Restarting the feeding cycle.

[Gio]

We have a 1.5 year old female Royal. She is roughly 650-660 grams. She is eating F/T medium rats. Once the cold weather hit she went from weekly to monthly feedings (the rats are pretty large for mediums). As things have dragged on we are at 2 months with no eating. I've tried a couple of times and have seen interest, but then she ends up passing. The previous 2 feedings that she did take the rat, it was left in over night. The last 2 attempts she has not even eaten in that fashion.

I did try bumping up temps a degree to compensate for the weather and cooler indoor temps, but that did not change things.

I have considered trying a live feed to get her interested again, but I don't want that to become the routine, only a jumpstart. IF I do it, #1 would I be better off offering a small rat instead of medium? #2 would that ruin my F/T'd routine (we don't want to feed live always)?

#3 Is it worth trying at all?

I don't think 2 months is a particularly long time without food, but I didn't think the "shutdown" would start before her 2nd B-day.

A live feed would be VERY carefully supervised and after 20-30 mins, I would euthanize the rat and freeze it.

Thoughts,,

[Inarikins]

You can try live. This time of the year, and depending on her weight, she might be in the mood to breed (even though she's small) and not eat. If she's not losing a lot of weight, I wouldn't worry too much they tend to go off feed this time of the year. My girl hasn't eaten much at all since September but also hasn't been losing weight, so I'm just waiting her out. It's unlikely she would get 'stuck' on live after one feeding, but it's always possible.

[Gio]

Hey,, thank you for the response. Looks like this was not a popular topic, but I thank you for taking the time to answer. I decided to try fresh kill, and she didn't take it. The guy at the reptile store said what you stated almost word for word. I'll give her some time as he thought it may be another month or 2 before she gets back into the feeding cycle.

Thanks again.

[BHReptiles]

How many grams are your medium rats? I have a 750g ball python male and I JUST switched him over to SMALL rats. Even those are a little large. If your medium rats are larger than the size of the snake's widest girth, then the rats are probably too big. Try feeding something smaller and see if you get any interest.

[Wapadi]

I too say wait her out. Females are typically all over the place when it comes to eating this time of year. And I also would stick with a small rat. My snakes dont get a med rat, well hardley ever and then only the really really huge girls (over 2000g at least!)

[gsarchie]

I would go with the live rat on her next regularly scheduled feeding day, but I second that at her size a small would be more than enough. I have a female spider, that is about the same size and age as yours, and I fed her average sized smalls 95% of the time. She did take a medium once when a larger girl didn't want to eat but that was the only time, and she skipped her next meal because her that one had been so large. Do you have any pictures of your girl that you could post here? I have a male that hasn't eaten this calendar year but up until late November he had been slamming small rats on the regular. This time of year does it to them, for sure.

[snakesRkewl]

weanling rats

[Gio]

She has been on medium rats for a few months now and takes them easily. I'm not overly concerned with size as the girth of the rat is slightly, if that, larger than her girth. However if you are talking about a live rat, then YES I would probably downsize for safety. She didn't stop her feeding until after her last rat X-mas day. From the sounds of things this is the normal time for the females to shut down. I just thought maybe this year since she is so young she'd continue through this season.

Thanks for the replies everybody.

[NewAtIt]

Hello Forum:

My ball python has not eaten in the past 2-3 months. I had to take him to the vet once before and administer injections/antibiotics when this happened in the past.

Should I be concerned, or could it be that the snake is being a snake and dealing with the change in climates.

Usually he eats Med F/T rates every 21 days. He will approach the prey sniff all around it, but will not eat and just returns to his hide.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I adopted this snake 3 years ago, and when I took him in I promised to give him a good life and to provide, care for him

just as I do my other animals/pets.

[Gio]

Hey, sounds like you are a great owner. People with more experience than I have, have told me this is the season they stop feeding. I was having the exact same reaction to the rats. I thought I'd get her to eat, but then she just bailed.

My reptile shop guy said to still try feeding, but not to expect much. As long as they are not dropping weight things should be OK.