snake went missing for 3 weeks now wont eat

alright i have about a year n half old.. maybe i got him from petco and he pretty much was 3 feet and now is at 4 or 5. never had any issues with him very smart n active. loves to eat very gentle loves his scales rubbed. i used to use a glass cage with a screen lock top.. the ppl on this site side go with rubber maid is way better lol. well rubber made tops warp from constant heat it seems lol. his hiddles in the lid can be lift up very easy now from almost a year of use. thats how it got out. i live in alaska and atm its 10 degrees outside and about 50 to 45 in the floor boards < where he was. i knew this and left him his water bowl n a hide for him. well today when i was chilling playing a game on my laptop i heard some ... snake movement lol it wasnt clumbsy like a ferret but more like a hunting stalking lol so i got up n wow a very very VERY cold snake.. cold enough to burn my forarm . if i had to ges he was at maybe 40 degrees. anyways i went and bought him 3 mice within 15 mins of finding him when i left i let him sit in his cage at 83 air temp so probs about 90 atleast on the ground. i did slowly warm him with my arms and when i went to fix up his cage my wife took him to her chest... his fav place lol ahaha. anyways he wont eat he seems very weak and.. paranoid even tryd to drown himself he sat face in the water bowl for 5 secs till i drug him out. dunno if he went into hybornation or what since i read somewhere u can drop there temp to 55 and not feed or water them for a few months to prepare them for maiting... or something like that. lmk if he is alright or should i vet him n have him lookd at

He is not likely to eat when he is too cold to digest his prey. Leave him alone for a couple of days so he can lose his stress and get to a good body temp and see if he eats then.
I would guess that he will be fine if you try that.

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Originally Posted by dsirkle

He is not likely to eat when he is too cold to digest his prey. Leave him alone for a couple of days so he can lose his stress and get to a good body temp and see if he eats then.
I would guess that he will be fine if you try that.

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well never to good at waiting and i think i got worried for nothing anyways. he has never been stressed out imo till when i found him its 2.40 am atm i found him at 7 30 pm i just tryd to feed him after a good rubbing so i drop i mouse in and he seems all its w.e till it started to climb on him lol then her sd up n the mouse moved away so i tryd to push it with a fork n he striked at me.. so i think hes feeling better.. and he kept looking at me when the mouse was in front so i think he wants to do this 1 alone lol. thnks ill post bak if he fails to eating

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Originally Posted by tizzle89

well never to good at waiting and i think i got worried for nothing anyways. he has never been stressed out imo till when i found him its 2.40 am atm i found him at 7 30 pm i just tryd to feed him after a good rubbing so i drop i mouse in and he seems all its w.e till it started to climb on him lol then her sd up n the mouse moved away so i tryd to push it with a fork n he striked at me.. so i think hes feeling better.. and he kept looking at me when the mouse was in front so i think he wants to do this 1 alone lol. thnks ill post bak if he fails to eating

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Struggling to get through your lack of letters in your post(punctuation and whole words help a lot) but that aside...

You've got a snake that was just at 40 degrees who is obviously weak. He isn't eating, and you want to consider leaving him alone with a live mouse?

If he's not going to eat, take the food back and as the other poster said, WAIT! Your snake needs time to get back to a normal body temperature and stress level before he'll eat. Trying to get him to eat now is just going to end up bad.

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Originally Posted by Jeo123

Struggling to get through your lack of letters in your post(punctuation and whole words help a lot) but that aside...

You've got a snake that was just at 40 degrees who is obviously weak. He isn't eating, and you want to consider leaving him alone with a live mouse?

If he's not going to eat, take the food back and as the other poster said, WAIT! Your snake needs time to get back to a normal body temperature and stress level before he'll eat. Trying to get him to eat now is just going to end up bad.

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and once again i have proved this site wrong lol. my snake is named izzy for a reason izual a fallen angel lol he may be weak but once i rubbed him up n let the mouse loose again in his cage he struck at me for trying to take it away and toyed with it for 20 mins till finally killing with perfection and eating it. lol i dont know if i have a freak of nature snake but he loves being touched and doesnt stay in his hides allllllllllllllllll the time lol anyways hes fine and im now looking into a albin burmees just gotta call the guy n see if he can live off nothing but chickens n maybe a small pig every now n then :P live of course anyways thnks for trying to help i gess he just needed 5 hours to get settled in rather then days? i think alot of you baby your snakes to much since my wifes cousin lost hers in her house for 4 months and... it was found alive.

Way to be kinda rude when everyone was giving you good advice. I'm glad your snake ate, but that doesn't mean they were wrong. Some snakes are more easily stressed than others.

People who come to forums asking for advice, then generally saying they're going to ignore the advice and actually seek to "prove the site wrong" do not belong on the forum to begin with.

Seriously, why are you even posting here if your only goal is to prove the advice wrong.

If a snake is not eating, leaving it alone with live prey is a bad idea. That's just common sense. Your example is the same as saying you left a baby on the counter next to a hot oven and saying look, it didn't burn itself. You can only pull that trick so many times before something goes wrong. It may not have ended badly this time, but that still doesn't mean it was the best thing to do.

And for what it's worth, generally a BP that's escaping and doesn't stay in it's hide means it's a stressed snake.

Edit: Also, I'm guessing that since you watched it and tried to steal it's food(he struck at me for trying to take it away ) you didn't leave it alone anyway, which was my main point.

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Originally Posted by Jeo123

People who come to forums asking for advice, then generally saying they're going to ignore the advice and actually seek to "prove the site wrong" do not belong on the forum to begin with.

Seriously, why are you even posting here if your only goal is to prove the advice wrong.

If a snake is not eating, leaving it alone with live prey is a bad idea. That's just common sense. Your example is the same as saying you left a baby on the counter next to a hot oven and saying look, it didn't burn itself. You can only pull that trick so many times before something goes wrong. It may not have ended badly this time, but that still doesn't mean it was the best thing to do.

And for what it's worth, generally a BP that's escaping and doesn't stay in it's hide means it's a stressed snake.

Edit: Also, I'm guessing that since you watched it and tried to steal it's food(he struck at me for trying to take it away ) you didn't leave it alone anyway, which was my main point.

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its not my goal to prove ya all wrong.. its just what happens everyone on here seems to take un needed precautions. look at it like this guys. the snake is in the wild right.. and oh no theres no humans to make sure his natural prey doesnt eat him? lol i have left live food in his cage for a year now sometimes 2 to 3 live mice.. he eats them all 1 by 1 with no damage to him. and when i give him his small rat i ensure he gets a hold of it proper and i hold its back legs to stop it from ripping his scales of. and it just seems the advice you all give are a text book omg i just got a new baby and i MUST BABY IT FOR EVER hes a 3 n a half foot snake pretty much pure muscle made to do what i let it do.. my qwestion was simply do you guys think he will be ok after that long of a cold snap.. it was answered simple yes. but to make him wait a few days to see if hes ready to eat? why not just drop a mouse in the cage and see if he takes interest? anyways bigger thinks going on since now he makes a wheezing sound.. its not bad and there is no excess spit on his mouth so.. its a multi of things that can be wrong lol he may has ingested fiber glass and if that happened well... anyways and about the baby thing.. is a stove a natural prey item to it? or a natural habitat? nah i didnt think so lol so when ya got a better.. comparasent ill actual take a note

I can not make heads or tails of half of what you're saying. People are only trying to help. If the snake eats, but it is still stressed, then it might regurge. Then you have another problem. Impatience is not usually the best way.

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Originally Posted by tizzle89

its not my goal to prove ya all wrong.. its just what happens everyone on here seems to take un needed precautions. look at it like this guys. the snake is in the wild right.. and oh no theres no humans to make sure his natural prey doesnt eat him? lol i have left live food in his cage for a year now sometimes 2 to 3 live mice.. he eats them all 1 by 1 with no damage to him.

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Bad analogy. In the wild, the mouse/rat can run off and so can the snake. When you put both in a rubber maid container, they're both trapped and can do unpredictable things.

It's fine if you want to do things your way. I've done that too. The way we keep our snakes is to follow proven methods so that we can keep from having a gigantic vet bill later. Yes, we baby our snakes because well, they're our pets and they're completely dependent on our care. If it happens that we have to spend $1,000 on the vet, we are going to have to cough up the money. Some people won't. Lots of members on this forum will, though.

On the warped rubber maid lid... Do you use a ceramic heat lamp or some other heat source on top of the container? If so, this might be too hot for the heat tolerance of rubber maids being that you're starting off from a very low room temperature setting and have to produce so much heat on the lid to raise ambient temps inside the container. If you're using heat mats under the container, the lid shouldn't warp. It might just be that you need some kind of a bungee cord or something to wrap around your rubber maid. I know that I have to put a hook on the lids when I used a Sterilite container as the lid is made of flimsy material.

You might want to look into Really Useful Box (RUB) which has a more robust lid than rubber maids or sterilites or look into a wooden vivarium.

Just a suggestion.

P.S. Just fyi...

From my observation of my own pets, the ball pythons exhibit 2 types of strikes - a "hunting strike" which is the strike-and-coil action, and the "defensive strike" which is a quick strike then back to the "ready" position. The hunting strike, is of course, his way of eating. The defensive strike is an indicator of a very stressed ball python. Usually, they would hide their heads under their coils for defense, but when extremely provoked they will strike.

Also, in my opinion, your cold climate in Alaska may make it seem like your snake wants to be handled. I believe, your snake prefers your body temperature than the cold room, hence the "love" of handling.

But, in it's natural instincts, the ball python is not a "social" snake. They prefer to find a comfortable spot (offers the proper temperatures and security) and stay there. If the spot ceases to be comfortable (e.g., when they need to thermo-regulate, or are thirsty or hungry), then they leave the spot in search for a more comfortable one.

If my snake is out a lot, I would double-check the husbandry.

No offense but precautions are taking for a reason. It may not seem like you need to do it. But do it anyways. You dont want a snake to regurge its food. and leaving 2-3 live mice in its cage is stupidity. I know my adults take live but there always constantly under super vision. and theres no way id leave more than one in there cage (they only get fed one anyways), and its not wise to get on here take these folks advice when all there trying to do is guide you in the right direction, and go oh la la la la i proved yall wrong. Im sure alot of these people giving advice are alot more experianced than you. I have owned several types of pythons and boas including a burmese, and im aware theres always someone with alot more experiance than me. Not trying to sound rude or mean but it seems if your being this careless with a ball python you have no buisness with large constrictor like a burmese python, and a burmese is one of the last snakes youd ever want to adjatate when its feeling bad or stressed. much less lose in your house. Take some of the advice these people or offering and use it. And with a weezing sound that sounds like a possibility of respatory infection. Ive delt with a few rescues one ended up going to the vet and costing me around 1200 bucks for vet bills new housing etc etc because or stupidity and neglect.

Funny--you'd think the OP would realize that in the wild snakes aren't stuck in a 20-40 gallon tank with their food, either....
That's why they get hurt by their food. They can't LEAVE.
Smart. :rolleyes:
The precautions are not unnecessary. You go without them long enough and you'll understand why they're needed--because your snake will get sick.
I think I just proved you wrong now. :gj:

(and if you don't like the website or the advice these PROFESSIONALS or experienced people offer...then don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out) :D

that and if a live prey hurts the snake it could possibly lose intrest for sometime after being hurt by its food, and im sure no one wants put medication on wounds on a snake that would get very defensive after being hurt that they could have possibly prevented. I know if i got my butt kicked by a hamburger id sure leave the hamburger alone for some time. Dealing with a deffensive snake is not fun by all means.

Oye....

Ok first off the snake loves to be touched probably because it is trying to get some heat from you. Or it could be one of those weird ones that think they are part human. Being that the snake was so cold.......Im going with the first one.

Secondly it is not just IF the snake will eat...the snake really needs to be at a temp where it can digest. Food will rot in the stomach fairly quickly and can cause all types of infections. Does it mean it WILL happen....no ...but only takes one time.

Third....again I will use this phrase...."It only takes one time for a rat/mouse to chew on a snake when left alone". The images are graphic and horrible. I too feed live however I keep a close eye on anything I put in the bin until it is dead.

Allot of what ppl are telling you is years and years worth of experience. I have only been keeping snakes for 1 1/2 yrs. I have not had a lot of issues as we do not take chances and tend to err on the side of caution. We have invested waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy to much $$ on these snakes to mess around. Not to mention that they are our pets and we would hate to see anything happen to them.

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Originally Posted by tizzle89

its not my goal to prove ya all wrong.. its just what happens everyone on here seems to take un needed precautions. look at it like this guys. the snake is in the wild right.. and oh no theres no humans to make sure his natural prey doesnt eat him? lol i have left live food in his cage for a year now sometimes 2 to 3 live mice.. he eats them all 1 by 1 with no damage to him. and when i give him his small rat i ensure he gets a hold of it proper and i hold its back legs to stop it from ripping his scales of. and it just seems the advice you all give are a text book omg i just got a new baby and i MUST BABY IT FOR EVER hes a 3 n a half foot snake pretty much pure muscle made to do what i let it do.. my qwestion was simply do you guys think he will be ok after that long of a cold snap.. it was answered simple yes. but to make him wait a few days to see if hes ready to eat? why not just drop a mouse in the cage and see if he takes interest? anyways bigger thinks going on since now he makes a wheezing sound.. its not bad and there is no excess spit on his mouth so.. its a multi of things that can be wrong lol he may has ingested fiber glass and if that happened well... anyways and about the baby thing.. is a stove a natural prey item to it? or a natural habitat? nah i didnt think so lol so when ya got a better.. comparasent ill actual take a note

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Seriously... run a spell check on your posts. I'm not one to call out a small spelling mistake here and there, but your posts are almost unreadable at times.

First off, you haven't proven anyone wrong. No one here said "There is no way your snake will eat immediately after nearly freezing to death." They said "He's not likely to eat" which is true. Doesn't mean it's impossible, just that it's not likely.

Second, as other people have already pointed out, you haven't recreated the snakes natural habitat. Aside from the fact that they're not trapped in close quarters with their prey in the wild, they come from Africa, not Alaska. They aren't usually coming off of being almost frozen and being forced to eat(and yes, it is forced because they can't escape or let the rat just leave, they have to kill it or risk a bite).

Third, my comparison was simply that you shouldn't put something that you care about in a dangerous situation and say caution is unneeded because the worst case scenario didn't happen. If you want a better analogy, how about we use the case of people housing snakes together. Yeah, you can put them in the same tub and for a while you may be ok, but then you'll also get something like this... http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/5071/amfi201yh5.jpg
and after it came back up http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7702/amfifp1zi4.jpg Now, if you had two snakes, I'm sure you'd be arguing that snakes meet other snakes in the wild. But at the same time, do you really want to be the owner of the ball in that picture?

Finally, it's not babying. Yeah, you can say that they do certain things in the wild, but guess what... they also die more frequently in the wild. Snakes in captivity live much longer than their wild counterparts. In the wild, snakes eat random rodents that often contain parasites. Anyone here will tell you not to feed that rat you found in your basement to your snake. Is it babying to feed it something you know isn't infected with something instead of going with a random rat? No, it's being safe and taking care of a pet.

I just have to say, KUDOS to all that are trying so hard. You have more patience then me ;)

Some people just don't want advice. They say they do, but what they really want is someone to validate their opinion.

But you never know, some of the given advice may stick and perhaps the OP will allow some of it to sink in and see the common sense in it. For him and his snakes sake.

So again, kudos !