Maybe this information can help somebody else
Seems like a lot of folks including myself go through fights with snakes on fasting strikes. I had problems with my male BP Walter and posted a lot on here about it and got some very good advice. I believe I did two things that got him back on track and he's now slammed two feeding in a row and both times he VERY aggressively struck,coiled and swallowed his small f/t rat.
Number one was even though his enclosure (AP T-8) was VERY clean I completely removed all substrate (Cypress) and did a total cleaning and replaced with new clean cypress mulch. Number two was I actually bumped his temps down just a tad. I had kept his hot spot directly under the RHP at about 91F This gave me about a 80F ambient temp. Since he rarely used his warm side hide I thought I'd try bumping his temps down jut a tad and see what happens. So I bumped it down to 88.7-89F directly under the RHP and gives me about a 78-79 cool side. All temps are with a quality temp gun.
Did these two things directly contribute to his return to feeding? I'm no expert so I can't say for sure BUT he's now feeding normally and aggressively and using both hides about equally. It was just a very small temp change but maybe it helped.
I posted a couple weeks or so ago about attempting to feed him and seeing a distinct behavour change while zombie dancing his f/t rat. Just like a little switch in his brain clicked on and WHAM. It was really interesting to see him change like that and apparently that little switch has now stayed on. Not sure if this may work or help somebody else but it worked for me.
Re: Maybe this information can help somebody else
It's also worth noting that replacing the substrate may have temporarily increased the humidity - spraying the enclosure lightly on feed day was a tip we used to see a lot. :)
Re: Maybe this information can help somebody else
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dr del
It's also worth noting that replacing the substrate may have temporarily increased the humidity - spraying the enclosure lightly on feed day was a tip we used to see a lot. :)
That makes perfect sense as well. After a rain around here it seems the toads and other cold blooded critters are out like crazy. My humidity never drops below 60%
though with a full water dish.
Maybe the biggest and best advice of all with a fasting snake is don't give up and maybe even experiment on your own a bit as long as you don't endanger your animals health and well being. I know I got pretty frustrated at times and half thought of getting rid of the little bugger ( can't use word I wanted😄).
Re: Maybe this information can help somebody else
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ax01
interesting. i think that a few degrees of temp fluctuation may indeed have a bigger impact on some BP's than we think. they are cold blooded animals after all.
You just made me think of something. I used to be huge into fishing, especially walleye fishing and the changes in weather or water temps could have huge emplications on how they would or wouldn't feed. A cold front was usually devastating to fish biting. I've seen underwater footage of once active and feeding fish laying belly on bottom as if almost sick after a strong cold front.
Yea kinda apples and oranges but it does show how animals can be effected by even slight changes in their environment.
