#snake posts

From one reptile room to another!

I’m sorry??

They are SOO cool and you are correct! (Although I know their scientific name as Epicrates cenchria—might be different in your language!)

This lovely lady belongs to my friend and I got to babysit her during the power outage here:

Brazilian rainbow boas are an extreme example of how iridescence is often a factor in snake scales. In full sunlight, they truly do have a rainbow or chromatic shine, almost like an oil slick. They’re also a lovely docile species with a good handling track record, so Tex here was an absolute angel and I strongly considered stealing her. When and if reptile expos come back to my area, you can bet that I might pick one of these up. They’re on my list, for sure.

I DID. And then she also Crushed that one.

She just likes to break things, there’s no reasoning with her. I spend half my weekends hiking and dragging home half-fucking-logs for her to smugly crap on and drap herself across and when I say she doesn’t care I mean that bitch Does Not Care. Beautiful, stupid whore that she is. I love her.

Thank you! She is an Asshole. In that pic, she’s currently trying to break a branch that I’ve roped together several times now because she keeps breaking it. I’m staring at her and she’s inching closer to it. Snakes are just legless fucking cats, you heard it here folks.

Lots of things wrong here. You should never ‘boil’ thawed prey, ew wtf, I don’t recommend that at all. I leave the frozen prey out in a bucket for about an hour at room temp and then warm it up with hot NOT boiling water before offering it.

But prey preparation is the least of the issue here. I’d like to gently remind you of the points I made in the corn snake post, just a day or so ago:

1) if a snake’s species-specific desired temperature ranges for hot and cold are not correct or correctly regulated, it will not eat

2) snakes can go months and even years without eating so it is not a concern that requires forcing them or trying to make them eat a live prey item

You have a ball python. They’re notorious for not eating for long periods because they’re a species that lives in termite mounds in Africa and rarely encounters prey. They’re made to not eat, in fact—look at the fat reserves on the body. If it’s a male, this is actually incredibly common during winter, as well, as males do not eat while in breeding season. So it’s fine! Don’t force your animal into a dangerous confrontation with a fully armed and toothed rodent because you have a human perception of when is healthy to eat!

Instead, check your environment. Ball pythons need a warm spot of around 90-95f, with a cool zone in the 73-75f range, and should ideally be housed in a cage around 3-4’ or more, with lots of hiding opportunities. They should have a heating device regulated by a thermostat, and you should be checking those temps daily when you go to clean the cage or check the water dish. Offer a humid hide as well, and be sure the humidity is reading 60-80% inside. Again, this is a fossorial (burrowing) species that lives inside of a giant mound of dirt in the wild, so don’t make the cage too barren or they will be stressed. Give them lots of hiding opportunities and areas to feel secure—fake plants, branches, etc.

If all of those options are met, and you’re double sure your temps are right, then just wait it out. The snake will eat when it’s ready to eat. Get a bag of appropriately sized (ball pythons should be eating rats, not mice, and the correct size of prey is determined by the size of the snake, check out MJ Python’s sizing guide on youtube) frozen rats and thaw one once a month using the method I described above to offer it. DO NOT BOIL IT. If the snake won’t eat, okay fine, you can re-freeze the rat one more time to try again next month, or if not, throw it away. Just keep those temps correct and the snake will eat in time. Like I mentioned before, this is a species that is known for this behavior and a quick google search of ‘my ball python isn’t eating’ will reaffirm that right quick.

Hey pal, thanks for dropping by to ask, because I’m very worried about what that vet told you! There’s a lot of things wrong here. Firstly, a month is NOT a long time for a snake to not eat, even a young snake. Snakes can go weeks, months, even years without eating in the wild! Right now it’s winter so all of my snakes, old and young, are on a monthly eating schedule themselves, as it’s common for their appetites to drop off in the colder weather. This is totally normal and not a cause for alarm, and a snake not eating after one or even three months would not be a concern for me (provided that the temps and humidity were correct in the cage but I’ll get to that in a minute), and there are many steps I would take before taking the animal to a vet. Force feeding is INCREDIBLY risky and dangerous as it is remarkably easy to shatter a vertebrae or break the snake’s jaw—snake bones are almost as light as birds and quite fragile. Force feeding is also stressful and will likely not encourage the snake to eat again, so it is literally only used as a last resort when the snake is at death’s door. I’m not sure what kind of training this vet has had, but that is very alarming that that is the first response they jumped to! Please, please DO NOT force feed your snake and DO get a second opinion.

Personally, before jumping to try to feed the animal, I would want to address why it’s not eating to begin with. A snake not eating is a classic sign that the temperature/humidity gradient of its enclosure is not correct, either too cold, too hot, or not enough space to move from a cooler area to a warmer one and vice versa. How are you keeping this snake? How is it being heated? Proper temps for a corn snake are quite easy to achieve, since they’re a US native and only need a warm area of around 80-85f, with the cooler end of the cage at 70-75f. They do need a heat source, though, on the outside of the cage and it needs to be connected to a thermostat. If you’re not using a heating device, or not using a heating device properly regulaated by a thermostat (you can’t just plug it in and leave it, a heating pad or light can easily go over 140f in an hour, so all heat needs a thermostat or rheostat) then that is the problem right there. Also, the stick-on thermometers (not thermostats, thermometers) that tell temperature that you buy for $5-10 at the store don’t work properly, so you need to check the temp with a laser temp gun ($15-16) from Amazon. I would wager that’s your issue—many beginner snake hobbyists don’t quite grasp the concept of using timers and thermostats to regulate the environment and usually there’s a key piece of info missing somewhere from when you brought the snake home from the pet store, including using those crappy little stick on gauges that don’t properly tell temp. Grab yourself a temp reader, and check if the snake’s cage is too cold or too hot. All one temp is also a problem—because reptiles are cold blooded, they need to be able to regulate their temperature by moving from a hot area to a cooler area, and vice versa. If your tank is all one temperature, or too hot in one end and not cool enough/too cold and not warm enough, the snake won’t eat. Simple as that. I would bet dollars that’s your problem—9/10 times it’s the husbandry that’s the issue. Which isn’t your fault! You and your family are just learning and that’s why it’s good you reached out for help.

For reference, this is how I keep my two corn snakes in separate cages:

You can see the cages are around 4’ long, which gives me a lot of room to play with temp, and they’re not glass fish tanks, so the heat stays enclosed. Also, they’re filled with lots of hides and branches and things to help the snakes feel more secure, along with a ‘humid hide box’ for shedding and clean water, of course. It could be that your snake is lacking one or more of these elements too. A glass fish tank is the common cage used, and that’s fine, but keep in mind how you’ll have to work around that material to keep it ideal for the snake. Glass heats up too fast, and doesn’t distribute heat very well. It also chills very fast too. Expanded PVC foam, like these reptile cages, will trap and hold a temperature at a consistent gradient, but you still need to use a thermostat. I use them for every single cage in my reptile room—each individual animal has its own needs to be regulated!