Still not eating!

[Elisa616]

I posted over a month ago, concerned that my ball python (about 2 years old) hadn't eaten in almost 2 weeks. Several of you more experienced folks assured me it was normal for a female her age. But she STILL hasn't eaten and it's been over a month. Is this normal? She seems to be perfectly fine every other way but I'm concerned.

She had just graduated from mice to small rats and had eaten a few before going on her hunger strike. Today I bought an adult mouse, thinking maybe the rats were too big. But she still won't eat.

[Slim]

Lots of BPs go off feed this time of year, and some will go off at any time of the year just because they like to mess with us.

Do you have a digital scale so you can track her weight? It's pretty important to be able to do that.

If you could post a pic or a detailed description of your setup, we might be able to pick out any husbandry issues.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Adults do go of feed and it can last as long as a year, it is normal and if the animal has a good body weight there is nothing to worry about.

You need to make sure that the animal is well hydrated and see if there is anything you can do to help the animal resume feeding (smaller enclosure, less handling, making sure the temps are optimal etc), and if this has been addressed it's all about PATIENCE.

[Elisa616]

Hi Slim,

I'm not sure what a good weight would be for an almost 2 year old female, but Willow weighed 2 lb., 5.8 oz in January. Today she weighs 2 lb 4.2 oz... so a little loss.

I'm not able to get a good picture of her enclosure, but she's in a glass tank about 30"Lx12"Wx18"H, aspen shavings with some sphagnum peat moss that I try to keep moist; I have a hide on each end of the tank. The cool side is about 82 degrees and the warm about 85, although this tends to fluctuate a bit. I struggle to keep the humidity level right. I spray the sides of the tank and the peat moss to try and keep humidity up, but I don't do it as often as I should. I have a 75 watt red heat bulb on the top and have a good portion of the top covered to try and keep heat and humidity in. About 1/3 of the tank bottom has a heat pad.

If you think there's anything wrong with the set up, please let me know, but I will say these are the same conditions she's had since I got her at about 8 months and I've never had any feeding issues before now.

[Elisa616]

Hi Deborah ~

I'm not sure what a good body weight is for Willow... she's almost 2 years old and weighs 2 lb., 4.2 oz. She seems very healthy, has decent sheds... although I struggle with keeping my humidity level up so sometimes her sheds aren't complete so I soak her a bit to get the loose scales off.

How do I know if she is properly hydrated?

[Slim]

I understand her conditions have been constant, but you never, what didn't throw them off yesterday, may throw them off tomorrow. Your temp gradient between warm and cool is a bit narrow by most standards. Bumping the warm side up to around 90 degrees could help. If a snake is too cool to accomplish proper digestion, nature would most likely take over and keep her from eating as a safety measure. Just a thought.

How do you measure your temps? Ambient air temp or spot temp on the floor of the tank where she's at? Do you use an analog gauge or a digital thermometer?

[Elisa616]

I have a digital gauge that sits on one side and measures the ambient temp. It has a probe I put on the warm side to measure just under the bedding. I have the heat mat hooked up to a thermostat, but I'm not sure it's working properly. It's maxed out at 108 degrees, but the temp never gets higher than 90.

[Slim]

Ok, that's a good set up. To bump up the temp, you could consider changing to a thinner substrate, or (I don't want to start a thing here LoL) you could set her up in a tub. That would help both the temp and the humidity swing issues.

[Elisa616]

I'm not sure what you mean by setting her up in a tub... bathtub??

[Slim]

No Ma'am, this kind of tub:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...e-Basics-*DUW*