Has he gone blind?

[mikedahitman87]

For the third time in a row it seems that male bp is having trouble feeding. So now it has been about 4 weeks since he last ate. During that time, temperatures have been good in his tank, he had another perfect shed and pooped twice.

This is why I think he might be having problems seeing:
on all three occasions he has followed the scent of the live food item (tried mouse twice and small rat once) to the point where he is almost licking the rodent. Of course when he gets that close, the rodent gets scared and runs/jumps away. I have even seen him miss on what should have been an easy strike.

What do you think is wrong?
Has anyone seen this before?

I figured that if he was stressed out he wouldn't even attempt to stalk his prey.

[starmom]

Is it a spider?
and, Why don't you try F/T? The prey won't move

[mikedahitman87]

He is a mojave. After he didn't eat the mouse this time, I killed it and offered it to him. He didn't seem interested. I will leave it in with him overnight and see if it is there in the morning.

[mikedahitman87]

He didn't eat the pre-killed mouse either. Has anybody seen this behavior before?

[littleindiangirl]

Are you making sure that the prey is the warmest thing around? BP's 'see' with their heat pits, so it really wouldnt matter if he was blind or not, as they don't rely on sight to catch prety.

Try offering FT, make sure the head is very warm to the touch, and pre scent pre scent prescent!

[Drew87]

I agree present the room before feeding, got to get them in the mood to eat. good luck

[dr del]

Hi,

How old/big is he?

Are you sure the strikes he missed on were feeding srtrikes not defensive ones?.

Is he in shed? (though admitedly 4 weeks makes that unlikely unless he has a retained shed on his head and heatpits).

Are you feeding him in his tank or outside? - trying to work out if he is missing from ambush or having to hunt in an open space.


dr del

[mikedahitman87]

I agree present the room before feeding, got to get them in the mood to eat. good luck

I present the room an hour before every feeding.

Hi,

How old/big is he?

Are you sure the strikes he missed on were feeding srtrikes not defensive ones?.

Is he in shed? (though admitedly 4 weeks makes that unlikely unless he has a retained shed on his head and heatpits).

Are you feeding him in his tank or outside? - trying to work out if he is missing from ambush or having to hunt in an open space.


dr del

He is an 07. I don't know his current weight but he was about 430 grams when I bought him back in early February.

I am pretty sure sure they were feeding strikes. Usually with defensive strikes he snaps and retracts his head. ( he nipped me when I first got him) For these strikes it looks like an all out lunge.

He is not in shed. He just came out of his shed this past Sunday. That is the reason for only three attempts in 4 weeks.

I am feeding him in his tank but I usually remove most of the furniture to make it easier for me to watch and give the mouse/rat less places to hide.

[BMorrison]

Maybe taking stuff out of his environment stresses him out. If you're feeding live snakes are natural ambush predators. designed perfectly for jumping out of nowhere and crushing prey!

[starmom]

Yeah, I agree ^^^
I let them attack their prey from their hide and when they have struck and are trying to coil a bunch, I then take the hide off of them and let them do their thing. After a bit I put the hide back in for their digestion privacy