Abby is afraid of food now?

ive had abby (female about 400g, scale maxed out at 325g a month ago) for about 5-6 months. ive always fed her once a week by taking her out of her hide and putting her in "the feeding corner" and its always worked great.

lately she has been scared of the mice and rats ive tried offering. she will start breathing heavily like usual and sit there like she is going to strike but then if the rodent moves towards her she gets turned off.:confused:

its been about a week and a half since she ate last and i was hoping to get some input as to what i should do next.

she just shed 2 days ago, could that have something to do with it?

1 perfect shed from head to the tip of her tail. :banana: when i got her she was underweight and had eye caps with a bunch of old skin stuck on her head. :rolleyes:

My male does that all the time. he will go off feed for a week or two. As long as it looks healthy and your husbandry is correct then dont worry about it. I found trying smaller prey seems to help. My male used to love small rats and now he will only eat mice.

Hm... try prekilling one and then offering it to her? She may get over her shyness if won't move but it's still warm...

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Originally Posted by Schlyne

Hm... try prekilling one and then offering it to her? She may get over her shyness if won't move but it's still warm...

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ive tried live, freshly killed, and f/t with no luck.

its weird because its obvious she is planning on striking but then she just changes her mind. she is very healthy and the humidity and temps are correct...

I had this problem.. I left him alone for 3 weeks then gave him a rat pup he ate it.. my guess is the rat or mouse bit him/her like it did my pastel

Hunger is a great motivator. I let my snakes tell me when to feed them. If for some reason a prey item is not taken right away I just wait a few days, to a week, and try again. And, if they are very active (hunting) a day or two before a scheduled feeding I just feed them early.

I have had great luck with this method.

Just curious why you take her out of her hide to feed her?

If your not taking her completely out of the tub and putting her in another "feeding tub" I wouldnt mess with her at all... Just leave her be and drop in the mouse/rat... some snakes just like the hunt

If you pre-scent, which I would highly recommend, your snake will come out of her hide and start hunting without you having to take her out. I'm sure she would prefer this to being handled just prior to eating.

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Originally Posted by ch312

ive had abby (female about 400g, scale maxed out at 325g a month ago) for about 5-6 months. ive always fed her once a week by taking her out of her hide and putting her in "the feeding corner" and its always worked great.

lately she has been scared of the mice and rats ive tried offering. she will start breathing heavily like usual and sit there like she is going to strike but then if the rodent moves towards her she gets turned off.:confused:

its been about a week and a half since she ate last and i was hoping to get some input as to what i should do next.

she just shed 2 days ago, could that have something to do with it?

1 perfect shed from head to the tip of her tail. :banana: when i got her she was underweight and had eye caps with a bunch of old skin stuck on her head. :rolleyes:

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by ch312

ive tried live, freshly killed, and f/t with no luck.

its weird because its obvious she is planning on striking but then she just changes her mind. she is very healthy and the humidity and temps are correct...

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Note, the bold in these quotes is my doing.

So the snake last ate no more than 10 days ago. In that time you've offered three different types of feeding methods AND two different types of prey AND the snake has been in shed?

Likely she's not afraid of prey, she's probably pretty sick of you repeatedly stuffing it in her face while she's in shed and so forth. Not to be mean here, but please give the snake a break. It will not die from missing a week's feeding but continually trying to feed while a snake is in shed and with prey being offered in very different manners and it being different prey types, is not likely to encourage this snake to settle down and eat.