Male GTP fast in winter?

[Zoe]

I've had my male, Victor, for about two years now and he is about 3 years old. Other than when in shed, he has always been a great feeder, but he has refused his last two meals.

I was getting worried but realized that male GTPs may stop feeding in the winter. However, I have not lowered the temps at all and he did not do this last winter.

Nothing else in his husbandry has changed. He eats f/t rodents.
Glass vivarium, 2 x 1.5 x 2, several perches, 89F directly under the RHP, down to about 81F cool end. Not sure of the exact humidity but I spray heavily once a day and it dries out by the time I spray again.

No sign of any RI, scale rot, etc. He shed a few weeks ago.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Brandon Osborne]

Males will typically fast during the winter months and bounce back in the spring. My first male fasted from sept through april the next year and barely lost any weight at all.

[TrpnBils]

He didn't do it last year probably because he wasn't ready to breed at that time. They'll do it whether or not there's a female around, but it might be more likely to happen if there is one.

I've noticed two things and have talked to other breeders about this:

1. If you haven't sexed them yet (which it sounds like you have), one way to guess is to follow feeding records after they change over. Males seem to stop feeding more often than females after the color change is done for the most part
2. The pickiest, most pain-in-the-butt male (with regards to feeding anyway ) is usually the best breeder compared to one that eats every available meal. The same can be said about a lot of snakes to some extent...if you have an overweight snake, they're less likely to breed successfully

One of my ~2 year old males just came off of a feeding strike of about two months. He ate two weeks ago, but then refused food again last week...sometimes they just do that for awhile where they'll skip lots of meals and then take one with such force it looks like you've been purposely starving them or something.

[Zoe]

Hi folks,

Thanks, good to know! As I was falling asleep last night I realized that he stopped eating around the time that his sexy new neighbour, a young lady GTP, moved in next door.

[vangarret2000]

Even though you didn't change his husbandry reptiles can sometimes sence the change in barometric pressure during the winter season. If they notice the change they can still go off food, because mating will be on their mind instead.