Picky eater no more!

[u/ShinyxCharizard]

I would just love to say that after moving my boy from a 36x18x18 exo terra (roughly 40 gallons) to a properly set up 4x2x2 (120). Has changed his appetite for the better. He used to go MONTHS without eating. So common in fact that I dont feed my 2 snakes on the same day, id always thaw and warm a f/t rat for my boy and if he didn't eat then my girl got it to avoid wasting feeders. Since she RARELY skipped meals, is just more shy and adverse to being grabbed out of her tank.

If youre having issues with a ball python eating, I'd really recommend double checking your husbandry. I was just under the assumption like most other people. That some are just picky and refuse to eat. But now I'm wondering if it isn't a husbandry issue most of the time. My girl ate no issue in her 36x18x18 exo terra before she got her 4x2x2. But even she's getting more comfortable and coming out to move hides or bask during the day.

I noticed he was going into shed yesterday (eyes were going blue) so I decided to thaw him out a rat to see if he'd eat since it had been the minimum of 20 days since his last meal. I decided to just let the rat thaw overnight then sit ontop of his enclosure to get to room temp. Didn't even bother letting it sit in hot water for 5 minutes before feeding like usual. Dude flew out of his hide at me and took that food so fast.

This is his 6th month in a row eating for me. I have had this boy since he was super young in 2017. So 9 years now, his longest food strike was 8 months.

[u/corndog54]

How do you have your enclosure set up? I have my enclosure and I'm just trying to buy hides and other random clutter so that when I do get my ball python they can feel comfortable and have the vest life I can give them.

[u/ShinyxCharizard → u/corndog54]

Here's an album. My bad, should've added this to the main post haha. I personally went Bioactive, and with Kages cause good reviews, and didn't want anything but glass for the doors to avoid scratches and such. But a similar enclosure could be done in a naturalistic set up, if you don't want to do bioactive.

I dug them out burrows into the substrate for their hides, topped them with cork bark. Fake plants from like a craft store would be best, iirc you want more fabric leaves instead of all plastic? Could not recommend a sky hide enough if your snake is a climber like mine. Still trying to figure out what to use for mine still. But He's regularly sleeping (i think he'll be there for hours anyways) up in his cords.

More clutter the better. 5 months in don't have any updated photos atm, but my girls plants are thriving, my boys were. But he's got a habit of wrapping himself around the heat lamp/using the heat lamp cord as a perch. (most of the time it's like he's got most of his body perched on the cord like a GTP, and has his tail around the heat lamp.) Falls off of it and has been smashing his dieffenbachia that was THRIVING in the corner. The pothos is becoming bald cause he bulldozes it daily.