Do you want to know if you can feed your ball python any treats? You’ve come to the right place as I’ll share the information with you that I’ve found regarding this question. Besides giving you the answer to this question, I’ll also give answers to closely related questions, so make sure you keep on reading once you’ve had the answer to the main question.
Can ball pythons have treats? You can give ball pythons different foods from time to time but the pet ball python won’t see the different food as a treat. In our minds, giving our ball python a mouse instead of a rat can be considered a treat. For the snake, it’s just another meal.
Should you give your pet ball python treats?
In general, it is best to stick to the same diet for your pet ball python. This is the best option because snakes can be very picky animals when it comes to food. It can, for example, happen that if you give him/her different food that he/she will refuse it or start refusing the normal food.
This happens because besides snakes being picky eaters, they can also become addicted to foods quite quickly. It’s best to keep in mind that snakes won’t get bored of eating the same foods as we humans do.
What kind of foods are considered treats for ball pythons?
To the snake, nothing will be seen as a treat but for us humans pretty much everything else than its normal given foods can be considered treats. Examples of different foods that can be given to ball pythons are fowls, toads, chickens, rats, mouses, shrews, or lizards.
Also, giving your ball python alive prey can potentially harm your pet ball python when it is trying to kill it so if I were you I would always give the ball python already dead prey. Also, there are a lot more animals that you can give to your ball python. More examples of these are other snakes or large crickets.
How often should you give treats to ball pythons?
If you’re certain about giving your pet ball python a different kind of food then you should keep in mind that you won’t have to suddenly change up its normal eating schedule. In general, ball pythons eat every one to two weeks.
If your ball python isn’t accepting the treat then make sure you give it its usual meal. Don’t try to force it to eat something.
If you can’t get enough of learning about snakes then I encourage you to check out the “Snakes Category Page” which consists of various articles that give answers to snake-related questions.
What does it mean if my ball python isn’t eating the treat?
If your pet ball python is not eating the treat you had in store for him/her then this means that the ball python doesn’t like the food. You should keep in mind that ball pythons are picky animals when it comes to food and that they like to eat foods that they’re used to.
Also, you could try to feed your ball python live prey to switch it up as some ball pythons do prefer to eat live prey over frozen already dead prey.
What can you feed your ball python?
There are a bunch of different animals you can give to your ball python as food. Examples of these foods are mouses, rats, hamsters, gerbils, other snakes, chicks, quails, guinea pigs, fowls, shrews, lizards, and many more.
I’d recommend you to stick to one food source that your ball python prefers and make sure that you give the snake whole animals because these will give the snake the right nutrition that they require.
Check the video below if you want to see ball pythons feed on their prey.
Can ball pythons eat fruit?
Well, they probably could eat fruit but it wouldn’t be good for them. Ball pythons are animals that need to eat meat and meat only. Fruit can even be dangerous for snakes to eat so make sure they don’t get any.
It’s important to keep in mind that snakes are carnivores which means that they only feed on other animals. If you don’t want to give your pet ball python meat because you’re, for example, a vegetarian yourself then you shouldn’t have gotten a pet snake in the first place.
Can ball pythons eat eggs?
They can eat eggs but they lack spiky parts on their vertebrae that many other snake species do have to easily pierce through the hard shell of the egg. So, they just stick to eating live prey like large insects, rats, and mouses.
If they don’t have another choice, however, they will try to eat eggs too but this can result in them dying if the egg happens to get stuck in their body.
Related questions
How often do ball pythons eat?
For an adult ball python, it is normal to eat every one to two weeks. For young snakes, it is normal to eat once every week. So, if you have a pet ball python you can easily schedule these feeding moments into your week.
Can snakes eat bread?
Well, they probably could eat bread but snakes are carnivores and only survive when they eat meat, so it wouldn’t bring any positives to the snake. Also, you can be certain that the snake will refuse to eat it as it probably knows that it isn’t meat.
Can you feed snakes raw chicken?
You can feed your snake raw chicken. It is, however, important to remember that chicken isn’t their preferred food as they mostly prefer to eat small rodents. Small rodents will bring the required nutritions that the snake will need to survive.
Conclusion
Now you know that you can give your ball python different animals to feed on. The ball python will, however, not see different food sources as treats and will just see them as the next meal that they’re going to need to survive. It can, however, give us a nice feeling to give the snake a treat (during, for example, Christmas). So that the snake can take part in the Christmas celebrations. Even though the snake wouldn’t act differently or even notice it if we decide to just give it its usual meal. Also, it can be nice to test different foods out on your pet ball python to find out what exact foods he/she will like the most, and then you can potentially change its meals to the meat he/she prefers the most.