Off feed since 1/19/09

my ball (male) fasts every winter
This season he fasted from 1/12/09 to 6/7/09
I have found that he will only strike at a very small prey item when he breaks his fast. I offer fuzzy mice, and once he takes one I follow up with regular size prey. If I offer full size prey when he is still fasting, he seems intimidated by it. Fuzzy mice don't seem to scare him, and around this time of year he eventually takes one.

Sounds like he is just waiting for a girlfriend to slither by. Keep track of his weight. If you notice significant weight loss, then go to the vet. If not, don't worry about it. Your snake is at a perfectly fine weight to go off feed for up to a year. I don't think it is necessary to try all these feeding tricks.

There was a great discussion awhile back about whether it is ok to handle a snake that is fasting. Apparently handling contributes to weight loss, which was enough to convince me to not handle a fasting snake.

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Originally Posted by pavlovk1025

Perhaps local pet stores, but not like Petco or Petsmart. The stores where you can find a BP morph for sale will have em. The seeecret shops lol.

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Okay - I found a seeeeecret shop, but it's about an hour away. The guy is selling ASF's for $2 a piece, "doesn't have too many" and wants to know how many I want. I don't know - how many do I want? I don't want to be an ASF mommy to more than I need for much longer than I need. I've already given away more mice and rats between January and now than I ever hoped to! Thoughts???

- judiilana

My thought is that I would not change his food, other than offering a smaller size.

He'll eat when he is ready.

YAY!!!! 5 months to the DAY!

This morning he was out & about when he should have been sleeping.... sniffing the air incessantly, drinking water, sniffing some more... all around 8:30 a.m. So tonight I decided to give it a shot again. The mouse was in there for all of 60 seconds before he struck. He didn't even come out of his hide or uncoil to eat. YAYAYAY!! Thanks for all the support. In the end, patience won out.

- judiilana

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Originally Posted by judiilana

YAY!!!! 5 months to the DAY!

This morning he was out & about when he should have been sleeping.... sniffing the air incessantly, drinking water, sniffing some more... all around 8:30 a.m. So tonight I decided to give it a shot again. The mouse was in there for all of 60 seconds before he struck. He didn't even come out of his hide or uncoil to eat. YAYAYAY!! Thanks for all the support. In the end, patience won out.

- judiilana

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Glad to hear it.

I only have one ball, but he just ate June 13 after fasting since January 23. This is the second year in a row he's done this (he's three). Last year he fasted from January 1 to May 30.

During both times he lost about 8% of his body weight.

Congrats on getting him to eat again!

Just wait him out offer every week its no big deal,you can try asf's but mine go off feed too on them.Its what they if you keep them they basiclly eat 6 months out of the year.

glad to hear but don't throw a party just yet , my one guy went off feed about xmas time and ate once mid may and has not ate anything else since . I am mvinghi mto another room to see if the lack of females smells will help get him eating again.