Not eating and I don't know why

[eviltwin]

Hey everyone. I know this is yet another noob question about not eating but I really don't know what the deal is. first I wanted to apologize for the length but I wanted to be sure that I explain everything I've done so I can give a clear picture with the hopes that someone can point out what I'm doing wrong.

I've had my ball for about two months now. When I first got him he was about 15" long and I put him in a standard 10 gallon tank. I made sure he was nice and cozy.

One hide on each side, 80-83 on cool side, 90-93 on warm side, humidity 50-60 percent. I did make the mistake of not leaving him alone for a week to begin with because I didn't read up until a couple of days after I got him. I fed him a f/t fuzzy mouse (~8g) the day after he came home. No problems feeding. Upped the mouse to a f/t large mouse (~19 g) once a week with him still seeming hungry afterward. He seemed to be getting a little bigger as time went on. 3 weeks ago he went blue so I immediately bumped up humidity to 75-80% and left him alone. I didn't feed him during this period. About a week later he shed perfectly (Yeah!) and I was quite proud at managing to be a good daddy.
The day after he shed I went to feed Inari and while he seemed to smell the mouse and was quite avidly looking for it he seemed unwilling to strike. I thought maybe it wasn't warm enough so I made sure it was plenty warm as well as making sure the head was the warmest part. Still no go. Each time I made sure to do the dead mouse dance to entice him. Finally I gave up and left it in the tank in case my presence deterred him from striking. I didn't expect this to work but figured I would try and see what happened. No go.

I waited 3 days to try again to feed him again with one handling for 30 minutes on the second day afterward. It was at this point that I noticed that he was significantly bigger than I remembered. I now noticed that he was more like 20-22" and proportionately thicker. This attempt was similar in every way including the failure to strike.

Waited 4 days to try again. One handling for 30 minutes. Still no eating.

At this point I decided to give him a week of alone time with no handling and I added some balls of newspaper to help him feel more secure. I noticed during this time lots of activity at night with the usual looking for food behavior.

A week went by and I tried again. Still no strike. Lots of interest and looking around but no acknowledgement of the actual mouse.

One other note: Feedings were always at night with no lights on but the infrared light for his tank.

This brings me to now where I'm feeling like a bad parent because I can't feed my hungry child. I can only come to three conclusions.

1. The tank is now too small for him and he won't eat because he's feeling crowded.

2. He's not hungry because he's eaten pretty well and is just being a normal nocturnal animal which I'm interpreting as hunger.

3. He's punishing me for being overly confident about my care of him and actually orders delivery mice while I'm at work.

I know that he can probably go awhile longer without eating with no worries but I feel like he's still young and still needs food to grow.

What should I do? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Sadie]

I'm going to go with #3.....

I'd say that you are disrupting him too often- with feeding attempts and handling. First check your temps etc. then stop handling him completely, and wait a full week before offering food again. The tank size is fine assuming that we're talking about a 2006 baby here.

[JLC]

I think Sadie nailed the most likely culprit. You're just trying too hard. Best to offer food just ONCE a week. And if the snake is "off feed" then it is also best to keep any handling to a bare minimum needed to keep his environment clean and freshly watered.


The tank size is fine. They don't need tons of room to feel comfortable. They prefer things snug.

It's possible that you've been over-feeding him and he's just "catching up."

A question that comes to mind is to wonder where his tank is located. If its in a high-traffic area where there is lots of movement or noise (speaker vibrations and the like) or lots of flashy lights (big TV shining too close to his cage)...things like that could be making him feel too insecure to want to eat.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

To have a BP that feed with consistency it is in my experience best to have an establish scheddule, feed the same day every week even during the shed, and if refuses do not offer again within 3 days and again after 2 days, because this only contribute to stress your BP more leading to more refusal.


Now food refusal for a BP are often husbandry related, some people will say "oh mine did not eat for 3 months and he is OK" and I say unless your BP is an adult being cycled to be bred he should be eating, most do and as an owner you should try to find the reason why.

Right now from what I already read my guess are the stress caused by the fact that food was offred to many times in a very short period of time, can be something else too, so now here are the questions

What type of device do you use to measure your temps?

Describe his hides.

How often and how long do you handle him?

Since you feed F/T I would try leaving the prey overnight so there is no disturbance, and see what happen.

[eviltwin]

Hey. Thanks for the reply.

To answer your questions, I have the combination thermometer/hydrometer by Fluker's. One on each side. Each has a high/low record so I can tell if the temps fluctuate a great deal when I'm not around.

His hides are two rectangle plastic bowls with one end open. It's big enough for him to fit but still is tight enough he feels secure.

Assuming I was feeding him on Sunday I would handle him on Wed and Thurs. I usually sit with him for about 30 minutes and watch TV. If he's particularly quiet I'll lengthen it but never more than an hour.

If I was in for the night on Saturday I might handle him again but rarely has that happened.

Leaving the mouse in the cage didn't work. He doesn't even see it. He's actually moved right over it.

The tank is in my room which doesn't have anyone else in it but me. No big TV or stereo.

I'm not sure if leaving him alone again for a week will help since it didn't work the first time. We'll see.

[rabernet]

Have you been feeding him f/t on his previous successful feeds?

[JASBALLS]

They all go off feed! Then they all come back on to feed.. He'll be fine, Your temps are fine from your first post. So dont worry unless you see a loss in weight.

[eviltwin]

Yep. It's been f/t from the beginning. I'll just chill for awhile and see how it goes.

[joannarea]

I have just signed up with forum, I got my BP about 6 months ago, never had one, and a really new, learning parent. Store keeper sold me the 10 gallon tank, a small log type hide, wood chips, a light and a basking light, and night dark light. She, Chocolate, seems fine, heat side 85 to 90 and shade 70 to 75, which the store keeper said was fine, but sold me a small round, temp. gage to monitor it. Now I am reading about these special heat/humidity gages, and getting concerned. I have she soal once a week, and keep daily clean water in her cage. She has shed 4 times, grown 16" to 28". I handle her daily up to an hour depending on her mood, except after feeding. Which like the gentleman here has a problem with his BP, I have the same with Chocolate, she has stopped eating. Only 3 days now, but she has always quickly went after her small rat, and ate it. I give her live rats, little bigger then a fuzzy. Like his BP, she follows the scent, hunts it and finds it and they no go. The rat can run under her head and she lets it go.

I am trying to "catch up" knowledge I should have already had, I fear, that hindsight regret. Ready all the info here has been great.

But is there a certain age a BP starts slowing its eating? The store keeper says she should eat weekly. I returnned the larger fuzzy for 2 pups, but she shows no interest in either of them.

At this feed I tried a feed box, rather then her tank. I thought I unsettled her, and so back into her tank, waited 24 hours, no better feeding results. Waited until today, no difference. According to info here, I will back off a week on feeding and handling. I never read handling was stressful, I will have to read more. I truly love her and do handle her often, but she never has seemed bothered, and until this feeding, never a change in her habits.

But, about mid-week when I was holding her, I heard her hiss. Cold or normal? So I read on the hissing, but she never has, and until this feeding thing her habitate and our handling habits have not altered. Is hissing a maturity thing? I read it can be something unfamiliar, or scares her. But nothing changed at the hissing point. I tried the feed box days after that started.

Also the plastic hide was so small that she looked like a turtle, carried it like a shell sometimes. With the feeding thing, I went and got her a new hide, perfect fit. A plastic leaf, wood branch. Came home and put her in her tub for a soak while I fixed her new items in her tank. She went right in as if pleased to be home. She is resting now.

I will do as you have suggested and not try to feed or handle her for a week. (will be so hard!!) Should I try the feed box again then?? Oh, still no signs of a cold. So hiss is a hiss, but she has only done that once more, today during holding. I fear I have done too many changes? Need to read, read read...and collect info from all of you. Thanks to the fellow having the same problem, and posting, it helped me some to. I may have gone about this wrong on submitting for help. Sorry in advance if I did. Not wanting to step on toes, just the new kid on the block.

[kavmon]

keep the routine and the enclosure the same. double check all temps, pay attention to the cool side temps. it's winter and the temps can be colder than you think. balls like tight fitting hides!! keep the same routine for feeding, if she was eating before she will eat again. i strongly recommend digital thermometers like accurite,taylor,etc. i also suggest using under tank heaters and/or flexwatt. better for humidity and no bright light to stress the snake. always use a thermostat with heating products!! try to get the warm end to low 90's and the cool end around 80.



vaughn