hibernation??

I live in New England and it's starting to get chilly and the days are getting shorter. This is my first winter with a BP and I'm wondering if she's hibernating. It's been about a month since I've found feces in her tank, 2 months since her last shed and now it's two weeks since her last feed. She eats like a champ every week so when she's off, I get nervous. The only time she refuses food is when she's in shed which she may be but it doesn't really seem like it. The thing that's got me worried is that she's not defecating. No urates either.

Any ideas?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheNunciate

I live in New England and it's starting to get chilly and the days are getting shorter. This is my first winter with a BP and I'm wondering if she's hibernating. It's been about a month since I've found feces in her tank, 2 months since her last shed and now it's two weeks since her last feed. She eats like a champ every week so when she's off, I get nervous. The only time she refuses food is when she's in shed which she may be but it doesn't really seem like it. The thing that's got me worried is that she's not defecating. No urates either.

Any ideas?

---

BPs dont hibernate, but they do go off feed in the cooler months.

If you'd like, give us all the info you can on her, pictures of your set up and anything else and we can go over it to see if there is something else causing her to go off feed :)

Ball pythons do not brumate (hibernate). If she's a mature adult, she may be ready for some loving.

Don't worry about them not defecating often. They can go well over 6 weeks without taking a dump. They poo when they need to.

Thanks guys. I was really worried about the not pooping for a month. Just seems so wrong :D I think she's definitely in shed now. I cleaned out the tank, it was due for a scrub down. I planned on waiting till she ate an pooped but..... just couldn't wait any longer. Her tank is always more humid right after I change the substrate and about 20 minutes after I returned her to her cozy pad, she started to become opaque. The humidity was about 55 before, it's up around 70 and will stay that way for a day or two before the substrate normalizes. She looks like she's about to lose her skin at any moment now. I'ma keeping my fingers crossed. There's usually a big poo with the shed skin. Gross huh, getting excited about snake poo ..... icky :D

You dont need to worry about her as long as you are keeping the temp and humidity correct in her enclosure. She may be ovulating or getting ready to. This is normal. Even you change nothing about the heat she gets, the barometric pressure and change in the amount of daylight she is getting in the colder season will automatically put her into breeding mode.

She may go off feed for awhile but keep offering food. If she refuses, offer again in 7 to 10 days. Etc Etc..
If she is otherwise healthy,
This is perfectly normal for this time of year :)

And she just shed. :P yay!

soak her in luke warm water my bp always poos when i do this if shes eatin in last week or so try it might work