Not Eating? Seasonal? Questions?

[iVoodoo]

It's been awhile since was here a couple of months had a bad injury and surgery and such but good to be back! missed all you amazing ones!

So same thing I have been reading from others my girl stopped eating in December and I keep reading these posts about seasonal and periods from Nov-April non eating?

Can anyone enlighten me further,love to hear opinions and such.

I am not to worried about her, she is extremely healthy and doing just what she is supposed to do habit wise and about 750 grams.

Just blows me away how instinctual they can be living in these different parts of the world, I am in Western Canada (Vancouver) and its not cold here at all. seems no matter where anyones BP lives it goes through the same cycles?

Thanks all

[seeya205]

Check all you husbandry(temps,humidity,hides)! If its all good then just offer food evry feeding day! Your ambient(air) temp may be low! It should be above 75! I use a infered lamp to heat the air during winter months!

[Kaorte]

From my understanding it really depends on the snake. It is usually males who will go off feed during the breeding season and the females that will go off feed if they have been bred and are developing eggs.

[snakesRkewl]

I keep hearing about males going off feed, luckily I haven't experienced it myself
Mine seem to eat more ravenously during breeding season.

[CoolioTiffany]

Normally this can happen with husbandry problems because as stated before males are usually the ones who go off feed during the Winter months. What's your temps & humidity & ambient?

[j_h_smith]

Any BP can go off their feedings. It's natural, even when kept in captivity. Both sexes can stop feeding, I'm picking up a 1200 gram female Albino this weekend and she's been off her feedings since Nov, but just yesterday, ate 2 small rats according to the breeder.

The secret (if there is one) is to offer them a smaller prey item for their first couple of meals. My 780 gram female albino went off of her feeding for about a month. I got her to eat by feeding her large mice. She's pounding them now and after 4 feedings, she's going back on rats.

My 540 gram male albino went off of his feedings for Nov and Dec, he won't touch a mouse, so I had to wait him out. He's now pounding rats.

They're some mighty strange animals, but we love them.
Jim Smith

[metalkid]

What about not drinking water during these off-feeding periods?

One of our balls (a rescue that we spent 4.5 years tube feeding before she started eating on her own) has not been drinking water (as far as we can tell), nor has she left any pee-balls for the last two months. Is this normal?

She is otherwise healthy, isn't loosing any body mass, nor does she look dehydrated. She's alert and active when we hold her, but has spent the last two months "buried" under her towel under her hide box. Normally, she only does this when she pees and we have to change her bedding.

Should we be worried yet?

[Kaorte]

They won't last long without water so the fact that she looks good means she is probably drinking.

It is kind of concerning that you had to tube feed her for so long! What was wrong with her when you rescued her? Is she eating now?

[metalkid]

Her name is Ziti, because when we rescued her she was like a wet noodle, with no will to live. she had been severly abused, teased with probably oversized live prey, and apparently thrown against a wall. She was about to be put into a freezer in the back of an exotic pet store, (still barely alive!!!) to be used as food for snake eating snakes, when we intervened and demanded that they let us have a go at saving her.

We feed her Science Diet A/D mixed with water, and she slowly started to put on weight. Eventually we got her to eat spiny mice, but that supply became unavailable. She made the switch to white mice (frozen/thawed of course, we don't feed live anything) and recently tried a gerbil, since that's what one of our other finicky balls likes, but she didn't go fo that either.

So you think that she must be drinking, since she's otherwise doing well?

[Kaorte]

Yikes! Well, like most animal including humans, ball pythons can go much longer without food then without water.

If she is particularly picky, I would see if she would take a live african soft furred rat. I know you don't like the idea of live but sometimes that is what they need to keep them on a regular feeding schedule. See if you can find an asf breeder near you. Picky ball pythons will more often then not take an asf regularly. Plus, gerbils can get expensive. Asfs are also a natural food source for ball pythons.