Hungry, but not eating

[xFenrir]

So maybe you all have seen my posts over the summer months about how my Spider wouldn't eat. Well, now she's hungry, as soon as she sees me put down paper towels she's out with her neck all curled up, waiting. If she sees the bag with the mouse in it through the tank she strikes the glass.

She always tags and coils and swallows it halfway, but then she spits it out and wants nothing to do with it after that. This is driving me up the wall! She's obviously hungry, but she won't eat. I'm feeding her smaller prey, because I thought that maybe I was giving her something too big and she was having trouble with it, but I have no idea why she eats halfway and then spits it out. Any thoughts?

[zeion97]

Hmmm... now this is a pickle. If you're feeding her smaller, try larger. Some snakes once you get them on a larger meal only want to eat larger. After we fed our Burmese And our juvenile ball there first rats they decided "psssh I don't want mice any more" the only other thin I could think of is Maybe it hurts to swallow..? I'm stumped on this but I thought I would lend of the advice of trying to way larger.

[TheWinWizard]

What size and how much does it weigh?

[dr del]

Hi,

Also how are you thawing it and heating it before offering?

Have you ever tried reheating and offering it to the snake again after it has spat it back out?


dr del

[piedplus]

When one of my Pieds was a 100g baby, she stopped eating. I went all the way down to a 1 gram pinky mouse to get her going again. I would heat her meal well, grasp it with tongs, and follow her around the cage with it. Sometimes I think she started eating again just to get me to stop bothering her. I worked her back up slowly, and now she's a little pig.

My 700g Clown stopped eating and nothing's worked except live. I'm trying to get him back to frozen/thawed... I hate feeding live!

[OtterGoRun]

Is it possible she is sick or something as well? Just another thing to think about.

[spud6]

its sucks but try live

[dr del]

Hi,

Another thing to consider is she may want more privacy while eating?

Do you feed her and then leave her alone or do you stand near her watching?


dr del

[xFenrir]

She is around 625g's, and she gets mice that are probably about 25-30g's if I had to hazard a guess (the person I bought them from said they were the "large" size). They are about as round as a half dollar, sometimes a little bigger. I heat it up in a zip-lock bag in lukewarm/warm water, offer and wait 'til she grabs it, and then walk away for about 20-30 minutes.

I've tried reheating and offering again but she turns her nose up at it every time. It's like after she spits it out she gets scared of it. I've thought of the "being sick" part, she's making clicking and popping noises like when she had an RI, but there's no bubbling or excess mucous (she's still getting a trip to the vet, this time we're doing a culture to make sure we don't miss anything). But when she had an RI she had NO appetite whatsoever. She's super eager to eat at first, but halfway through she just can't get it down and gives up.

[piedplus]

She is around 625g's, and she gets mice that are probably about 25-30g's if I had to hazard a guess (the person I bought them from said they were the "large" size). They are about as round as a half dollar, sometimes a little bigger. I heat it up in a zip-lock bag in lukewarm/warm water, offer and wait 'til she grabs it, and then walk away for about 20-30 minutes.

I've tried reheating and offering again but she turns her nose up at it every time. It's like after she spits it out she gets scared of it. I've thought of the "being sick" part, she's making clicking and popping noises like when she had an RI, but there's no bubbling or excess mucous (she's still getting a trip to the vet, this time we're doing a culture to make sure we don't miss anything). But when she had an RI she had NO appetite whatsoever. She's super eager to eat at first, but halfway through she just can't get it down and gives up.

Betcha anything it's too cool on the inside. As soon as she senses that, out it comes. Try heating in hot tap water until the outside measures about 100 degrees. I would also weigh each meal and keep track of how much she's taking, or not taking, each time. If necessary, try going down to 1% of body weight to get her started again. I think it would be a shame to go to live since she's hitting on the f/t, but that would be a good last resort. Good luck!
PS - IMO rats are better than mice.