My python plays with the mice now, whats up with that?

Question

i have a ball python and she has been eating live mice for 2 years now. the other month she got bit by one and she is now scared to eat them I guess, but she will literally play with it and follow it around the cage and even curls up and sleeps with it. I have tried now to feed her dead ones and she wont go near those. How can I get her to eat again without her being afraid she will get bit? I am afraid she is going to starve to death and the pet place here had no good advice whatsoever.

Answer 1

I heard about scenting mice with a gerbil.

Get a gerbil and mice/rat What ever ure feeding ure python and rub the feeder agaisnt the Gerbil and c if ure python would eat it, if not try feeding her gerbils.

Answer 2

Try live baby mice that pose no threat. Or try gerbils, thats what they eat in their natural enviroment and has the highest chance of sparking its senses. Good Luck!

Answer 3

just wait it out snakes can go months without eating so keep trying to feed her and when she gets hungry she will eat again

Answer 4

Since she is an older snake don’t worry too much about it not eating...snakes go on hunger stirkes all the time. I had a ball python that didn’t eat for almost a year...I have another one that just got off of a 6 month hunger stirke. I had a blood python that went on a hunger strike for 5 or 6 months. My adult kingsnake went on a hunger strike for about 4 months. Snakes just do that. Unless your snake is losing muscle mass I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Don’t offer it food too often you will stress it out...just offer it food as normal...every 10 days or so. If your snake is used to being handled a lot go ahead and handle her normally.  

I'm not sure but from your question it seems like you feed your snake in the cage that it lives in...you should feed the snake in a feeding tub.  Take a short plastic box, large enough for the snake to move around in some, drill several holes at the top of the sides for air flow.  Put the snake in and then the food.  After your snake eats give it about 20 minutes to get out of "feeding mode" and then put it back in her house.

Good luck!

Answer 5

It is a bit too late to tell you to never feed live mice to a snake since they bite and then the snake won't eat.  Remove the live mice.  Then find out from your Vet. how to force feed a snake, just in case.  

I'd wait a week and then drop a dead mouse on it and see it it eats.  If it does not eat it right away, store the mouse and try again in a few days.  You can rub the mouse with a drop of fish oil to make it smell less like a dangerous biting mouse to the snake.

Answer 6

You should continue leaving live rodents in your snake's tank over long periods of time. Eventually they'll just kill her and then you won't have to worry about getting her to eat anymore. Problem solved!