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JCP stopped feeding.

F

FuZZ84

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My '05 JCP stopped eating for a while. He missed the last 2 and then had blue eyes, so I figured hes about to shed so he won't be hungry. He shed like 3-4 days ago and I attempted to feed him today. He still didn't eat. I'm feeding him rat pinkies F/T (of course). I heard that JCP's are picky eaters when dealing with rats, but he took 2 down before no problem. I hope I'm just being really paranoid. Any suggestions? Thanks
 
To help you any, a lot of questions are in order.

What are your temps?
How often did you feed?
What conditions did you use for feeding?
How much time did you allow the snake to have with its food?
What size tank is it in?
Do you feed in the tank or use a separate tank?
What is its substrate?
When do you feed? Daytime or nighttime?

I have three '05 JCPs at the moment, when they arrived one ate for its first feeding here, the other two took a couple of weeks. I found that the two stubborn snakes will eat in a brown bag. Here is the tricky part. I put them in the bag at night with their food and leave them over night, but they do not eat that night. I check on them in the morning just because, I leave them in the bags one more night, that is when they eat. This has worked for me everytime.
 
temps are 87 hot side 77 cold side, i fed him every 5 - 6 days, frozen thawed rat pinkies in a seperate container, i teased the snake with food and he usually takes it, when he didn't i left him alone for about an hour and he still didn't eat it. He's in a 10 gallon tank and i usually feed at night, 1 AM.
 
What is the humidity?
Do you heat the container when you leave him in it?
Have you tried using mice?

Try leaving him in with food for the entire night, sometimes they may not take until a couple of hours after staring at the rodent.
 
Humidity is 50% - 60%. He's eaten mice before, but I'm trying to get him on Rats (I'll try mice next feeding though). Also the container isn't heated, it's one of those critter keepers.
 
When it is cold around here I will use one of those $15 under tank heaters. I do not even remove the wax paper to stick it on. I just slide it under a small part of the tank, this is where I put the rodent, with the warmth the snake seemed attracted to it.

When you fed him before did you have to bump him with the pink or did you only dangle and simulate movement?
 
I just dangled it so that he would think the rat pink is still alive and strike at it. Someone told me that snakes usually don't feed as often when it gets colder, but I figured they would be reluctant feeders a little later in the year than now.
 
Well at the moment I am out of ideas. Even as babies they can go quite a while without eating, I had one baby that did not start eating until it was 6 weeks old, you may even want to try live too, being pinks you do not have to worry about harm to your snake. Maybe someone else can chip in, I hope I have been some help. Let us know when he starts eating again and what the trick was for him. Do you have a branch for him to sit on in his tank and when he is being fed? They are arboreal so he may be comfortable eating on a perch. I actually make little branches out of straws for my JCPs.
 
He has branches in his tank... Im guessing I'll try feeding him in an enclouse with branches. I also havnt actually checked on him eating mice since i attempted with rats only. He should come back to his normal eating habbits (he's a pig of he eats). Thanks for the help though, it definetly gave some extra ideas.
 
Good news!

My snake finally ate, I contacted Robbie Hamper (breeder from whom I purchased the snake from), and he told me to just feed him mice instead of rats since JCP's tend to avoid rats. I couldn't find fuzzy mice though so I bought pinkies. I left the snake in a feeding container and put 5 pinkies in there. I went out for 45 minutes and come back and 4 of the 5 were gone along with a stuffed snake. I guess the problem was rats, thanks for your help though, I really appreciate you guys trying to help me out.
 
Awesome! That is the best news I have read this morning. I am happy you have a fat snake, that was a lot of work wasn't it? Good job.
 
Thanks for the help Junkyard, what really gets me is that carpet pythons hate rats? I dont know why but right now Im screwed since I cant find frozen or live fuzzy/hopper mice so I'm forced to buy pinkies in a 6 pack for 5 dollars, its alright though, i just cant wait till the next expo to pick up mice.
 
Do you have a PetCo nearby? They sell Frozen. Or you can do what I started doing and breed your own mice, it sure has saved me a lot of money. Breed them and freeze them when they are at your required size.
 
lol, the day i have live mice in my house, my mother will flip. She's already had enough with 3 snakes and she doesnt even know about the third one. I went to a petco and what really upsets me is stores like petco, and petland discounts don't have a reliable supply of frozen feeder rodents, not even live either. I usually get sorta lucky since I haven't found frozen fuzzies yet.
 
Will your mother allow you to keep frozens in her freezer? If so, than you can get a big 100 pack of frozens from rodentpro, big cheese factory, doubleds, or someone else. That would save you money and worries, also they usually have fuzzies in stock.
 
i usually pick up mice at a local expo every 3 months but i picked up rats this time and unfortunetley only my corns will accept rat pinkies and my jcp eats mice. about rodent pro and all those other online feeder suppliers, i dont like to spend money on frozen rodents along with the shipping fees. its probably just me but i prefer purchasing things that i can physcially evaluate.
 
The statement that carpet pythons do not eat rats is simply not true. It would be much more accurate to say that carpet pythons develop strong food preferences. Once they "imprint" on a specific prey item, it can be a royal pain to get them off it. This is why most people recommend getting them on rats as early as possible. the techniques for getting carpets to take prey differ somewhat from those used for many other snakes. I addressed this on another thread, and will just copy/paste. If you have any questions/problems after reading/trying my suggestions, feel free to contact me.
Young carpets usually require the stimulation of tease feeding...not the bounce it around style that you probably use with BPs, though. Obviously, (if the hoppers are the appropriate size for them) these guys have been feeding fairly well, so you may not have to do too much messing with them. Babies respond best to sort of a "tap tease", in which you touch them with prey item - NOT ON THE FACE. lightly touch the body then quickly move the prey item up and tap the snake on the neck (hard to say how far down from the head without knowing how long they are). This should stimulate a strike. If not, do it again on the other side. Once they are feeding regularly, you shouldn't have to work that hard to get them to take food - but sometimes (new environment) you have to drop back to jump start them. Another thing that helps is giving them something to perch on, as young carpets tend to be fairly arboreal.
Click to expand...
One other hint - young carpets frequently prefer larger prey items (I start hatchlings on fuzzy mice, progress to crawlers after just a few feedings, then switch to rat pinks).
 
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