I went into my local petshop and found two baby ball pythons for sale, i asked if I could have a look at them and asked what they were feeding them and the guy said they were force feeding them pinkies, and iv heard that force feeding baby snakes can be truamatising and stressfull. Is it ok to force feed them? cause I want to get one and dont know how to do it.

Force feeding isnt a great idea...more then likely the babies will regurg the pinks due to stress, the stress coming from being force fed. How often are they force feeding them pinks? And how big are the BPs? They may be too big for pinks and that could be the reason they arnt taking them. Also what are the temps/humidity in their enclo sure? If its not warm enough they definatley wont eat becase they wont be able to digest their food in low temps..

Force feeding is not recommended and is stressfull to the animal. It should only be done by a qualified keeper and mostly only as a last resort. Even with the experience I have I would NOT purchase a snake that needs to be force-fed (a rescue I would consider)

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Ken
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem." -- Ronald Reagan

I would guess they feed them once a week but im not sure, there more then half a foot long but I dont know precisly. When I saw them I thought pinkies would be to small for them cause there quite thick. I dont know what the temp and humidity was. I bought my trinket snake from there and they gave me a care sheet that they made, and when I went on the internet I found that a lot of stuff on the sheet wasnt correct. So im not sure if they actual know what there doing.

The guy said you have to force feed them when there young so they learn

Thats not true!!! LOL...they alreay know how to eat..I think he just cant get them to eat for him so he needs an excuse...one thaat makes him sound like he knows what hes talking about...dooes he realize how foolish that soulds? You should ask him how they survive in the wild? Maybe the mom snake force feeds them pinks(whiich are infact too small for them) with her hands of motherhood that only come out when she needs to force feed her babies If I were you I wouldnt be purchasing a BP from this guy...no offense but he sounds like a joke.

some times you may need to force feed a baby snake... but useualy only one time, just to get the insticts to kick in.. but it is a rare occasion... but does happen.. that is part of natural selection in the wild.. the weak animal, or the one with weak insticts does not live, dies to feed another animal.. but in captivity some times you can cheat the system,, kind of like playing god in a way, by the way I have horrid spelling..lol

Thats what I thought. I really want to get a bp though there my favorite snake. If I did get one do u think it would eat normally? They look really healty. Are they hard to look after cause im only 14 and only have one snake thats really easy to look after.

Bp's are not hard to care for at all, but they are fussy eaters, they can weeks even months without eating. My honest opinion would be to find one that is already eating on its own and not being force fed. But if you are dead set on getting one of those, make sure the petstore has a guarantee of health, so if he doesnt eat on his own, you can take him back. There are many other breeders out there where you can find a healthy, self eating one.

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!

so what do u do if they dont eat for months?