Feeding BP during winter

Bp's sometimes go on hunger strikes, reasons could vary, sometimes they just dont feel like eating, sometimes it could be stress from their environment/enclosure (temps/humidity etc).
But they will survive not eating for a couple or a few months, just make sure to offer every week. But watch out for drastic weight loss (need a scale for this, 5000g scale recommended) and watch if the stomach looks like its sucked in, means your snake is definitely starving to death and then you have a problem.

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Originally Posted by Borgpython

Bp's sometimes go on hunger strikes, reasons could vary, sometimes they just dont feel like eating, sometimes it could be stress from their environment/enclosure (temps/humidity etc).
But they will survive not eating for a couple or a few months, just make sure to offer every week. But watch out for drastic weight loss (need a scale for this, 5000g scale recommended) and watch if the stomach looks like its sucked in, means your snake is definitely starving to death and then you have a problem.

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I'd agree with all the above and add to watch out for the snake getting dull and wrinkly fairly quickly , that can be dehydration which is easily remedied with a decent soak in an enclose /secure tub of water for half an hour .

It's important to allow for Royals to go "off" their food as many do and quite regularly and for long periods . The record for a snake going without food is 20 months ( one year AND eight months ) .... Not surprisingly it was a Royal python who hardly lost any weight , wasn't in this case dehydrated and was in perfect health , it started eating normally

Another thing I think about Royals is that MANY just don't like eating every 7 days as many keepers prefer to do , many Royal keepers may well be better offering them food every two weeks or so and even then be prepared for long periods of not eating .

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Why on earth are you feeding live rats anyways ? There is simply no need IMHO .

One it's just cruel on the rats , at least in the wild they have a chance of escaping and try and run . In a confined space they get cornered and fight back to save their lives . Google snakes bit by rats !!! Scary what damage they can do to your precious snakes who don't quite as pretty with scarred heads or eyes missing !!

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Oh PALEEEZZZEE!!!!!

Must we go through this again????

I'm biting my tongue :cens0r:, and I'm not going to argue this point. It's like defending gun rights to a liberal or the other side, the Vegan trying to convert someone. You are not going to change my mind, and I KNOW I am not going to change yours.
Great, now I probably opened another can of worms.:stupidme:

BTW, I'm there monitoring the feeding process the whole time. Danger is minimal if any.

My work here is done :)

I bid you good day .

Thank you all for the input, it helps make sense of what he's doing. I've had the little guy for a few years, he was just acting a bit different this time and I wanted to make sure it was normal. (Also, does anyone know exactly how long 2% chlorhexadine takes to disinfect something? Sorry to ask so many questions, but I just got some (switching from bleach) and the directions were a bit confusing).

Just out of curiosity, what do some of you mean by "acting hungry"? I've always offered food in the winter, but he doesn't really act different when he starts eating? Is this odd?

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Originally Posted by ian.

Just out of curiosity, what do some of you mean by "acting hungry"? I've always offered food in the winter, but he doesn't really act different when he starts eating? Is this odd?

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When I say acting hungry/interested in food I mean waiting in strike position tongue flicking ready to go. When my bp Levi is ready to eat he stares at me in strike position waiting for me to offer the rat. When he is not hungry he stays in his hide and ignores me. I feed f/t and heat them up with a hair dryer. Once the hair dryer starts everyone knows that food is on the way so they all come out of their hides in strike position waiting for me to offer. When they don't exhibit this behavior I know they are not hungry and I won't offer them one. This is just what I have observed from my snakes over the years but all of them are different so I can't say if yours is acting weird or not lol. But I hope this was a little helpful :)

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Originally Posted by DVirginiana

I've never had a male of any reptile or amphibian species that doesn't go off food or slow down eating for at least part of the mating season. Not to say that there aren't some out there that eat like champs year-round, but they haven't found their way to my house lol.

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Yeah, he`s over 1000g now and it looks he`s looking for a female to mate but I have no plan with him this year...
I don`t worry at all, lol... he`ll eat again whenever he wants to do.