6+ month fasting....keep waiting?

[Kona's Daddy]

Hi, all.

It has been awhile since I posted...and I come to you with a question.

My male Pied has not eaten since January 1st of this year. His husbandry has remained the same for the duration of his stay with me...and all temps and such are spot on.

I am offering food 1x per week, and he's in hard-refusal mode. He hasn't lost much weight...but it is getting to the point where I'm getting a little worried. Do I stay the course...or take him to the vet for a check-up?

No signs of illness, whatsoever.

KD

[Kona's Daddy]

Side note - he is one of 5 BPs I own...and I keep all in identical enclosures with identical care set-ups. 4 eat like there is no tomorrow...but "Brat" (my Pied looks like a white bratwurst with eyes) doesn't care to partake.

Hotspot - 90 degrees (controlled by Herpstat 4)
Cool spot - 82 degrees
Ambient - 84 degrees
2 hides (one on each side)
1 waterbowl
Natural Lighting

Refuses F/T, P/K, Live on both rats and mice.

[brock lesser]

Stay the course, if there are no other issues he's just being a bp.
I also think pieds are more difficult feeders anyway.

[bcr229]

I feel your pain. My oldest male fasted from early October last year through April of this year, ate weekly for a few weeks, and now seems to have settled himself into an every two week schedule. Another has been fasting since early December, with no end in sight. A third just took a rat last weekend after he shed - he had been fasting since January. These guys are all in racks with the same temperatures, humidity, etc. as my other BP's that are eating everything I put in front of them.

All you can do is monitor his weight, and wait it out.

[slickshadowrunner]

A truly real risk that you run is if you get a BP refusing food for long enough, it becomes a habit for it to refuse food when offered it, which it will start doing even if it is hungry and will therefore allow itself to starve to death. I would stop the weekly attempts for a bit to make sure that it has not become used to refusing food. When my normal starts refusing food for whatever reason, I stagger her feedings so that she never becomes accustomed to turning down food. Switch to once every two weeks or even longer between offerings. If the BP is fasting for six+ months, going an extra week or two without food won't matter. In the wild they have been known to last longer than nine months between feedings.

[aalomon]

It may sound weird, but have you tried a deep clean? It works for me when breaking a ball of a long fast (it doesnt seem to work with picky eaters though). Im using tubs and Ill completely scrub the tub, everything in it and change the substrate. Sometimes I move the tub to a different level, or if I have new tubs around I move the ball to a brand new tub. Im not really changing the conditions, more like setting everything back to new. Then I wait 2-3 weeks and offer food. I have no idea why, but its worked for me every time.

[Gio]

It's not recommended, but I went through the same thing 6+ months one year, then a very picky summer where she would not strike the prey to another 5 months of refusing I broke and fed live.

She eats like there is no tomorrow now, but it's extremely inconvenient for me as we won't keep live rats here and then there are the other issues that go with live feeding that aren't all that great. So far we have not had problems but I'm counting on something not going perfectly at some point.

I tried it once to see if it would "jump start" her. It did, but I can't get her to take F/T'd any longer.

I agree that once they start refusing it becomes a habit then it is very difficult to get them going.

Get yourself a backup boa constrictor LOL!

Mine will eat anything it can.

Good luck!

[CORBIN911]

Like others have said try a deep clean Even try switching his house with another bp's

Also a few tricks that i try to help break it.


1) Offer a live "weanling" either rat/mouse/AFS to get there instinct and hunger back up after a small meal.

2) Deep clean as other said, change hides/water bowl. try to change it around even positioning of there interior or add some small things

3) Dont continue to offer every 7 days on the dot. This will become a habbit, Yess they dont have aspect of time but i feel like they learn a pattern, All... well MOST of mine know when feed day vs clean/water/looking, on thrusdays there heads are ALWAYS at the front waiting.... So try to offer at odd times.

Day 3-Day 15-Day 16-Day 22-Day 30-Day 1-Day 25. (2 month break) I have found offering at random times sometimes helps speed it up! Again this is with only around 20+/- snakes going on fast.

[Kona's Daddy]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!

I TOOK A FEW SUGGESTIONS, AND DEEP-CLEANED HIS ENCLOSURE, SWAPPED SUBSTRATE TO REPTI-BARK, AND THREW A THAWED WEANED RAT IN THERE. THEN I BLACKED OUT THE SLIDING GLASS DOOR...AND WALKED AWAY. AN HOUR LATER - NO MORE RAT.



I appreciate the advice, ya'll. We're back to 'normal' again.

Have a great Sunday!

[brock lesser]

Good deal!