How many people are experiencing feeding refusals currently??

I keep seeing threads from both newcomers and more experienced keepers talking about how their snakes are refusing meals right now...

So I thought I'd make a poll! :D

Non of my snakes are refusing, but then again i only have one snake

It's that time of the year.......................

Let's see - 2 males are refusing right now, and one spider female and a couple normal girls (out of 50). The rest are still pounding food - the males that ARE breeding are eating. Drives me nuts too, because I have a tub full of refusals, and I never know how many to buy. The week I buy a little less, everyone I feed eats. The week I buy one rat per snake, I have several that refuse and I double up on some that I know will take 2 (to get rid of male rats, I only will keep females back (they grow slower)).

Right now, my rat cup overfloweth (and I just had three litters born this week of 15 babies each).

Its frustrating. I have one about 700g unsexed that I have had for a month and has never shown intrest in live/dead, mice/rats.

I have a male baby burm that had eaten 3 times in 3.5 months. I thought Burms were bottomless pits?

I have tried every tip and trick and nothing will get them going.

Out of 80 i have a few refusing... two breeder males, 1 adult male, 2 juvie males, 3 juvie females (more annoying they are enchi, spider and pastel girls).

Also five girls are not eating but thats cause they gots themselves into a baaaaaaaad way!!! :P

Bruce

PS: Mitch you know I hate polls, but cause it was you I voted. :)

A few big females are refusing right now, all the 08 , 09 and all the breeder males are eating.

I'd say 10 out of 60+ are not eating.

All of my breeders are off food right now(14 snakes), I cool though. The rest are pounding food.

My albino male is refusing, but he looks like he might be going into shed, so I am not too worried. My albino female finally ate for me last night after a 6 whole weeks of refusals, though. It was good to see her interested in food again!

Does skipping one feeding but then eating the next week count as eating or refusing? I don't mean eating on alternate weeks, just skipped once (like if in shed).

If that counts as eating, I have only one not eating, and she is one of the 2 that went to the vet today with an RI. Even the other one that went to the vet has been eating.

I did have 2 others refuse when I fed on Monday. I usually feed on Tuesday, but I doubt that was why; one day shouldn't matter. They are in the rack where the heat went out, so they may possibly be coming down with RIs as well. So I'll have to see what direction those 2 go, but I have either 24/25 or maybe only 22/25 eating right now (didn't count the corns).

about 1/2 of my adults are off at this point, almost no hatchlings, subadults.

Justin

My pastel was refusing for awhile, I was powerfeeding him for a couple months, so I suppose he has a reason. I usually never have issues with him.

3 of them are being difficult right now. They normally eat frozen thawed, but lately they've only been eating live for me. I hate this time of year. Some one always has to give me trouble.

I've got a few long term holdouts, one that just went back on suddenly, and a bit less than half of the rest are sporadic. They'll go a month or so without and then eat once....rinse and repeat. The others are packing them away.

Worst part is a lot of my rat buyers' snakes are off feed too, so I have a LOT of rats. Storing up for spring/summer at this point when demand peaks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce Whitehead

Out of 80 i have a few refusing... two breeder males, 1 adult male, 2 juvie males, 3 juvie females (more annoying they are enchi, spider and pastel girls).

Also five girls are not eating but thats cause they gots themselves into a baaaaaaaad way!!! :P

Bruce

PS: Mitch you know I hate polls, but cause it was you I voted. :)

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Haha! Thanks Brucey Baby!! I actually love polls... It means I don't have to write anything. I just click the poll option and go back to the threads...

I have some that have been off feed a couple months and some that have been sporadic.

Most of my males are skipping meals now, whether they're breeding or not. My best breeder male isn't. Only a couple have gone off feed for the entire season. A few of my 2-year-old girls are picky or off feed...I understand that's not uncommon for the 1200 gram range.
Some of my adult females are off feed, but they are glowing, so are probably gravid (I can't for the life of me palpate follicles...I can't feel a darned thing in there).

All here are eating like no other, but for 2 gravid females.

I am not breeding yet but I do have a o8 female at 937 grams who has been off for 5 weeks. My eating machine of a male just refused his first meal a 695 grams.

My 1,700 gram female normal has refused for the past 2 months. My 700 gram male ghost tends to eat one week and then refuses the next but then eats again the next - who knows at this point.

This is the longest the my female normal has been off feed - from what I can tell with weighing her - she has only lost 20 grams so far - I don't think that is anything to worry about yet.

luckily my babies that were late 09s are little piggies, but my breeder males and even a couple of younger males are off. Id say 85% of my collection is eating well with the other 15% a mix of finicky eaters and non eaters.

currently a large part of my collection had gone off feed. and it hard to keep track of the weight since most have gotten to big for the scale. I pretty sureit due to the fact we have electric heat and that dries the air out horribly. I not had a chancce or the extra funds to go after I replacement humiditifer. PLus with the snow last weekend and this weekend I doubt i will be able to get out and get once (or the guy that bought my laptop to come pay me and pick it up). So I am playing a waiting game.

I am not breeding but my 2 08 females who are both 1200+ grams have been refusing the last couple weeks, my early 09 normal female and 09 pastel female have also skipped for about a month now as has my unsexed 08 normal. My male spider has been off feed for 3 weeks and now my het pied male skipped his first meal in quite some time. This was the first week all 7 refused food.

Everybody is still feeding here except 3 girls that refused this week, I'm thinking they might be done til they drop egg's.

I have one male eating like a pig as usual, and the other male has refused 4 meals in a row now. Le sigh

95% of mine are not feeding,,1 pied fed last week, one this week :(

All my breeding females are off, but my yearlings are eating up a storm...

Both my males are feeding, but my Lemon Pastel (600g) has been refusing. She's been at it for 3 weeks. I tried yesterday, and she seemed interested but the rat was a little more aggressive than she liked, even trying to bite her while she was just sitting there. I'm going to try something smaller to entice her.

I know they are all different, but around what date in average do they all start eating normaly? exept for the baby, mine are on and off.

My female normal finally ate after a two week hunger strike. My male normal has refused for the second week in a row.

My adult males that are not breeding yet are fasting. So 3 of 10.

All of my adults are off feed too, really annoying....

I got a baby, and a sub adult too. Sub adult is on and off, when its convenient for her i guess lol.

I only have one and he's off feed and has been for about 8 weeks now! I really don't know what to do. This is the first time he's refused for such a long period of time. Think I should try live? He's always eaten FT mice. I've never fed live. Someone told me to dip the mouse in concentrated chicken broth...anyone ever have any luck with that?

I have 21 ball pythons in house and only the 5 big breeding girls are off feed, otherwise everyone is chowing down.

My newest has been refusing for two weeks now, and she's a just baby. (I just tried a while ago, and again, no interest.) It's extremely frustrating. I may have to resort to live. I have no idea if she's too stressed, or if it's something else.

I have 1 male mojave that's a picky eater as it is so he's Definintely off feed, my bigger normal female is refused last year as well so it was expected, all the rest are still eating fine.

I do have only one bp, but he is slamming the mice every week!

My babies and breeders are all eating strong. It's the subadults that are driving me nuts. My fires refused for 3 months before going back on feed but one of them refused this past feeding. My male pied just went back on feed after two months of not eating. Some of my female pastels haven't eaten in 4months. I've got a female black pastel that hasn't eaten in a while either but she's always been inconsistent. I've talked to another guy that keeps all types of stuff and he's had a lot of issues due to the inconsistent weather down here (Houston). We've had extreme cold and then it warms up and then it drops a bunch again. We're seeing 30-40 degree temperature swings. He's got a lot of rattlesnakes he's had trouble with. My dumeril's is really driving me insane. She's only eaten a handful of times since I got her in October. I've tried everything but she only occassionally eats. I'm just keeping an eye on everybody's weight and crossing my fingers this clears up in the spring.

My cinni, psycho is on a hunger strike.

certainly with royals...
normal feeding regime goes out of the window at this time of year

My only BP isnt feeding right now. Thats weird that its happening to alot of people?

Tried 2 weeks ago, one week ago, so its been about 2.5 weeks since shes eaten. I think ill try again today...

Out of my collection, I have two that I've called picky eaters in the past.

One is my western hognose, and the other is my BP. The Hoggie used to oblige me almost perfectly every other week. She'd never eat while I was around either, never ever off the tongs. Then all of a sudden I tried running the rats under hot water right before feeding, and she's taken them immediately ever since.

My BP's a sissy. He never strikes. My current reliable method for him is to wait until he's in his warm hide, run the rat under hot water, then stuff if in the entrance of his hide so he can't get out without pushing it out of the way. It's usually gone within an hour now.

Nothing I hate more than wasting rats, but I've been really lucky, I haven't had to throw any out in quite a while now.

I've got a few picky eaters that won't eat every week. However, I just learned a great lesson. I bought an 800 gram het for Pied female from Adam recently. I fed her yesterday for the first time. She wouldn't take the live small rat. I opened the tub, put the rat inside the tub and left for 30 minutes. Came back and she hadn't taken the rat.

Now realize, I asked Adam the usual questions about his husbandry. I got all the right answers. So I was confident there wouldn't be a problem, but here she was not eating.

I happened to be browsing the web and decided I'd go to 8Ball Pythons, Adam's web page. There was a video showing how he fed his snakes. There, while watching, the light bulb went off and I went in to the snakeroom, got the rat, fed the snake JUST LIKE Adam did in his video and the snake coiled around that rat like the best feeder you could ever want.

So, sometimes it's not the snake's fault, it's that we aren't doing something correctly and the snake has to learn how to live with us.

These snakes survive and thrive dispite our worst efforts.
Jim Smith

Quote:

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

I've got a few picky eaters that won't eat every week. However, I just learned a great lesson. I bought an 800 gram het for Pied female from Adam recently. I fed her yesterday for the first time. She wouldn't take the live small rat. I opened the tub, put the rat inside the tub and left for 30 minutes. Came back and she hadn't taken the rat.

Now realize, I asked Adam the usual questions about his husbandry. I got all the right answers. So I was confident there wouldn't be a problem, but here she was not eating.

I happened to be browsing the web and decided I'd go to 8Ball Pythons, Adam's web page. There was a video showing how he fed his snakes. There, while watching, the light bulb went off and I went in to the snakeroom, got the rat, fed the snake JUST LIKE Adam did in his video and the snake coiled around that rat like the best feeder you could ever want.

So, sometimes it's not the snake's fault, it's that we aren't doing something correctly and the snake has to learn how to live with us.

These snakes survive and thrive dispite our worst efforts.
Jim Smith

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That is a great clip also the ''popping'' clip he has is good for people to see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SNIKTTIME

That is a great clip also the ''popping'' clip he has is good for people to see.

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It just goes to show that we may not know as much as we think we know. But our snakes thrive in spite of us.

Who would have thought that presenting a live rat in a different manner would get this little girl to eat. Just plopping the rat into the tub didn't work, but dangling a live rat from the end of hemostats and the snake ate like there was no tomorrow.

Who would have thunk it?
Jim Smith

i just got my 09 female to eat on tuesday this week. last time she ate was almost 7 weeks ago on jan 4th. and in that time frame of not eating no matter what i did she wouldn't eat then on tuesday of this week i dangled the mouse by its tail in front of her and she took it like nothing had changed. happy that she ate but i thought you little bugger at the same time lol.

I have 2 snakes both balls told both Male but not really sure
one is over 4 pounds 5 3/8 OUNCE The other is 1 pound 13 3/4 ounce
both housed in separate cage the large one (snakeman) eats med rats f/t
had rat in cage for 24 hour did not eat last ate on Feb 3rd
the small one (Fred the snake) ate 2 adult mice F/Tin 24 hour time frame on
feb 3rd same thing on Feb 23. If he wants to eat two meals should i go to a small rat mabey F/T ?? to give him a larger meal

My BP has stopped eating for the past couple of weeks. I have tried twice with no luck at all. He wont even come out of his hide to investigate... Whats up?!? Should I be concerned???

My baby BP (5 months) has just decided she doesn't like pinkie rats. This is the first time I've tried them with her and it's the first time she's given me any trouble at feeding time. She grabbed it up and killed it fast enough, she just won't eat it.

Any suggestions? :D

Hi,

Could it be a security issue?

I know one of mine will refuse to eat if I am watching. When they are eating they are vulnerable as they cannot strike any attacker or run away quickly.


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Satanslillgrl

My baby BP (5 months) has just decided she doesn't like pinkie rats. This is the first time I've tried them with her and it's the first time she's given me any trouble at feeding time. She grabbed it up and killed it fast enough, she just won't eat it.

Any suggestions? :D

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*facepalms*

Nevermind. That was 100% my bad. I saw the post on the Husbandry Page called "Feeder Heat" and made me remember that I hadn't put the heat pad under her feeder tank. Did that and she took it like usual.:oops: