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Force Feed or Try Live?

As others have said, the relatively short fast & small weight loss are not really of concern with a 2 yr old male.
First step is always to double check husbandry.
If you can't bring yourself to leave him alone, please consider assist/force feeding him a last resort (and one that doesn't need to happen for a few more months). There are too many alternatives to pursue with a snake of that age/size. If you don't want to feed a live rat, offer a f/t mouse...a lot of BPs that go off f/t rats will take f/t mice. If you don't have an emotional connection with mice, you could always offer a live mouse (even more will take those); but I've had too many decide that they like live mice to offer that suggestion lightly.
 
Randy F said:
I believe the 10-15% weight loss is regarding a immediate weight loss, not that over a 3 month period off feed.
Click to expand...

This. While ballpark numbers are good to have in your head, ya need to make sure you have a point of reference. Ten to 15% weight loss over a couple weeks is a completely different issue than 10 to 15% over a year. :)

I just had my male G-stripe start eating again after a nine-month fast. Over those months, he only lost 15% of his body weight. I'm finally used to BP fasting, so I wasn't worried.

As others have said, force-feeding should be a last resort.

Also, if you're worried about weight loss and/or when to consider force- or assist-feeding, my vet said to check muscle tone. If you run your finger from dorsal to ventral scales, you should be able to feel a couple ridges of muscle running parallel to the length of the snake. Another way to check muscle tone is to test how well the snake can grip things. See if he can grip your fingers with the end of his tail and if he will wrap around your arm if laid across it--things like that. If you don't feel the muscles and/or he seems to have trouble gripping, then it's time to consider assist- or force-feeding. But as long as the snake's muscle tone seems good and as long as he hasn't had an extreme, sudden drop in weight, he's probably just being a pill. ;)
 
I mean no disrespect, but waiting too long to assist/force is just as bad (if not worse) than not waiting long enough - IMO, of course. The difference is that too soon is unnecessary; while too late is....well....too late.
 
Matt2979 said:
LOL...you're not the first to feel like that! I had boas for years before I got my first ball. "Fasting" was extremely rare...'til really got into BP's, that is. :ack2:
Click to expand...

Hahahaha Same here man. I had some big boas that would eat regardless of the size of food. If they could take it down, they were eating it. Now that I have switched completely to ball pythons, I have a much smaller feeding bill to say the least. A lot less bite marks on my hands as well. :thumbsup:
 
hhmoore said:
..... If you don't want to feed a live rat, offer a f/t mouse...a lot of BPs that go off f/t rats will take f/t mice.......
Click to expand...


Thanks so much! We wound up buying a fuzzy rat but before we even got home we decided that we couldn't go through with feeding it, so we stopped and picked up a frozen mouse. Sure enough, he took it! We will continue to feed him mice for a few weeks to get his weight back up and then try and switch him back to rats.

So long story short, Beau finally ate, and we now have a pet rat that we have named Lucky. We will just have to make sure we wash our hands before handling the snakes now.
 
I guess "Lucky" really is lucky!!! :rofl:

Congrats on getting your boy to eat! But rather than waiting a few weeks to try to switch him back, you might try following a mouse with a rat. I've had some success doing this (4 BP's in the last few months) so I'd say it's worth a shot. Either way, glad to hear that he's eating and not stressing you out so badly!! :D
 
Great news. This week Beau ate a FT rat! No hesitation! So glad he is eating again! More great news. The new mojave male we got on the 29th ate for us for the first time. He was on live before we got him so we were worried it would be hard to switch him to F/T. Just a little more than two weeks and he took one!
 
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