Ball python refusing 2nd mouse.

[daddyburgi]

I have a question about my ball python refusing his 2nd mouse. I am currently feeding him 2 full size mice every Monday. But today and last Monday he has refused to eat the 2nd mouse. These are frozen / thawed mice and he has been on two mice for a few months now.

Last Monday I put the mouse into the fridge and tried feeding it to him the next day but he still refused. After that the mouse was getting a little rank so I had to toss it. These darn mice cost me $2.50 a piece and i hate to see the money go to waste. I thought that maybe a good thing to do would be to place the mouse on top of his hide and then just leave it there overnight but I am not to sure what to do. Any advice you could give would be wonderful and thank you in advance.

 

[Aleu]

You can leave the mouse in overnight, but you must throw it out the next morning and avoid peeking in and bothering him. He may just simply not want the other mouse though, which is just fine if he is a healthy weight for his age.

If you think he needs more than one mouse for his body weight and he continues to refuse, you can bump up the size of the prey to equal that of two mice. So, if they are adult mice, perhaps a jumbo mouse, a rat up or small rats would be good. This way here, you won't waste any second prey item and he is still getting the amount of food he needs. If he won't take a rat and you'd like to switch him, you can scent the rat with the mouse. Hope this helps.

 

[daddyburgi]

Thank you. That information does help a lot. I was thinking about cutting him back to 1 mouse a week for a couple of weeks so I am sure I will not waste a mouse and then trying to bump him up again. I do not know his weight but I can tell by sight that he is pretty decent. He was a little under weight when I got him and his body was more triangle shaped. Now he is nice and round. But anyways, would it be a good idea to cut him back on the mice for a couple of weeks or should I just try to find somewhere that sells rat pups?

 

[Aleu]

If he is pretty round it won't hurt to cut him back for 3 weeks or so. It's up to you.The real issue here is the insane price you're paying for feeders. If I were you, I'd order feeders through places like The Mouse Factory or Rodent Pro. Shipping is a tad expensive, but you can buy 1 years worth of food of the size you need, and get better quality/ bigger feeders for your money.

What you are paying now:
2 mice a week = 96 mice a year
96 mice a year at 2.50 a piece = $240.00

If you order through mousefactory.com (for example), here is what you'll be paying:

100 adult mice shipped for $120.75

100 Jumbo mice shipped for 136.25

100 weanling rats shipped for $171.25

100 small rats shipped for $202.75


I believe pet store f/t rats go for about $5-7.00 a piece and you will never get the sizes you need.

I would really check out the online ordering if you can save up and make a 1 year order because you are getting ripped off and will save yourself at least $100 in feeder costs AND you will be getting more feeders for less money than what you are paying now. You can order less than $100 if you like. I was just using 100 because that is more than what you'd go through in a year based on the rate and prey you are feeding now and it's better to save on shipping.

On the website for Mouse Factory it lists each rat and mouse size and has a picture of them next to a ruler to give you an idea of how big it is. Not sure if rodent pro does this as i have only ever used Mouse Factory.

 

[daddyburgi]

Yeah I know what your saying about ordering the mice online. We would completely love to. However we have nowhere to keep them. Our freezer is always quite full on the fridge and we do not have a 2nd freezer. However in the near future we plan on buying a chest freezer. But we have to wait for a few things to come through before that can happen. But thank you again for your advice.

 

[Aleu]

No problem. Freezer space can certainly be an issue Good luck with the BP

 

[Floof]

I have nothing to add to Aleu's advice...

But on the freezer space thing, you'd be surprised how little room an order of mice takes up... To give you an idea, 25 adult mice from The Mouse Factory (my favorite feeder source, too!) are packed on a meat tray, maybe 6x10 inches (rough estimate) and around an inch thick (overestimating--probably less), in a vacuum packed bag. Surprisingly easy to slip into a packed freezer.

To be honest, the biggest problem I've encountered with ordering bulk is when ordering for still growing snakes: it can be tough to predict when they'll need to move up to the next size, and, because of that, tough to decide how many of each size and how many sizes ahead you should order without having to worry about a bunch of left-over (and freezer burn)... But then again, a bunch of left over "too small" rodents also make the perfect excuse to get another snake! :mrgreen:

Anyway, just wanted to add my $.02 on the discussion. I'm sure we've all had to deal with the freezer space problem at some point or another...

 

[daddyburgi]

Well I thought I should update this post because I have had a few other problems. For three weeks he started to refuse the 1st mouse too once I switched to only one mouse. I was not too worried at first because I know that technically a ball python could go 2 months or more with out eating from what I have read. However I know this is not something to put into practice or something. But this past Monday he took the mouse without a problem. I plan on staying with only one mouse for the next month and then we will try going back to 2 mice again. But I guess his hunger strike is over for now.

We were both quite happy with how fast he took the frozen mouse this time. He appeared to be quite hungry this time. Thank you all for your replies, advice and concerns.