off-feed; not fun..!

Argh; I guess I am not alone in this department. :)

I've got 3 out of 4 snakes on strike.

I want everyone eating F/T. 2 of them have only eaten F/T after one live, thought not consistently. They've been off for almost 6 weeks but haven't lost much weight. I have to continue to resist getting them live chow again!

The other one on strike has always eaten F/T but had been getting finicky lately before stopping altogether. He's been off for 4 weeks.

My BP (9.5 months old, 38", 915g) was a great eater, but I think I fed him too often and he went on strike a couple of months ago. He came back after 3 weeks off, ate for 2 weeks, went on strike for another 2 weeks, and ate for me last Tuesday. I'll feed him next Sunday and get him back on schedule. Lately he's been more interested in "playing" than eating.

I have one that's been on a strike for about a month..I'd have to look it up and then the other who hasnt eaten since 10.03.06...and one who started the same time and has only eaten twice *sighs*

tell me about it.. my baby has yet to eat for me and he is looking skinny. I can see the skin hang off of him. This is going to be the last week i try before taking it up with the place i bought him from.

So glad to hear we are not alone! We bought my daughter her new bp in early April- it didn't eat for a couple of weeks, so breeder suggested a FT small rat instead. Well, it must have been mislabelled, because it was HUGE (later after we bought more we realized what a "small rat" should look like). And she ate it! And that was the only thing she has eaten for us. She just skipped last night's feeding which makes 3 weeks now, but she is forgiven, because I noticed her eyes were cloudy. YAY! Time to up the humidity! Darn thing better eat after she sheds!

What I hate most about this is throwing all these expensive dead rats away!

The breeder had offered to exchange her but my daughter has fallen in love :D

Yeah its pretty much a typical thing with Balls but not all of them. I have one that has never missed a meal in 2 years even through shedding, to bad they cant all be like that. Jimi

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Originally Posted by jimijaw

Yeah its pretty much a typical thing with Balls but not all of them. I have one that has never missed a meal in 2 years even through shedding, to bad they cant all be like that. Jimi

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I have a couple like that and I love it!!

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Originally Posted by junko

What I hate most about this is throwing all these expensive dead rats away!

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As long as the rodent has not been sitting out for a long time, I have found no trouble with freezing them again and trying another time. I usually only do this once or twice, mostly because of the tissue breakdown that can occur. It's really nasty if the rat explodes when they constrict!

deb

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Originally Posted by hardball

tell me about it.. my baby has yet to eat for me and he is looking skinny. I can see the skin hang off of him. This is going to be the last week i try before taking it up with the place i bought him from.

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Have you made the suggested changes to your enclosure yet? A newborn baby should NOT be fasting. Usually husbandry related. Fix what's wrong and he should eat for you.

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Originally Posted by jimijaw

Yeah its pretty much a typical thing with Balls but not all of them. I have one that has never missed a meal in 2 years even through shedding, to bad they cant all be like that. Jimi

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Mine must not be typical then. :)

I rarely have fasts - I have missed weeks here and there, but not full out fasts from any of them. But I do also feed smaller meals weekly (small/small rats).