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Feeding Help!! Advice??

C

christianlog

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I am having some major feeding issues with my snakes and am becoming overly frustrated. I have had a ball python for 4 years and never had feeding issues with her until now. Add that to the other ball pythons I bought in the last 2 months, and major frustration. Here is my situation:

I built myself a 16 tub rack. I now have 7 ball pythons in the rack. I used melamine, and flexwatt for heat. I have a vivarium electronics thermostat. I keep tub temperatures right at 88 degrees in the hot spot, and 78-80 in the cool spot. I do not drop the temp at all at night at this point in time. Of all my snakes, I have been able to get three to eat F/T. The others I am struggling with.

Three were bought from a local friend, and one is the one I have had for four years. The one that was mine had been eating 1 live rat every week. She never turned down a meal. The three I bought from a friend had been off feed for 2 months.

Of my other snakes, I had three of them taking F/T rats no problem. For those, I have not been able to get them to take food now for 3 weeks. They had been taking 1 per week no problem at all. Now they won't touch a thing.

The other four are a bigger problem. We are now looking at 3 months that they have not eaten. They aren't losing weight to fast, and continue to defecate and shed as well. I have thrown African Soft Furs at them, live rats, live mice, and tried F/T too. Not one thing spurs their attention. I am starting to feel at a loss for what to try. They act scared of the food, live or dead. How long is normal for BP's to stay off feed? I am wanting to get them going because they are all around 1000 grams, and I would like them to put on a bit more weight to breed them this fall.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? At this point I am willing to try anything! Thanks so much in advance for any advice.
 
With this being breeding season it is common for them to go off feed. I have a female who has only eaten once in the last three months. If they are not losing any significant weight I wouldn't worry just yet. I would continue to offer them food once a week. They will eat when they are ready. As far as getting them up to weight for next season, you still have plenty of time. Most likely once they come out of their fast they will eat like there is no tomorrow. Good luck!!
 
:iagree:

I just had my longest-fast-ever snake start eating a month or so ago. It was a male G-stripe who didn't eat a thing for nine months. But during that time, he was losing weight very slowly, so I tried not to worry about it. (He only lost 15% of his beginning body weight over that period of time.) So yeah, as long as they're acting normally and not losing a ton of weight, they're fine.

Sometimes, I think they enjoy making us stress out over their eating habits. :D
 
Its really common for ball pythons to go off feed this time of year, I have a female bee that has not eaten since nov 24, but you should still offer food each week. also you could try bumping up your temps on the hot spot, I have my hot spot at 93-95 degrees. just as the other posts said as long as there not losing a lot of weight i wouldn't worry to much.
 
:bandhead0 <<<this is the 1000 gram wall, welcome to the club.

I have found offering smaller meals to females approaching this weight will help them get through it easier.
Some never stop or barely slow down, others will hit that wall and stop for many months before going back to eating.
I see more females stop eating that approach that weight during winter and have noticed that females that hit 1000 grams in the spring/summer barely even know that "wall" exists.
 
I had a spider girl that WOULD NOT go back on. She was off a good 6-8 months before FINNALLY feeding again!! Like Jerry said, that 1000 gram wall can be a show stopper for some and nothing to others. don't worry I've seen them go even longer than that so you being at 3 months is nothing. :thumbsup:
 
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