Well I have 2 questions. 1 is what do you feed a mouse & 2 is my snake wont eat in over a month.?

Question

We have a Ball Python and for quite a while was eating large rats every week and a month ago he stopped eating. We waited 3 weeks and bought him a small mouse and it has been sitting in his cage for 2 days now and he has no interest in it. The other question is what do you feed a mouse, now that he won't eat it we not have a mouse to talk care of and I have no clue what it eats...

Answer 1

I have had many snakes in the past, and from my experience, leaving the mouse in the cage for days at a time does more harm than good.
The mouse may bite the snake, making the snake afraid to eat when he finally decides to.
The snake will soon see the mouse as a "fixture" in his cage. I would suggest taking the mouse out after a couple hours, and put him back in the next day.
If he is left in there for days at at time, he will be defacating, which will lead to unwanted germs. (like the snake doesnt have enough)
You need to keep the snakes food healthy too.. there is a difference in the amount of nutrition in a healthy plump mouse and a sick starved dehydrated mouse.
You might as well feed the snake cardboard if you are not going to feed him healthy mice. Just kidding, of course.
I have known balls to be picky eaters, and it seems like the more you try to force him to eat, the more he doesnt want to eat.
When he is hungry, he will eat.
Make sure you keep a container of water in the cage for the snakes hydration. (another hazard for leaving mice in there.... they might drown)
I have feed my snakes prekilled prefrozen rodents. They were thawed and served that way. Pretty gross, but it also lessens the chance the snake will attack your hand as he sees it as a moving sense of heat also. If the rodent is dead, it doesnt move, and the snake can eat at his own leisure.
One drawback is that if the snake doesnt eat it, you now have a thawed rodent, and unless you have another snake to eat it, the rodent should be thrown away, not refrozen.
Keep in mind that they can get freezer burn too. As with any food for reptiles, snakes, and any living creature, if you wouldnt eat the food, why should they?? (why feed them the rotten food?)
You can purchase frozen "packs" of rodents at some pet stores, or you can kill them and freeze them yourself. Snap the neck, and put him in the freezer. (I could never kill the rodents myself, so I bought them prefrozen) Or you could get them online.
Try www.miceonice.com
If you do chose to stay with using live mice, you can purchase a small travel type cage at walmart for the mouse. (unless you go all out and make him a nice comfy home and buy a cage)
They have mouse and rat food at any pet store next to the small animal foods. (bunnies and guinnies)
Anyway, I hope this helps you, if not more people.
Good luck, and if you have any more questions, email me at [e-mail]
----Beth
wow, I guess I was typing mine as he was typing his!

Answer 2

Your snake is probably just going through a normal period of non feeding. It is very common especially this time of year.
First off... get the mouse out of the snake cage. Mice can chew on your snake causing damage or illness. Also, you should never leave food in a cage for more than 15-20 minutes. It will overly stress out your snake causing even further feeding problems.
You should attempt to feed once per week. If the snake doesn't eat in the 20 minutes. remove the food item and do not try again for a full 7 days. Also, you should switch him back to Rats.Balls are notoriously picky eaters and once they are feeding one food item, it shouldn't be switched.
As for feeding a mouse... you should feed it a rodent chow(Mazuri, or lab block)
You can get it at a feed store or sometimes a pet store. You can feed dog food(that does not contain red dye) for a short period of time, but it is not recommended because it isn't good for the snake.

Good Luck.

Answer 3

I have had 2 ball pythons before. Our first one went into "winter cooldown" 2 years in a row, and didn't eat most of the winter. We were told it was nothing to worry about.

Our new ball eats every week, but is a baby anyway. I also think that since it's unseasonably warm this year where I am, it might not realize it's supposed to have winter cooldown.

As for feeding a mouse, give it plenty of water. Any mice I ever had sufficed on dry dog or cat food. If you want your mouse/rat to even get FAT, drop in a tsp. of peanut butter every few days. That worked like a charm for me. :)

Answer 4

Adult ball pythons usually refuse food for a month or more in the winter. In their native land this is a time when food is not plentiful. It's also necessary for them to be able to reproduce. Babies will generally continue to feed during the winter.

Both of your pythons are behaving normally.

About the mouse, take it back. Ball pythons prey imprint on a specific type of prey. Yours is imprinted on rats. He can smell the difference between rats and mice and he's not going to accept them unless you go through the process of converting him over, which takes a month or more and sure isn't going to work in winter when they're fasting.

Answer 5

You can buy mice/rat pellets at a pet store. Make sure the mouse has water as well. If you are not able to get to a store right away, you can give the mouse some cereal, birdseed, crackers, or oatmeal with her water. Here is additional information on caring for mice:

http://www.rmca.org/Resources/mousefaq.htm
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pets_mousecare

Have you thought of trying these snake sausages?

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/zoological/reptilediet.html

Answer 6

One - Don't ever leave a *live* rodent of anykind in with your snake without watching that rats every move, it can and will bite your snake. Maybe even kill it.

Two - Do not ever feed your snake in its cage. Why? Because 1.) Depending on the substrate you use, it could injest it and become ill and die.

2.)The snake might begin to associate your hand in the cage with food and strike every time you stick your hand in there.

Get a sterilite tube (big enough for your snake to move around in) and feed it in that.

Three - You should really try to feed your snake pre-killed food. If you decide to leave that little live *hungry* mouse in with your snake for days it may start to eat your snake, and if you are lucky you will catch it before it chews a hole in your snakes head.

Then you will have a whole new problem because your snake will be afraid of mice and may just starve to death because it decides it dosnt want to be chewed on again.

This is what happend to a snake whos owner turned his back for only a few minutes after putting a live mouse in for it to eat.

Maybe this will help you in your choice to switch to pre-kill.

Again, do not ever leave any live food item in with your snake un-attended.

http://www.proexotics.com/graphics/ball_python_live_prey_1.jpg

Answer 7

If your ball python is big enough to be eating large rats, he shouldn't be being fed them every week. Mine would eat one every 2-3 weeks and when he was shedding, it wasn't unusual for him to go 4-5 weeks without. If everything else seems to be normal with him, let him go a little longer. But if you notice anything unusual with his actions or appearance, take him to a vet immediately.

Answer 8

What Shaianne said about the python. As for the mouse- well, mice can eat just about anything that's edible. Of course, I'm not talking about a pet here.

Answer 9

Yeah, its not unusual for snakes to go a little while without eating, you'll probably notice he does it around the same time each year. Just keep an eye on him.

Answer 10

ball pythons will stop eating for a brief period of time. sometimes up to three months