My Ball python isn't eating.. help?

[Supernova]

Hi, I don't know how to start this off so i'll give a quick backstory. I got my second snake, Aries, around 5 months ago. My first snake i only got a month before her so i'm new to snake keeping but i do understand that bp's are notorious for going on hunger strikes.
Aries is 2.5 years old and was only 427 grams when i got her. I almost didn't believe the breeder about her age because of her weight but judging by her length and comparing her to my other snake who is a year younger than she is, i think she probably is the age they told me. The breeder told me she was a picky eater often refusing to eat and would only eat smaller sized rats since she wouldn't even bother with larger ones, which would explain her weight.
I gave her a month to settle in, only checking in on her to offer her a rat or top up her water and spray her tub, and she settled in well.

Since i got her, she was eating on and off every week, so she'd eat one week, not eat the next, and so on. She did that or a month and a half and then started eating consistantly for 9 weeks, only skipping two meals. She put on 100 grams and was steadily gaining weight at the same rate as my other snake (who is now 750 grams so she's fallen behind so much). When i came to feed her a week later, she struck the rat and decided not to eat it. No big deal. Next week she did the same thing. Then the week after, and now she hasn't eaten for 8 weeks. I understand some snakes go for months and months without food but her weight is what is worrying me along with some other strange behaviours.

She always without fail strikes the rat that i offer to her. She coils it, and constricts when i wiggle it around but she never eats it. I've tried lifting her cave and feeding her inside the cave, having her come out of the cave to take the rat, covering her tub, keeping her tub uncovered. Feeding her before my other snake, feeding her after my other snake. Giving her white rats, coloured rats, rats sizing from 21 grams to 36 grams (which i know isn't huge but while she was eating, those were the only sized rats she would take, the biggest she'd eaten was 40grams). I've tried not wiggling the rat after she strikes it, leaving it with her for 30 mins/two hours/overnight. I've offered her room temp rats, warm rats, hot rats. She always shows interest once she smells the rat, she comes out of her cave and flicks her tongue around looking at the rat and strikes consistantly, but won't eat. I've started to offer her food less often, every 10 days but i'm thinking about making it two weeks.

For the past two weeks, she's been coming out of her cave and wandering around every single night. Nothing about her husbandry has changed. She's in a 2 x 1.5 ft tub (i was planning on upgrading her until she stopped eating and now i don't know what to do), heat mats on both the cool (26-27C) and hot (32-33C) sides. Two identical caves over each side, lots of fake leaves for cover, a large water dish, and reptile prime substrate. I checked her temps today before posting and i checked them directly with a temp gun, along with digital probe thermometers. Temps are monitored using habistat thermostats on both mats. And her humidity is usually in the high 50's to low 60's range unless she's shedding so i'll raise it higher. I've recently covered up her tub so she can't see out of it in case that was causing her stress, i don't know if that was the right decision?

Also she is ALWAYS in her cool side cave. I rarely ever see her in the hot side cave, but her temps are where they're meant to be so it surely couldn't be because it's too hot for her?

I have no idea why she's suddenly stopped eating after making such good progress, why she always strikes the rats but never eats them, why she's now coming out of her cave every night for seemingly no reason, why she's only using her cool side cave, so i was hoping someone could offer some help? Also her weight worries me. I've been monitoring her weight and she's lost almost 30 grams since she stopped eating (she's now 491g).

I honestly don't know what to do. Everything went perfectly with my other snake, he was eating live rats when i got him and took a F/T rat the first time i fed him, he's only ever missed 1 meal in 5 months, and hasn't given me any issues at all.

I just want to make sure Aries is okay and that she's not going to die on me, i'd be devastated if anything happened to her so any help is muchly appreciated. I'm trying to resist the urge to rush her to my exotic vet since i know they can't really do much for a snake that isn't eating, but it's the other strange behaviours and her initial weight that has me worried the most.

[Supernova]

Anyone? Nobody has any ideas why she's acting this way? If anything is off with my care or if anyone has experienced this with their own snakes, please let me know.

I've decided to take her to the vets today anyway since nobody seems to want to offer any help, i'm not going to sit around worrying.

[Lord Sorril]

Aries is 2.5 years old and was only 427 grams when i got her.

Given this fact: I could give you a 4 page shopping list of potential issues.

Taking it to a qualified Vet is a good idea.

[Supernova]

I'm heading to the vets in 10 mins but would really appreciate hearing any potential issues or concerns you might know of on top of seeing my vet. I'm really looking for any help possible since i just want to get her healthy, eating, and putting on weight.

[JRLongton]

Please update us after the vet visit. Best wishes.

[Supernova]

Finally back from the vets. Sorry if i seemed snappy at all in any previous posts, i'm just worried about my snake. I wish i'd taken her to the vet sooner but i kept telling myself snakes stop eating all the time, as long as she doesn't drastically lose weight she'll pick back up and be okay. But of course i should have listened to myself when i noticed her strange behaviour.

The vet checked her over, felt along the length of her body for any obvious problems, looked in her mouth, weighed her (she's 500g). Asked me questions and i told him everything i wrote here. He agreed that nothing seems out of the ordinary with her care, but considering her weight, strange behaviours, and since she's interested in the rats but wont eat them he suggested running some tests on her.

I'm taking her back in on Monday for x-rays to look for any possible internal problems, blood tests, cloacal swabs, and they're going to give her Critical Care while she's in. And he wondered if something is causing her pain while she's trying to swallow the rat which could explain why she always strikes but never eats it, and why she will only eat much smaller sized rats.


Does anyone have any thoughts about all of this or have experienced anything similar?

I feel like i've messed up big time for not taking her to a vet sooner, but i'll update again on Monday if anyone is interested?

[Dianne]

Failure to feed can be a number of different issues, from winter fasts to husbandry that’s off to underlying medical issues. It’s not something that can 100% be diagnosed through a post. Most of us would probably agree that going off feed isn’t unusual and 8 weeks isn’t that long as long as she’s maintaining good body condition and hasn’t lost much weight. I personally would bump feeding attempts out to every two weeks. For my own snakes, only juveniles (under 1 year) are fed weekly. Usually i switch to every two weeks somewhere between 1-1.5 years of age. I try to keep my snakes a bit leaner for health, rather than packing on weight, slow and steady is my preference. This is also how I handled two of my rescues (bp and Colombian rainbow) even though both were extremely malnourished and under weight. In those cases especially I believe in a slower pace to allow their system to adjust from little/no food to regular smaller meals. The larger the meal, the more energy required to digest.

Currently my bp Artemis has yet to eat for me, 3 year old female purchased 9/2/18. I’m switching her to f/t because I din’t want to risk live rats, which is what her previous owner fed her. That will be a last resort. She still has good body condition and her setup is correct (88-90F hot spot, 80-82F cool side) though humidity has dropped to the 50’s thanks to turning on the house heat. She’d go to the vet if there were any signs of health issues, but there aren’t, so I’m waiting her out.

[Supernova]

I also agree that not eating for 8 weeks isn't unusual which is why i kept waiting her out until she hopefully would take a rat again. She hasn't lost much weight, and has actually lost less weight than i originally thought, and is still heavier than when i bought her, but since last week her body condition has dropped and she looks awful. You can slightly see her back bone when looking at her but when holding her she feels like a bony triangle. I've been weighing her every week and i'm certain she wasn't like this last week which is part of what has me so worried.

I'll definitely try feeding her every two weeks now after all of the stress from the vet trip on Monday dies down. Would it be worth trying to feed her an even smaller rat than what i've been offering? She's already eating such small rats and i've been picking out the smallest ones of the lot for her as well, so i don't know whether to take them down another size?