Now What's Wrong?

[Patricia]

This is our little BP's 6th week with us. The first 5 seemed fine. He was very thin and ate 5 mice with no problem during that time. One came only 2 days after the prior mouse because he seemed hungry, which he devoured. However, he's rejected food 3 times this past week, his last meal being about 10 days ago.

~Weighed 120g when we got him, currently 150g, which is 4g more than yesterday!

~We handle him only 2 or 3 times a week.

~Started intent daytime cruising 2 days ago and doing so again today, constantly looking upward at the screen cover and trying to get out. Today I had him in a paper grocery bag with the f/t mouse, with the tip folded down, and the little bugger came out! (The bag was inside his tank, with the screen on.) All he wants to do is escape.

~Other than sleeping in a hide, he's hardly ever on the ground these past 2 weeks, spending most of his time draped over the AcuRite, prior stuck-on thermometer, and on the tree.

~Has been in the warm hide only once in the past 3 or 4 days. Is that normal? Temps are 92-94 warm and 70-73 cool, humidity 60-70%. Those haven't changed the entire time we've had him. (Didn't even have a cool hide for the first 4 weeks with us, and so spent all its time in the warm tree hide.)

~ReptiBark substrate for all but 3 or 4 days of paper towels (I went back to the bark in case it was the paper towels bothering him).

~I've alternated between his regular tree hide and new plastic bowl over in the warm part in case it's the hide itself bothering him.

Nothing is making any difference. He's just constantly looking up at the screen. The only thing I haven't done yet is cover up the sides of the tank, but they've never been covered and he's been fine till now.

Any ideas?

[Elise.m]

How often do you offer him food? 3 times in one week seems too often

[CoolioTiffany]

Is he star gazing? Or somewhat twisting his body in odd ways? Or both at the same time?
Well, what I was thinking that he may be wanting to mate, since males will refuse meals during breeding seasons which is coming up very soon. Some BPs can be finicky eaters, and a lot of the time the will go off feed for no reason at all. Your husbandry seems just fine, and I don't think anything is wrong with it at all. BPs can be easily stressed for a numerous amount of reasons, but it seems that your BP has no reason to be stressed. Also, when snakes are fed small meals, they will roam around the enclosure looking for more to eat. If you are feeding him a rodent about the same size as the middle part of his body, I dont see how he could possibly be searching for food.

[ChristinaP]

Offering food too often can cause stress. If he refuses to eat don't offer again until his next feeding schedule.

[Kaorte]

Well, a baby snake will not be looking for a girlfriend so you can rule that out.

I would wait 5 days to offer him food and see if that makes a difference. Changing hides will cause a bit of stress. It would be better to just get two identical hides and stick to them.

[Patricia]

Yes, I've offered food twice since the first refusal, thinking the daytime roaming was hunger. I'll hold off now for a week. Because it came to us so thin, I thought it would eat till finally reaching it's proper size (for whatever age it is.. 6-7 months?). I guess it's "full" now.

I read that males will go off food during breeding season if there's a female around; however, this is the only snake here, and we don't know if it's male or female. (I alternate between calling it "him" or "her".)

And since my last post, I've covered up the back and 2 sides of the tank.

[CoolioTiffany]

Well, a baby snake will not be looking for a girlfriend so you can rule that out.

Lol, well it was just a guess

[Kaorte]

Yes, I've offered food twice since the first refusal, thinking the daytime roaming was hunger. I'll hold off now for a week. Because it came to us so thin, I thought it would eat till finally reaching it's proper size (for whatever age it is.. 6-7 months?). I guess it's "full" now.

I read that males will go off food during breeding season if there's a female around; however, this is the only snake here, and we don't know if it's male or female. (I alternate between calling it "him" or "her".)

And since my last post, I've covered up the back and 2 sides of the tank.

Sounds like you are on the right track. Daytime roaming is usually a sign of stress. Just give him some space and see if that makes a difference. If he still doesn't eat in a week, you could try filling the tank with crumpled newspaper.

[Lolo76]

Is it possible he's going into shed? Two of my snakes reject food during shed, sometimes before I can even notice the signs. Look for a pink belly or cloudy eyes - otherwise I agree it could just be stress, and you should wait 7-10 days to offer again. Good luck!

[Patricia]

Is it possible he's going into shed? Two of my snakes reject food during shed, sometimes before I can even notice the signs.

Could be. It's been hard to tell these past few days if the belly is pink. The one time it's shed here, it ate with a pink belly and later when completely blue, probably because it was simply so hungry.

Perhaps it feels caught up with food intake. It's hard to tell why it's now behaving this way after a month of normal BP behavior of eating and hiding. This sounds contrary to everything I've read, but it seems like (a) it's become comfy with us to the point of not feeling the need to hide all the time, and (b) it knows there's a world beyond its 4 walls and wants to explore it.