Odd behavior

[racinstrat]

Lately my female normal has been acting rather odd, she's about 2 yrs old, 1500gr, and lately it seems she has an extreme hunger, I feel she would eat everyday If I would let her, she's quite active in her tank, always back and forth across it, she just shed about 2-3 weeks ago a d is now in shed again, she hasn't went #2 since she last shed, but passes everything else ok, what is going on here?

[Jon14]

Check your husbandry (temps, humidity, etc.). It is completely normal for a snake to wait until after a shed to expel waste.

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[JoshSloane]

There is absolutely no definitive way to know if a snake is hungry. A snake moving around its enclosure isnt necessarily hungry. We as people can't be dumb enough to assume we understand anything about the emotions surrounding feeding behavior of a primordial animal like snakes.

there is nothing wrong with your snake.

[JodanOrNoDan]

I agree with Josh for the most part. Moving around a lot could mean she is looking for food or a lot of other things. I however can tell when my animals are looking for food. Working with the assumption she is hungry it is possible for her to be wanting more food than she is getting. We need to remember that ball pythons are designed as feast or famine animals. We feed on a schedule because it is convenient for us. A female that is preparing to breed will pound rats if you let her. That same female will also decide enough is enough and go off food for a couple months. Within reason I feed my female breeding stock when they are hungry and I do not freak out when they do not want to eat. I do have one girl that would eat herself to death if I let her, but only one. If you are not breeding, keeping the females on a strict feeding schedule is probably the best way to go, otherwise she is going to be preparing her body for an event that will never happen.

[racinstrat]

I fully intend on breeding her and I guess that was what my under lying question was to begin with, is this her going into breeding mode?

[JodanOrNoDan]

I fully intend on breeding her and I guess that was what my under lying question was to begin with, is this her going into breeding mode?

My answer is probably not going to be real helpful. All healthy happy females are in breeding mode. Reproduction is the primary function of all animals. A good appetite on a properly sized female is my first indication that she is probably going to be ready to go. That said my females are done for the year and have already been bred. The first clutch was laid two weeks ago. You are not going to know her cycle until she actually starts to breed since there is no set period other than the ones we try to create. Most of my girls started slamming rats around October. I introduced males on Thanksgiving day. I bred six females this year. Two not before late December. Four went off food around the beginning of January. The other two went off food last month. The way things look now I will get a total of five clutches this season. In short you have to know your animals and watch the signs. The only way you will know any of this for sure is breed yourself for a season and document everything that happens or work with someone that has already gone through a couple seasons and can read your animals.