HELP: Snickers has now refused food 3 weeks in a row!(torn what to do)

So we have had Snickers for a year now...

She always had aspen substrate since we have had her but for the first 11 or so months she was getting Petco aspen which smells like "nothing" and then due to a ton of posts I read on here I switched to aspen bedding from Tractor Supply Co. right after her last shed because it is much cheaper.(and she has now refused to eat since then 3 weeks in a row since her last shed and changing of bedding.)

We have always fed her in a separate enclosure and she didn't seem to have a problem with it until she completed her last shed on 6/29.

We put her in her other enclosure to fed her on 6/30 when we cleaned her enclosure and she refused.

Then she refused again on 7/7 and 7/14.

We did run into husbandry problems before but we have corrected them and she has always been a good eater and her last 3 shed have been perfect 1 piece sheds.

I am pretty sure her last 3 refusals of food are due to the new substrate which has a "very pungent aspen smell" and her old aspen substrate barely had any smell at all but I can't be certain.

What to do???

I am torn between just giving up on feeding outside her enclosure or if this is a problem based on the new pungent smelling aspen substrate.

Hi,

Any change in the enclosure can throw them and mean they need time to settle back in.

I would mainly just be monitoring her weight and not panicing at this point.

You could try feeding in her enclosure if you want but I would give it a few more weeks before thinking of changing the bedding back.

Mainly because that again could trigger a settling in period and a year old snake should have plenty of body weight which makes the small fasts like this nothing to worry about.


dr del

3 weeks is nothing. I had a normal male refuse for 4 months. He barely lost any weight, but he finally ate again just out of the blue. They can be very picky.

My snake didn't even for 6 months. Your snake will eat again when it is ready.

As long as it don't lose a lot of weight, it'll be fine.

I'd just be careful getting aspen that's not "meant" for reptiles. I've heard some places where you can buy bulk actually mix it with pine also, which is like a slow poison for reptiles. I'd double check on that....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LGray23

I'd just be careful getting aspen that's not "meant" for reptiles. I've heard some places where you can buy bulk actually mix it with pine also, which is like a slow poison for reptiles. I'd double check on that....

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You are a GODSEND baby!!!!

I read so many posts on here telling people to get substrate at "Tractor Supply Co" it's not even funny and we went there and picked up a giant package considering it said it was "aspen" and fine for "snakes" but if you read the little "story" the bag has to tell(there is no ingredients list) it states it has pine in it!!!!


This pisses me off for a multitude of reasons!


Why are so many people on here advocating getting bulk substrate at Tractor Supply Co. if it is POISONOUS???

This crap is mislabeled as it states it's aspen and safe for reptiles(but then just included that they have "pine" in there little stupid tiny printed story!)

WE WILL BE GETTING HER PETCO ASPEN AGAIN TOMORROW!!!!!!!


It Just really pisses me off that we got into a car wreck a little over a month ago driving out of our way to go to a Tractor Supply Co. only to get our snake "poison" based on this website and then some teenage 16 year old girl with 4 of her friends totaled our car because she wasn't paying attention to the road.

At first it was the accident that pissed me off but now I am doubly pissed off due to all the people on here that talk up Tractor Supply Co! We wouldn't have even went out of our way to get this "poison" if not for threads on here!

THANK YOU FOR POSTING THE TRUTH LGray23!!!

Now we no longer have to go out of our way to get into gigantic car wrecks only to waste money and buy "poison" for our snake due to advice on this site!!!!!

I am so angry right now I want to break something. I will stick to petco aspen from now on!!!!

THANK YOU AGAIN LGray23!(You REALLY ARE helpful!)

Wrong about pine.. No proof... This is basically an old wives tale passed on through the generations. Fact.

Truth is.. The only studies ever done which concluded firm results were that cedar caused adverse affects in lab rabbits and rats.

We've had this discussion time and time again here.

Up until recently when someone decided to casually add pine to that list, many of the older breeders kept their snakes on pine. For many years with no adverse affects.

Many will still say that kiln dried pine takes care of any of the oils that might (notice I say might) be dangerous) and therefore, there are still some who use it.

I don't, simply because it seems to have some weird drying properties that I don't like so I just use it sometimes for my rats but not the snakes.

So don't freak out. It's not as bad as you think. It's the cedar you need to watch out for. That is what has been proven to cause organ failure and other issues in small animals.

I'm sorry for ranting but I am just very LIVID over all this right now.

So many people on here just attacked me for a long time for various issues(and many of them were WRONG...some were right and I do appreciate that.)

Snickers' temps, humidity, and shedding have been fine for a long time now and I chose to get "cheap" aspen bedding at Tractor Supply Co. due to a few people on here with many posts and it is POISON and some teenage girl totaled my boyfriend's car and bruised up my elbow and knee so I could go buy poison for my snake!

YEAH....I AM ANGRY!!!!!!!!

Why do you think it's poison? The only reason I would be uneasy about using it is if it isn't kiln dried. Even so, like I said, there are no studies to be found on the effects of even raw pine on reptiles so I don't know. A small amount of pine, which must be dried and treated in some form I imagine to be added to the Aspen, couldn't be completely useless. If you're that uneasy about it, do you breed rodents you could use it for?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

Why do you think it's poison? The only reason I would be uneasy about using it is if it isn't kiln dried. Even so, like I said, there are no studies to be found on the effects of even raw pine on reptiles so I don't know. A small amount of pine, which must be dried and treated in some form I imagine to be added to the Aspen, couldn't be completely useless. If you're that uneasy about it, do you breed rodents you could use it for?

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UMM...I'm uneasy about it because she is my pet and I care for her!!!!

I did google searches on "pine" with BP's I am convinced I did the wrong thing by switching her substrate now to cheap bulk substrate.(she has NEVER refused food this long before!)

I guess I will just donate the worthless 98% full bag of "so-called-aspen" to a non-reptile animal shelter!

I love her so I REFUSE to let her be poisoned and I will give her back her more expenisve substrate that is without "poison" so she will eat again.

I'm am only glad that is didn't go on much longer! Snickers will get pure 100% non-smelly-poisonius-Aspen again!!!