Just a quick question...

We got a royal a few weeks ago and i know it'll just be settling in and that they're not the greatest of feeders and all the other general stuff but just wanted to know how long you should leave a non feeder before thinking about other options?

Read a few posts that say they can go off their food for months and as long as their not losing weight not to worry about it. Is this the same for younger ones? She's only a few months old and has never ate.

Like i said i know about settling in and things but just want to know how long people advise leaving her to it before trying other things?

Did you buy a CF or a CB? (I was waiting for the people that brought the CF's to start posting)

I find it makes a big difference between the two...

the CF take time to get settled in to new surroundings.

Defrost there food with a chick and get the scent on to the mouse, works 9 times out of ten for mine.

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Yea i'm pretty sure it's CF, wasn't too fussed cause i dont mind putting the time in.

Had been thinking about using a chick. Will maybe give it a go next feeding time.

It's in it's tub with a towel over it just now, giving it time to settle in.

In my own experience, I've found that Ball Pythons are not bad feeders, it is us keepers often using bad husbandry. For whatever reason, something isn't quite right.

All the Captive Farmed hatchlings I've ever acquired, have been problem free. I simply start them off as I would my Captive Bred hatchlings.

I offer one Live Mouse Fluff, and 9/10 will strike, constrict and eat first time, others will eat in the weeks following.

From then on, I will offer Fresh Killed Mice of the same size, 9/10 they will carry on eating those, with no need for Live, then they will 9/10 move onto Defrost problem free as well.

The ones that don't soon follow, but each snake is different.

Alot of the CF hatchlings offered at the moment scream non-feeder to me. Purely because they've been shipped in, picked out and advertised.

I've had my 08's since the beginning of April. And all 15 Have fed from the off. 11 of them are perfect feeders, and currently on their 7th Defrost Feed, the other 4, are on 4 and 5 defrost feeds.

I think this is primarily down to husbandry, I'm not saying everyone else's feeding methods are wrong, I'm just saying what I do works for me. Live, Fresh Kill, Defrost. Instead of buying from a shop, offering defrosted pinkies that a CF Ball Python would have no idea what it had in front of it.

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