help! my girl hasn't eaten in months

I have an 04' female het albino that's been off her feed for over 6 months.

She's always been a little shy but has eaten FT rats right off the bottom of her tub since I got her back in 06. She went off her feed for about a month two winters ago, so initially I wasn't too worried when she stopped eating last December.

She ate twice in April, but the second time she regurgitated her rat. At that point my male started ignoring his rats as well, so I figured I must have had a batch of bad rats. I've since thrown them away and received a new order and my male has been pounding them enthusiastically, but the female still hasn't eaten. I've tried all the tricks that I used to get her eating last time but nothing has worked.

The only other thing I can think of to get her feeding response going is to try offering her a live mouse (all the live rats at my local pet store seem too large for her), but I've never fed her anything live so I'm a little hesitant.

Last week she shed and defecated and along with her regular looking feces there was some greenish gelatinous material which has gotten me even more concerned.

I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Hi,

First how is your husbandry? Cage type, temps, humidity, substrate, hides? Do you keep them together or in different tubs?

If everything is OK, you should try feeding an adult mice but keep an eye on her.

The color of the feces could be due to the long time she hasn't eaten.

If she has loosed a very significant amount of weight you probably need to see a herp Vet to make sure there is nothing wrong with her.

My .02

Hope she eats soon!!

Thanks for the response. I think my husbandry is pretty good:

My snakes are housed separately in sterilite tubs (40qt? approx. 32" X 16" X 6"). Newspaper substrate, upside down flowerpots as hides, and large water bowl. Humidity stays around 60%. Ambient temp is ranges from 80-90 (a little high since I don't have an AC in my living room) with the thermostat on the heating pad set to 90.

I think it is also worth saying that if you give a mouse and she takes it and and begins eating again it may be hard to switch her back to rats. I am not saying that will be the case but that is a possibility. First off how does the animal look has she lost a lot of weight. The other thing I would do is start weighing her and tracking her weight. Now if she still looks good weight wise just let her go, she will eat when she is ready. I have a pair that is still off feeding its got to be getting close to 6 months now. I understand your concern and it can be frustrating, but it is sorta something I had to accept in keeping ball pythons. Well that is what I would do if I was in your shoes. The other thing that you might want to do is get in contact with your vet and let them know of the situation. You could see what they say. It will more than likely cost you a visit to the vet, but if it makes you feel better maybe its worth that. Keep us informed


Chuck