Almost 4 months since he ate. What to do?

[Marissa@MKmorphs]

My 2010 super pastel male has been off food for about 3.5 months now after I switched him in to my new rack. He was feeding on f/t medium rats and was just at 1000g before his hunger strike. I have been offering every week. I've tried f/t rats, p/k rats, live rats, f/t mice, p/k mice and live mice. He has lost some weight and is about 875g now. He seems stressed in his tub but I don't know why. He has a hide and the room has pretty much no foot traffic. Temps are correct and stable. I don't know what could be causing him to not eat.




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[Daybreaker]

What is he on for substrate? Me and my bf recently put our bigger ones (who went off feed too) on aspen (over paper towels) so they could burrow to see if that gave them more security to start up eating again, and we've been having luck with that.

Have you left F/T feeders in with him overnight? Have you tried offering at different times of the day instead of just in the evenings (or whenever you offer)?

Maybe offer every 2 weeks over every week?

[R3dn0ze]

I'm not an expert but I think it's time to try putting in some live prey in the cage (try harmless pinkies as a start?), 4 months is just unhealthy!

[Daybreaker]

I'm not an expert but I think it's time to try putting in some live prey in the cage (try harmless pinkies as a start?), 4 months is just unhealthy!

Bolded: It's actually not unheard of for balls to go off feed for a couple/several months, especially when they get to the age when other matters (sex) are driving them. As long as the snake isn't losing dangerous amount of weight four months is nothing in terms of time IMO and not particularly unhealthy.

[iCandiBallPythons]

Wait it out. I used to feed med rats but would end up having more refusals so i switched to small rats and hardly have any refusals.

[Marissa@MKmorphs]

He is currently on paper towels. He has been in aspen before but he wouldn't ever burrow, he would just sit on top.

I have tried leaving f/t in with him over night. I'm not sure about leaving a live pinky because that would only be about 1/2 the size of his head lol


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[versicolor]

My female Mojave (500 grams when I got her around 2 months ago) stopped eating for 6 weeks. She ate two X-large F/T mice the first two weeks, but refused everything after that. I tried everything I could think of just like you with no luck. Two weeks ago I went to the pet shop and picked up 2 live mice, I wanted large ones because she is not exactly a small snake at 500 grams. All the local shop had was a couple of small mice, just a snack for sure, but I bought them anyways because I wanted to at least keep trying. I put one in her tub and after about an hour I checked in on her and the mouse was gone. She ate it! I kept thinking the thing might have escaped because I just could not believe that she actually ate it. So I put the other mouse in there and before I could slide the tub back in the rack she had struck and constricted it, and ate that one too. This past weekend I bought a small/medium live rat and put it in the tub. All she did was strike at the thing. Never once did she attempt to constrict. Out comes the rat to be fed to my big normal female who ate it immediately by the way. So I went out and got another couple of small mice, and whaddaya know she ended up eating both. Keep in mind I had previously tried a live mouse, but it was on the larger side.

So what I have concluded is that for some reason right now she is simply intimidated and stressed by anything larger than a small mouse. So now, to my chagrin, I am going into the mouse/rat breeding hobby. LOL. Something I was convinced I would not have to do. Welcome to the world of ball pythons right?. My advice is to give a couple of small mice a shot. Smaller than what you would think to feed. See if that works, maybe you'll get lucky.

Paul
KING KONG CONSTRICTORS

[oskyle1567]

I had a 4 month streak broken 2 weeks ago. My normal girl decided it was time to eat and has eaten 2 weeks in a row i wouldnt worry just wait it out.

[DooLittle]

Bolded: It's actually not unheard of for balls to go off feed for a couple/several months, especially when they get to the age when other matters (sex) are driving them. As long as the snake isn't losing dangerous amount of weight four months is nothing in terms of time IMO and not particularly unhealthy.

X2 ^^ Plus, pinkies are too small of prey for him. Might try every two weeks, and don't sweat it too much. He will eat when he's hungry. . They just like to drive us nuts and make us worry.

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[PitOnTheProwl]

My spider went off last September...........Just started eating again about 3 weeks ago.
He went from 1200ish to about 800g. He is back to 1000g already.