Weird Feeding Behavior

Since early January, my BP has been suddenly super picky and on/off eating every 2 weeks or so. The past 2 times I've tried to feed him, he behaves normally - comes out of his hide, notices the rat, watches/smells it, and looks like he's about to strike....and then wanders off and pays no further attention.

I cannot figure out what's wrong for the life of me. I keep a notebook where I write down when he sheds, eats, etc, and I thought I had found a feeding routine that worked for him, but apparently not so much. I've tried heating the rats more and less, in case it was their temperature that was putting him off, feeding at different times of day/night, covering up the tank walls so he feels a little more secure, handling him less...pretty much everything I can think of.

As far as I can tell, my husbandry is fine. Temps are 88-90 (hot spot) and ~82 (ambient), he has water (refreshed every day or every other day), three hides, and a day/night cycle with an infared light on at night and a regular one during the day. His tank is in a quiet room - I'm the only one who ever goes in and I'm at school most of the day anyway. Humidity is ~50% and his sheds have been perfect every time except the first since I've had him. He's only 6 months old so it worries me that he's eating so irregularly.

I'm thinking of trying to feed him a slightly smaller, live meal next time. Should I feed him in a separate container from his usual tank? And is there anything I can do to prevent bites/scratches or make it safer for him?

My boyfriend is sitting here telling me to stop freaking out about my snake, but I can't help it... :please:

He probably wants to breed. A male with female on the mind will commonly go off feed.

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Originally Posted by Domepiece

He probably wants to breed. A male with female on the mind will commonly go off feed.

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At 6 months old, iit can't be the reason.. he's still a juvenile.. are u giving vibrations for the snake to pick up the prey? Check the temps of the prey and make sure its warm enough in the high 90's.. pythons are picky eaters, especially around this time.. make sure u wait around 3 days before ur next attempt to feed. Good luck :gj:

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Originally Posted by jnoh

At 6 months old, iit can't be the reason.. he's still a juvenile.. are u giving vibrations for the snake to pick up the prey? Check the temps of the prey and make sure its warm enough in the high 90's.. pythons are picky eaters, especially around this time.. make sure u wait around 3 days before ur next attempt to feed. Good luck :gj:

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Even at 6 months old males can be ready to breed. There are more than a couple threads of people having males in the 4-500 gram range breeding and some males as small as 350 grams. We currently have a male mojave that is 7-8 months old, 480 grams that is breeding and has locked with our female pinstripe.
Also in your first sentence you state that he is to young to breed but then towards the end of your post you state that bp's are especially picky eaters around this time of year? The reason some are pickier around this time of year is because it's breeding season.

To the OP as long as your husbandry is good just continue to offer him his meals on his regular feeding schedule. Since it sounds like he is still eating just somewhat sporatically he should be fine. Also, if he decides to take a long feeding strike just monitor his weight so you can make sure he isn't losing alot of weight.

If you want him to be a F/T eater going forward, I would not suggest you switch to live just because he's turned down a few chances to feed.

Keep trying with the F/T and experiment with things like prey size, pre-scenting the room, doing the zombie dance, and leaving the rat in over night. If worse comes to worse, you can even try exposing some of the rat's brain matter.

Each of these techniques have been used with varying levels of success. Sometimes it takes a while to hit on the right combination of variables.