When do winter fasts end?

Is there a specific time frame when balls come out of a winter fast?

There isn't a specific time frame. They start eating again when they want to.

It may have something to so with barometric pressure changes, but since we keep them in temp controlled environments, I don't see how they would know winter from summer by any other means.

When they eat again it ends. I have a male phantom looking very thin since hes a lean male. So any ammount of weight lost on him looks bad. Hes been off since first week October and turns away.

Im glad I got a litter of ASF coming to try him on them.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

When they eat again it ends. I have a male phantom looking very thin since hes a lean male. So any ammount of weight lost on him looks bad. Hes been off since first week October and turns away.

Im glad I got a litter of ASF coming to try him on them.

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Whats ASF???

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Originally Posted by Slim

There isn't a specific time frame. They start eating again when they want to.

It may have something to so with barometric pressure changes, but since we keep them in temp controlled environments, I don't see how they would know winter from summer by any other means.

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I agree. It seems like a lot of balls go off feed in the winter/breeding season, yet the conditions aren't any different from the rest of year. Maybe it's an internal clock? What about photo period?

Do winter fasts ever get to the point where the snake starves to death?

I was just wondering about this since I've been reading a lot of "Help my snake hasn't eaten in months" posts...

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Originally Posted by Ihaveworms

Whats ASF???

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African soft furred rats, they're a type of rodent native to the same areas as ball pythons in the wild. It is also one of their native prey items.

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I'm new to BP but my other reptiles seem to follow the amount of light in each day. The vernal equinox is march 20 where the daytime hours are 12/12 then get longer each day from there. So hopefully very soon! My beardie is asleep and we can't wait for him to wake-up. hehe

My adult male lesser fasted for over six months last year during the cold part of the year, and he was totally fine. I think he resumed feeding regularly in May. He's doing the same this year, and I'm not a bit worried. I will just keep offering him a frozen / thawed rat weekly until he decides he wants it. I have several other males that are fasting as well, but they haven't been refusing as long and consistently as the lesser.

I have found with my collection, as well as with animals that are at the stores for extended periods of time, the coolest ambient temperature often dictates fasting. My snakes at home will cycle almost exactly in time with their ambient temperatures. When the ambient/cool side temps drop into the 70s, even on rare occasions the 60s, they stop feeding consistently, and usually begin breeding readily. My girls almost never ovulate until temperatures start to increase again; most of mine have been only feeding occasionally since October/November, but with a sudden heat wave locally they are all off feed, and I am starting to see ovulations.

With my snakes, I have found age to have an effect as well. Older snakes can develop a distinct pattern; I have a 20 year old female (I have had her that entire time) that every year stops feeding in September/October, and every year starts up again right around now. She's 3,500 grams normally, and by the end of winter drops to about 3,000 on the lowest end (she was my first snake, and I no longer breed her), but never looks terribly thin. The smaller, non-breeding size females typically never lose more than 100 - 200 grams, about as much weight as a really big poop.

My males will sometimes be the hardest to get feeding again. In a couple of cases, I moved them from the room that the females were in, and after a week or two being completely separate they began feeding again.

Sometimes, less than perfect husbandry can exacerbate a winter fast. Being a little too dry, not having a suitable hiding spot (even if they are housed in a rack), not being able to get hot enough, there's dozens of little things to check and re check.

This is based on my personal experience with my breeding colony of ball pythons, and less so on store experience, to be fair. The stores seldom have snakes long enough to see yearly patterns of feeding. :)

-Jen

Wait did we even have a winter? We didnt here lol