My python hurt itself eating. Help?

[Firsttimer09]

Hes a few months old, the one in my display picture..
Iv had him bout a month and he was eating great.
But 2 weeks ago he tried to swallow a pinkie sideways and I think it hurt him because he gave up trying to eat it and hasnt eaten since.

Im really worried, I dont want him to get sick.

Iv heated the pinkies up in hot water, brained them.. made them bleed.. left them in a tank with him..
I havnttried live but im afraid hes scared of them (since it hurt his mouth) so i dnt want to scare him more with one that moves!

Iv tapped his nose with it.. at the moment i have him in the tank alone (as i have another python who would eat it on him!) and iv left at at the entrence where he likes to hide. Theres a heat source in there and iv turned the lights off.. so far hes just sitting there..

If this doesnt work what should I do!?

Im thinking of taking him to the vet soon..
Iv never force fed.. I dnt know how to do it..

Help?

 

[Tsubakai]

House him separately, double check that your husbandry is correct (heat, hides etc), leave him alone for at least a week then try again. When did he last shed?

 

[BlindSnake]

I doubt he's hurt his mouth.what makes you think he has, can you see an injury?
I think he thought the food sourse was a bit large to eat and lost intrest.

Just keep offering food and he should feed.
2 weeks is nothing. don't sweat it.

As for the Vet's, all they will do is take your money.

 

[whcasual79]

just try in a week again... he will eventually eat it when hunger gets the best of him....

is he in shed mode?? cuz my snake wont eat anything when he's bout to shed

 

[Firsttimer09]

he only just shed last week. but i will try leaving him alone for a while and see if that helps.
i cnt see injury i just thought it looked very unconfertable.

thanks =)

 

[beeman]

what sort of temps are you keep it at ? A lot of feeding problems are husbandry related
and mostly easy to fix, Eg over handling, incorrect temps etc

 

[amy5189]

temps and maybe a picture of your housing set up would be good to start with...

due to the fact that it looks like a carpet in your DP I will assume that maybe you are feeding pinky rats? maybe go back to pinky mice or fuzzy mice to get it feeding again. It may just think that the rat is too big as someone said above, so if you can go down a size again that would be good.

Other than that, you can also put him somewhere really quiet where people don't walk past often, do not handle him unless you are just taking him out to clean the enclosure, and don't start handling again until you have established a good feeding pattern.

My hatchling coastal ate a pinky mouse sideways once, and she was fine, so maybe it was just cuz he was shedding too.

So give him a few days rest (maybe a week to get him really hungry) and then try with a little mousey, then let us know how you go.... :-D

 

[The_Cake]

My little jungle ate his pinkies sideways for a few months (retard), never hurt him. Eventually i gave him large mice so he couldn't possible fold them over.

 

[Firsttimer09]

I feed them pinkie mice.. not rats.. because thats what both previous owners told me to do. I have a heating chord I use for him because thats what hes used to from his old owner adn he was showing interest in the pinkies until i got bumped and it tapped him on the nose. (thats why i thought he was scared)
the other snake lays ontop of him 90% of the day and such and i may have been over affectionate in handling hm so i think it could be stress.. ill leave him alone for a week and try putting some food in without handling himand see how that goes.

 

[tenacres1100]

what type of python is it???? because you don't feed pinky mice to them for long

 

[beeman]

I feed them pinkie mice.. not rats.. because thats what both previous owners told me to do. I have a heating chord I use for him because thats what hes used to from his old owner adn he was showing interest in the pinkies until i got bumped and it tapped him on the nose. (thats why i thought he was scared)
the other snake lays ontop of him 90% of the day and such and i may have been over affectionate in handling hm so i think it could be stress.. ill leave him alone for a week and try putting some food in without handling himand see how that goes.

You should not have 2 hatchies together as you may well end up with only 1 :shock:
This could also be part of the cause of it going off its food as one snake can and
will assert dominance over the other, again stress is a big factor.

 

[Firsttimer09]

its a carpet python. the other is a coastal.. i see.. looks like ill be getting another enclosure then. the coastal in the younger one but definately seems to be dominant.. the carpet is very tame and generally isnt as adventurous either.

should i feed the carpet something else from now on?

 

[amy5189]

hatchling carpets should be able to eat pinky rats pretty well especially if it is a few months old, but in saying that, my coastal ate her first meal at 5 months old and only ate pinky mice for the first couple of months of him getting used to food.
But definitely seperate them, as this could be stressing him too.
also a coastal is one of several species of carpet pythons... so i'm going to assume that you have two coastals. bredlis, jungles and MDs are also types of carpet pythons.
so yes, leave him alone for a week or two, without his little house mate in with him, and then try and feed him a pinky mouse. whether you decided to use the tongs or leave it in his enclosure with him. whichever works best.
but if no luck then talk to the person you got him from, as they may be able to help you out

 

[tenacres1100]

its a carpet python. the other is a coastal.. i see.. looks like ill be getting another enclosure then. the coastal in the younger one but definately seems to be dominant.. the carpet is very tame and generally isnt as adventurous either.

should i feed the carpet something else from now on?

the coastal is also a carpet python, what type of carpet is the other one. As others have said don't keep them together especially if they are different breeds Start them on fuzzy mice and then rats as soon as you can

 

[mukman]

have n idea

u may have already tried this, but 2 get my mareeba carpet to eat, i put the mouse under the lamp to heat it up, that might work​

 

[Firsttimer09]

Hes eating! it was the heat!

Thanks everyone for your help.