Won't eat, should I be concerned?

[EWC88]

It has been 2 weeks since my ball ate last. Now I haven't got to order in bulk as I usually do so I've been buying from petsmart/petco which their rat sizes are way off. So the last time my
Ball ate a "medium" rat it was no where near the medium he is use to, more like a decent large. I don't know if that is what's holding him over but he is refusing to eat. Snake doesn't show any signs of shedding so I'm not positive. I was going to give him a warm bath to see if that'll help but not sure.

Should I bathe him/her?

Should I be worried?

[Galaxygirl]

No, you shouldn't be worried, and I don't see how a bath will help, as that only removes essential oils and can make it harder for them to shed. If you're offering the large food, it may not be what he's used to/it's too big and he wants something smaller. Any changes in environment can make him fast. No reason to worry, they can go months and months without eating.

[AllThatInThemGenes]

How old is the snake? Could be many things but with us coming up on winter many balls will start to fast. 2 weeks is nothing to worry about. i also see no value in doing the bath.

[EWC88]

Yea the only thing I thought of with bath was it'll get him to go to bathroom and maybe for some odd reason he'll want to eat lol.

Snake is around 5-6 years old. Not positive on age because I got him from a friend who had him and he wasn't sure of age.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Snakes in captivity are over fed and if you feed mediums rats to a male this is definitely way more food than it needs so it is likely refusing to catch up.

BP can go of feed for various reason, hitting the "wall", seasonal, breeding, catching up etc.

If it persist make sure your husbandry is optimum and if it is wait it out.

Finally avoid bathing your snake it only adds unecessary stress and as we know stress can play a huge part in feedi bg refusal.

[redshepherd]

If he's of the size to be eating medium rats (and if medium rats are just about as wide as he is), eating once every 2~3 weeks is actually typical.

And no worries- at that size, he can go 3 months without eating before you'll need to worry. He will lose weight over that amount of time of course, but nothing outrageous.