From: gerard@progress.COM (Gerard Bras)
Subject: Re: Ball Pythons II: eating (or not)
Organization: Progress Software Corp.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:56:10 GMT

remcat@athena.mit.edu (Rachel Emily Molenaar) writes:

>PROBLEM ONE:
>Gee, uh, I've had Madison since October and I am starting to feel like a real
>fool/evil bad snake person 'cause poor Madison STILL WON'T EAT!!! She may or may
>not be captive bred, so this may be part of the problem, or not. She is supposed
>to be three years old, so she probably isn't in any danger of starving to death.
>HOWEVER it is disturbing as hell to a regularly-eating mammal like myself when
>her pet doesn't eat AT ALL. 

It is common for Ball Pythons to be sporadic eaters.  Some people have good luck
but most have problems.  It is my opinion that P. Regius is a seasonal feeder.
So I expect that you'll have better luvck in spring and summer than in fall and
winter, which coioncides with the time you've had the snake.  One thing for sure,
eventually the snake will eat, you just have to keep trying till you figure
out what rings his/her chimes.

>Right now, I am planning on trying gerbils, since she has refused mice, but I
>would like confirmation first on whether or not this is likely to work. 
>(Transporting rodents back and forth from the pet store isn't exactly my idea of
>"fun.") Specifically it would be nice to have stories from people who managed to
>successfully feed their Balls. Size-wise Madison is about four feet long, under
>two inches diameter at biggest.

This is very much worth trying.  Many snakes don't care for mice.  Hell, *I* don't
care for the smelly little buggers either.  Agaim, try spring is likely to be
a good time to experiment.

One more thing.  Keep up both temperature and humidity.  Many species are highly
sensitive to environmental factors and I think this is true of P. Regius.  It's
a good bet that a cold snake will refuse food, unless it's P. Molorus which tend
to have rather hearty appetites.  And, make sure you provide a hidebox.

>PROBLEM TWO:
>Could someone reccommend a good, preferably moderately-priced snake vet in
>the Boston area? I want to be a responsible pet owner and do the check-up
>thing. Near Cambridge/Brookline is preferable, but I have
>transportation available if necessary.

I wish I could.  I've been using Andover Animal Hospital, (Dr. Martha Lindsay) recently.
She's OK.  I would only go if you have reason to believe the animal is sick.  There's
just no such thing as a snake "physical" so you'd be pissing away money.  In
the past, many years ago, I used Rotherwood Clinic (Dr. William Walker) ho is
over in Newton.  He's a nice guy and really willing to help, but he's mostly a cat
and dog kind of guy.  Angell Memorial, IMO, is overpriced and arrogant.  I'd avoid
them.


>PROBLEM THREE:
>Could someone once-and-for-all tell me how hot her cage should be? I've got a
>heating pad under the cage, and she seems all right, but I can easily make it
>lots, lots warmer by turning on a lightbulb above her cage. However, when I have,
>the cage just seems way too hot.

High eighties to low nineties is good.  I don't like light bulb heat.  I think
snakes need a reasonable daily cycle like everybody else.  Remember this is an 
animal with no nictating membrane.  It cannot "close it's eyes".  The best it can
do is put a coil over it's head.
>PROBLEM FOUR:

>I recently found (ICK!) little ticks under some of her scales after reading about
>such parasites in a otherwise fairly useless snake book. The book didn't give any
>suggestions on what to do, so I used tweezers to dislodge the gross little things
>and them crushed them. There are no signs of infection or anything, but it would
>be nice to do the proper thing (in general) and also to know where they came from
>and how to prevent recurrances.

Now you need the vet.  Get some Ivomec.  Ticks, unless there is a real infestation
are not a health threatening problem but you really do want to get rid of them.
Tweezers are not the tool of choice here.  If you can find one you can use a piece
of "No Pest Strip".  Careful though, more than one herp has been killed like this.
If there's only one or two (unlikely) you can kill them with a drop of baby oil.
It will take patience and persistence to detick a snake like this though.

>Thanks much in advance; what a great newsgroup!

Yeah, it's not bad.

cheers
gerard
Newsgroups: rec.pets.herp