male BP lost interest in food

My male pastel within the last two weeks has lost all interest in food. He seems restless and won't even stop to look at food. Temps are 90 on hot side and about 80 on the cool side. Nothing has changed with his tub temps or hides since he's been in there and was eating great. he was slamming f/t rats, then just stopped. Any ideas?

How old is he?

Try a Live rat and watch him very closely and he will probably eat. A lot of Snakes need some encouragement to get back to F/T. Have you tried live yet?

How old is he? When they get around 2 years or so, most of them will often go off food for a couple months during the winter. It means they're sexually mature and it's just what they do...and it's extremely frustrating. The only downside to ball pythons :P

As long as all your temps, humidity, etc are correct, I'd say he's probably just decided it's time for his hunger strike. As long as he doesn't lose any weight he'll be fine, and will probably start eating again in the early spring. You can still try feeding him every other week or so just in case, but it sounds pretty normal for this time of year :)

He's only about 7 months old and 24" long. I havent gotten a scale yet because i didnt think any of my snakes were close to breeding age. what would an estimated weight of a snake this size be? He looks to be built normal.

A male can start looking for some lovin' around 300g.

How many hides does the snake have? What size tub is he in? Sometimes they can just be picky.

mine was on rats and when he started refusing them I switched back to mice and it got him eating again.

it *could* be normal seasonal fasting but it's worth a shot to switch his food

could also be cause he is going into shed .. some dont eat in shed

He is in a 32qt Sterilite.

All of my snakes will eat through shed with no issues. It may just be seasonal...i'll try some live prey and see what happens. Thanks for the comments all!

You could try moving him to a smaller tub or giving him two hides and see if it makes a difference.

If not then its probably just that time of year.

Furio just went off feed himself for a couple months. Didn't lose any weight though and thanksgiving night I figured I'd give him another go and he was back to his normal fat hungry self. Sometimes they just don't wanna eat :)

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Originally Posted by V1L3 DiaL3cT

Furio just went off feed himself for a couple months. Didn't lose any weight though and thanksgiving night I figured I'd give him another go and he was back to his normal fat hungry self. Sometimes they just don't wanna eat :)

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Well I hope this is the case with mine! He normally eats like a champ! I'm going to try live prey tomorrow...hopefully he takes that. Otherwise it sounds like it may be a long winter.:rolleye2:

I offered both my male and female live today...they both refused. Neither of these two have ever missed a meal until now. She is 2 months younger than he is, so I really doubt she wants to mate. Is this normal? :confused:

he decided to east last night! I offered him a large live mouse instead of a rat. Hopefully he keeps feeding for me now!

good! I often have luck switching to mice.

Not to be a post whore...I have a normal BP who just turned two this year.I bought it from a chain pet store so I don't know the sex, but judging on what I do know, i'd guess it's a male.Purely based on tip of tail to cloaca,though I haven't seen another BP of it's size to compare to other than in videos.(mine is approx. 40 inches,not sure of weight). It's never refused food until recently.It currently hasen't eaten for a month and a half and I offered mice,it's usual small rat and always waited a week between attempts...nothing.F/T,live-doesn't matter.I'm reading that this is what they do. Looks like I have a pet rat now!!! I have a local pet store that's really good with herps. and has more than a few snake species they breed on hand that offered to sex the snake for me.Guess it's about time I did that just to satisfy my curiosity.

BTW,I live in Buffalo NY.

He's in the mood but not to eat. It's that time. I wouldn't worry excessively about it unless he begins to loose wt.

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

A male can start looking for some lovin' around 300g.

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Oh boy, that sounds early! Patriot (480g) refused to eat a few days ago, so I'm curious to see what will happen on the next feeding day. The only thing that has changed are temps and humidity dropping.

My male bp weighs about 620 g. So if he is fasting, its that time of the year isn't it? He ate every week until Nov. 4 of this year and he has not eaten since. The only thing that worries me is that I'll have to start throwing away rats(aka money) because of them being defrosted too much.

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Originally Posted by guambomb832

My male bp weighs about 620 g. So if he is fasting, its that time of the year isn't it? He ate every week until Nov. 4 of this year and he has not eaten since. The only thing that worries me is that I'll have to start throwing away rats(aka money) because of them being defrosted too much.

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That's what bothers me the most. Mine is still hesitantly taking live mice, but I have been fasting him since last friday to see if I can get him back on f/t Rats.

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Originally Posted by demjor19

I offered both my male and female live today...they both refused. Neither of these two have ever missed a meal until now. She is 2 months younger than he is, so I really doubt she wants to mate. Is this normal? :confused:

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I have a female that's only about 400g and was taking large mice like a champ then about a month ago she went off of feed for about 2-2.5 weeks, then she was right back to pounding mice. She wasn't in she or anything either, and I tried some of the tricks with her, so I'd say it's pretty normal if your girl misses a couple meals.