Grrrr

So heres one of the more common topics i read about... but.. my snake hasn't eatin, in 4 weeks. im not worried yet.. except, that he has lost weight. I pulled him out of his cage about a week ago to check him out, i didnt find any ticks, or bugs, hes in a sterilite tub, has wood chips, temps are 80-83coolside and 93-96 warm side. He has two hides, a water bowl.. hes always been a good feeder, I got him from Brian Barcyzk BHB.. when i got him from brian, he told me he fed all his F/T eaters by just leaving the thawd mouse in there over night, so i did that, and it worked( for both my snakes) But then he stopped eating, so i asked you all for suggestions, you said heat the mouse up really good get him hot so the snake could pick up the heat from it, jiggle it around for awhile, and dont give up.. so for a couple of the attempted feedings, i jiggled the mice up to 20 min, jiggled here jiggled there...
So the question is.. how long should i keep doing this, and, should i switch to live? id rather not cuz i have two PET rats of my own haha.. but ill do what i have t do.. what would YOU do??


p.s. I went to feed today and i saw that he was getting ready to shed.. but hes gotten skinnier? why would he shed.. and like i said.. there was no signs of ticks or bugs anywhere.. no retained eye caps.....

michelle

Live may do the trick for him. I feed all my ball pythons live, they just handle better for me that way. I add a bit of food for the rodent in the snake cage, I have never had a rodent attack a snake as food. Though I keep my eyes and ears open for the strike by the snake, when that happens I immediately check on it to make sure the rodent is not able to bite back at the snake, if so I will help the snake and kill the rodent while it is wrapped up by the snake.

As far as shed while not eating, I have a snake that stopped eating for a year, she was a fat wild caught that became an anorexic, she would only eat once every three months. During this time she shed consistently every 6 weeks and lost a few pounds of weight. She was deemed healthy by a good reptile vet and it was just a matter of time before she became the eating machine that she is now.

alright, well that makes me feel a little better. Ill wait until this shed is over, and ill try F/T one more time... then i guess ill try live.
Thanks for the Information tho, much appreciated!!


michelle

how do you kill the mouse/rat while the snake has him? any particular spot you put the food for the mouse (i.e. oppsite side of the tank from the snake)?

I only assist in the kill if the snake grabs the rodent wrong(like the rodents backside) and the rodent is biting the snake. I will use tongs, squeezing the neck of the rodent and with a quick twist of the wrist I break the neck. I have used my fingers, but I have had a snake let go of it's prey and try for my fingers, that is not much fun.

I drop food in a corner of the tank on the opposite side, just in case the snake is hungry my fingers are not too close, then I put the rodent in on top of the food, first thing it will notice is where the food is.