpets, so does jason baylin! anthonys site is acreptiles.com, not sure the name of jasons, google them. i looooove carpet pythons and they come in alot of cool morphs now. you will crap yourself when you see anthonys 87.5% irian jaya jaguars!!! they are white with orange banding, and they are NOT even albinos!!!!! the coolest carpet pythons on the planet, hands down.....i think they are one of the coolest looking snakes that exist!!

Thank you Rick for sharing your experiences. I would agree with almost everything that you said with ball pythons- they are NOT for everyone and yes patience is an important factor when working with them. However, if one views keeping ball pythons purely for pleasure and to enjoy their beauty (and not just for a "return investment") than there is far less frustration when it comes to picky eaters, snakes refusing food, females not breeding, and small/infertile clutches etc. I have an entire rack of ball pythons that are "off feed" and many of them are morphs, but I'm not frustrated or angry about it because the snakes are still healthy and growing at their pace, not mine. I also have many racks with non-picky eaters who take frozen thawed rodents (75% of my ball pythons take frozen thawed but they are all captive bred, zero imports or w.c.) Once the hatchlings take their first live rat pink, the next meal I offer frozen thawed and if they take it- they never see another live rodent again. Some snakes take only one feeding to convert, others take several months or live rodent scenting, and in extreme cases some need to be "starved" out for several weeks until they take frozen thawed. My observation is that defensive behavior in ball pythons definitely has a genetic component (as well as environmental, such as frequent handling when young and gaining trust etc). Defensive or aggressive females tend to produce defensive offspring and even when handled frequently, they tend to maintain their defensive behaviors into adulthood.

Jon

A healthy ball won't suffer if it goes off food for a few months. Out of 25 or so, only one is a striker when the drawer is pulled but rarely bites. Only one won't touch an ex-breeder mouse, and must have rats. All will take f/t. It's just as bad waiting for a litter of boas to drop as it is waiting for python eggs. I'm not extremely fond of the boas, and since we got rid of the anery male, I don't handle the big ones anymore. I just like all the pythons better, but that's my personal preference. We had our first woma clutch this year, gorgeous babies, and got a pair of last year's IJ's, so it's been very exciting. Balls are still my favorite though. I just love them