Is she scared of her food???

[stormshadow]

Hi all,
A few weeks ago I put a rat in my BP's cage. She was hungry and went for it immediately. She wrapped around it and I thought it was ok but she was wrapped mostly around the bottom end of the body. After about 5 mins she let go and the rat jumped straight up and ran off. The rat was spooked so I took it out and tried to feed a few days later.....nothing. So I waited a week and nothin. Another 4-5 days and nothing!

She knows the rat is there, she shows interest for a while, gets close to it, smells it etc but seems almost scared of it.

Anyone else had this problem?

[Solarsoldier001]

How old is she? How is the cage set up? Any hides? How's the humidity? And what are the temps?

[stormshadow]

She is about 2 years as a guess. Cage is 3 foot by 1 foot. She has hides on the cool end and on the heated end - both fit her snuggly. Humidity is about 55-60 and temp is 80 on the warm side but she spend most of her time on the cool side.

[Homegrownscales]

80s on warm side? Way too cold. It should be at least 90-92.f. That could be a reason for the nonfeed.
The cooler temps most certainly could have put her in a "cooling" period. They will stop eating or massively slow down if their temps aren't warm enough. Another thing do you know for a fact that this is a female? Males commonly go off food in the winter months with no issues even being kept at proper temps. Females will as well but they will usually do that is theyre brumating or breeding (mostly later in the breeding cycle).
My advice first and foremost would be to up those temps! Give him/her a chance to get warmer. Most of the time this will spark the appetite. Though It can take a little while sometimes. Keep offering food but I Have a feeling That the temps are the issue.


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[heathers*bps]

Also, what size prey are you feeding her?

[Solarsoldier001]

Well her hot side should be around 89-90 and the cool side should be 75-80 I believe. My snake is over 1000 grams and she'll stare at her food as if she'll want it and once she smells it she won't care for it anyone more. I've heard that over 600 gram snakes tend to not want to eat around this time of year. I'm not completely sure about that. As I know they'll eat when they're ready. I have a picky 300gram Mojave. She apparently will only eat if she has complete privacy. So we bunch up alot of newspaper to give her that privacy. When I tried to feed her without the privacy, she in a way would play with her food. Meaning if the rat came near she bite it, but not eat it. She never wanted the rat in her cage and she just kept being irritated that it was there

[John1982]

If she's a new snake, ask the person she came from what they were feeding. She could be used to f/t or prekilled or maybe just having not gotten a good wrap on a live rat freaked her out. If she was wrapped around the bottom half and the rat was still alive when she relinquished her grip 5 minutes later I'd be giving her a good looking over for battle wounds.

[stormshadow]

Hey sorry I wasn't clear. It's about 90F on the warm side in her hide, outside of her hide the temperature drops to about 80. Perhaps the problem is that it is too warm in the warm side hide?...she never had much propensity to go in the warm side hide even when young and she had gradually outgrown her hides but still rarely uses the warm side.

I've had her since she was a baby. Never really been a fussy eater but sometimes goes off food (don't they all though)!

I'm not really concerned about her not eating, i'm more concerned that she attacked the rat, made a good effort to kill it, but failed and now seems kinda scared or at least not interested in eating. I mean, she must be hungry or she wouldn't have gone for it in the first place.

Thanks to you all for helping me with this.

Oh... and no, I don't know she is a she. I tried popping and failed to get anything and she has almost non-existent tail hooks so best guess is a girl.

[Homegrownscales]

The spurs mean nothing for sexing. As well as I have seen a few Of mine get irritated at the rat and do a "defensive" kill. They killed it but leave it. If the temps are more in the 90s in the warm hide that's a ton better than 80s. But I would double check the temps. Being absolutely positive helps. Also make sure you are using a digital therm. Too hot will cause issues and it only takes a few degrees to go from perfect to too hot.
What's the snakes weight?


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[Homegrownscales]

Btw the rat thing... I have a couple girls and a male that when they are off food and I put a rat in there they'll strike it, kill it but leave it. When some aren't hungry and the food is bugging them or even in their space they will kill it. A strike and kill doesn't necessarily mean the snake was absolutely hungry.


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