Ball Python off feed

My ball python hasn’t had a meal since Dec.10. I know ball pythons are known to go off feed but I’d like some suggestions or help trouble shooting. He’s turning 2 in August so he’s very young so I feel like he should be eating more. His ambient temp is 75 and he has a regulated heat mat on his warm side that tends to be around 85 degrees F. His humidity stays around 50-60 percent. I have two ball pythons and the other one is kept the exact same way in the same room and she eats every chance she gets. I offer him extra small rats as he seemed put off by the size of anything larger. They are frozen then thawed and the body temp is around 100 degrees when offered to him.
It’s winter where I live so the overall temps may be a little cooler than usual but in their tubs it hasn’t changed much so I just don’t know what the problem is. Should I try offering him mice instead?
I keep his handling to a minimum, only taking him out when he is crawling around and seems interested in exploring so I don’t believe he is stressed. I worry that he’s small enough that he wouldn’t be fine if he were to continue not eating for more than 3 more months. Should this continue I’m willing to try live but that is a last resort for me. (I added two photos just taken of him into my gallery. His name is Zuko)

I would suggest raising the temperatures on both sides of his home by 3* (ie. to achieve 78* lowest & at least 88* highest temperature, but not to exceed 90*)

Cooler than optimal temperatures combined with the shorter days of winter often cause snakes to quit eating- this is instinctive, with some snakes being more sensitive than others.

Don't handle a snake that's not eating regularly, & taking him out of his home in a room where it's likely even cooler is not going to help at all.

You also mention that the temps. might be even cooler than what was stated. Guess what- that means they're too low. Stick with small rats, they're fine.

Thank you, I’ll try to raise the temps then. I have to use a ceramic heat bulb (no light emission) to maintain the ambient temp I have right now. The tub is 55 gallons and the bulb is 50 watts. Do you know what watt bulb I should buy instead?

I wouldn’t be concerned so much about the temps if they’re accurate, but that’s sounds like he has a lotta space to me. Would love to see a pic of the set up. ✌️

I tried uploading photos but it says the files are too big ): Apparently the pictures I thought I added of Zuko when posting this didn't work either cause I have nothing in my gallery

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I do have an Instagram where I just post pictures of the snakes and their enclosures if that’s of any interest to you 😆

I figured out how to add photos so there should be pictures of the set up and the snake now

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Originally Posted by RoyalNoodles

... Do you know what watt bulb I should buy instead?

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That's something only you can test & find out, as the cooler your room is, the more heat loss you'll have from his home. You should be controlling any & all heating devices with a thermostat for safety also. If you're only using an overhead heat source, you might do well to add UTH under a third of the enclosure (especially in the cooler months of the year), but again, it must be controlled.

I have a heat pad under the tank that is regulated so his warm house is 84 degrees F. I use a temp reading gun to check the surface temps. The ambient air according to a reader I have in there is 74 degrees F. I gunned at the cool side and it reads 71 and I gunned at the warm side and it read 78. I just ordered heat bulbs with a bit of a higher wattage though so hopefully that raises the overall ambient temp once they get here

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoyalNoodles

... I gunned at the cool side and it reads 71 and I gunned at the warm side and it read 78. I just ordered heat bulbs with a bit of a higher wattage though so hopefully that raises the overall ambient temp once they get here

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That's way too cool...& not in a "good way". :cool:

Seems that to maintain the same floor temps, the ambient has dropped because of winter. If it's an option, I would probably bump the room temps to 70-75, with a space heater if necessary, and see if they don't hit the range they were before. I have no problem maintaining appropriate ambient in my enclosures with only UTH and my house kept at 74 year round. That's where I would start. Looking at the pics in your gallery, his are pretty blurry but he appears to have a number of spots he can hide. Might clutter up the ground just a little more with some more plants. My banana male that I'm guessing is even larger than him is in a far smaller enclosure, and really gave me trouble trying to upgrade him to a larger one. He went right back on feed when I put him back in a smaller one. In contrast to a banana female of mine who is absolutely fine in a huge 50g even though she is a year younger. Sometimes you have to play around with it on an individual basis to make them comfortable. I'm far more inclined to believe in your case its temp related because of the time of year though, and he was in that same enclosure when he was eating, right?