Problems feeding

[albinoscout14]

I've had my ball for about 14 months now and I think it is about a year and a half. I recently ran into problems feeding it. Not too long ago (October) my ball was eating four or five mice a week as it was growing quite rapidly. In November, it reached about 35 inches, it slowed to one or two mice a week. However, it has not eaten in a little over a month now and when I try to feed it every week, it shows no interest in the mouse and even backs away from it when it comes near (i feed live). I read in many places that pythons may not eat during the winter months, what is likely the case and should I be worried?

[beardieguy]

im not exactly sure why you dont feed one appropriate size prey per week but i have heard if you overfeed or offer to big of prey for a few weeks it might cause them not to eat.the book i have says that there was a case of an adult imported w c ball python that didnt eat for 22 months.so it might be to much food or like you said just the winter months

[Enve]

Going off feed for a month this time of year is nothing to worry about, it happens. I'm a little curious about the 4-5 mice a week though. How big are the mice that you were feeding (grams)? and also what does your bp weigh?

[albinoscout14]

The mice are not gigantic sized, but they were not small at all (probably about 5/6 g? estimate). I was feeding 3 mice and then 2 about 5 days later so it wasn't exactly five mice a week. A friend of mine who bred snakes told me, when I bought my corn snake, that feeding more smaller sized prey than the larger sized prey would help a little bit to keep the snake from being harmed during feeding (again because I prefer live). Lastly, my python doesn't weigh as much as during the summer but it looks and feels healthy. I feel it was just not eating for the winter, but I just wanted to hear what someone else had to say. Thanks.