Should I Be Worried

I acquired a Male ball python in the fall, he grew up on frozen thawed. He was eating for me and now will not. He got up to around 375, 400 grams.

It has now been a month since he has eaten. No real intrest, when he crawl into the area of the rat, when he sees the rat he immediately escapes it's presence.

Any one have one go off feed at this size? Should I be worried. Others eagerly taking the rats that he won't. He had refused here and there in the past but nothing steady like this.

welcome to the forum!

some more info will help: what is your husbandry? what is the size of the enclosure? what are the ambient and floor temperatures? what are you using for heat sources? how are you controlling your heat sources, and how are you monitoring all temperatures? what size prey item are you offering?

males going off feed is not uncommon this time of year, but the more info we have the better we can help.

I have a male that is about 600 grams that has skipped his last 3 feedings. He does the same thing. Downsized the prey item and he still runs like he is afraid. He isn't losing weight so I'm not too worried. Like tttayorrr said.. How is your husbandry? You might try downsizing your enclosure and downsizing prey. Make sure your temps are spot on. That same male wouldn't eat for a month when I first got him and downsizing to a pup and moving him to a 14 qt tub got him back on track... He was about 355 grams at that point.

And welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the replys guys.

My setup is a Reptile Basics sweaterbox rack. I have the dividers to keep the smaller snakes in better suited size tub. The tubs are 32 qt I think. So the Banana Pied Male we speak of has 16 qt area right now. I do not keep another snake on the other side of this tub. I use a Herpstat 2 and keep the hotspot at 90, the cold side is 80. Reptichip substrate, very thin. Got appropriate sized hides. Tubs kept completely clean.

The 90 degrees is checked with a probe taped to the bottom of an empty tub with a little substrate over it. I do check with a infrared gun. If sun is shining in the temps can get up to 92.

Humidity has kept a little high here and there but typically around 60%.

This is the husbandry I came up with after lots of research and keeping another snake well.

How does it look?

If husbandry is ok, as it seems to be in your case, there's no reason to worry. Ball pythons go trough period of fasting and there's little to do about it.

You can try a live mouse if you really want to but if he's not loosing significant weight I'd just wait.

Of my 10 or so BP I have only 1 that never skipped a feeding, all the others did from 2 weeks to 3 months of fasting at various times.

OK, thanks, that makes me feel better. I never had one this young fast.

Mines started doing the same at around 600grams. I suggest trying different rats/mice and buying new F/T ones. That's got my fussy eater going again.

Wow, what a long fast for a small male. He finally took a FT pup last night. He started losing weight and I was so close to offering live. Glad I waited it out. Hope he comes back and starts hitting them hard again regularly.