bp not feeding!!!

a friend of mine has a 4ft male bp 100%het og an he hasnt eaten in 6months!! she tried keepin him in a box with it over night covering tank with towel adding heat to tank but still no luck anyone have any ideas? force feed may be the next option but id rather not go that route

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Originally Posted by johnlebel97

a friend of mine has a 4ft male bp 100%het og an he hasnt eaten in 6months!! she tried keepin him in a box with it over night covering tank with towel adding heat to tank but still no luck anyone have any ideas? force feed may be the next option but id rather not go that route

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Ok first off, its 100% het what?

Anyway if your BP is not eating I can think of 3 possible things it may be:
1. Husbandry is somehow not right. Is her warm side over the UTH about 90 degrees?
2. Your BP does not feel secure and is stressed. Does it have 2 hides are both the warm side and cool side? Are they identical?
3. Maybe your BP doesn't like the type of prey she is offering. Maybe try an appropriate sized rat if offering mice, or a mouse if offering rats.

Also to increase the chance of you BP eating try offering the meal during either dawn or dusk. In the wild this is usually when BP's come out look for food.

You also may want to check out the BP.net caresheet, it has a ton of useful information: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

its het orange ghost...

idk what she has for hides i think she only has one hide for it.
an she has tried both mice and rats...

I just had a breeding male come off of a six month strike. Look, right now to the snake its breeding season. They go Into a fast that can last 1 month to 10. Now 10 months doesn't happen often but it can. And depending on your response you can make the situation better or worse. Right now even if he decided his strike was over, the continuous trials of feed especially when he doesnt want to eat is stressing him out. During this time of not eating the male should have been getting a biweekly weigh in. Has the male been getting weighed? Then you would clearly know whether you should be trying to change things to get him to eat or even looking at force-feeding as an option. Which I consider a last resort. When a snake stops eating if they aren't dropping a bunch of weight fast you have nothing to worry about.
It sounds like a winter fast. But to be on the safe side check your husbandry. And check his temps. If everything is tip top then let him be, continue to offer food but on a biweekly basis until he resumes feed. The single most valuable tool I have owning reptiles but especially for the balls is a scale. Especially, adult males go off feed and its totally normal. And beleive me they will not go back on until their ready. When I started keeping balls I didn't realize the importance of an activity log for Any snake I kept. Well my first year having an adult bp male I learned the importance of it. Since then I record sheds, feeds, monthly weight, defecations, and abnormal behavior. And since then, I can tell you it goes a long way to have history on the animal that you can physically look at. Saved me many sleepless and worried nights.
Good luck!
Morgan

no scale.... she said she is starting to see bone structure...

Personally, I will always keep the logs. If your friend doesn't, she should or will consistently have this issue. Pictures of the snake too would be helpful as well as of the cage. What are the temps? Hot side, coolside, ambient. What's the setup like? How often was she feeding and what? Humidity?

Everything homegrownscales has said is correct. You really do need to have a scale and also keep records. Force feeding should be a last resort as it is very stressful for a snake. What are the temperatures at and what kind of enclosure is this snake being kept in? Attempting to feed to often is no good either. BP's are very sensitive snakes.

got the snake from a local breeder an it was eating med rats now nothing

Ok so it was eating med rats how often? How Long was it eating before it stopped. Still need temps......

i dont have temps as i am not not at her place. was eating med-lrg rat twiice a week

Do you mean every two weeks? 2x a week is pretty much impossible even for my big big girls. Check the temps when your over there next. Hotspot should be 92.f and cool side 80.f. Humidity should be around 50-70%. I've found that feeding smaller more frequent meals like 1 small rat every week helps keeps the boys off of fasting. But sometimes it's inevitable. At the same time you should tell her she needs to weigh that bp and start writing it all down. Scales are very cheap and prevent problems. So good luck to your friends snake.

it was 2x a week i sent her the link for this convo so she can check it out... thanks for the help!

Hmm I've got a 2800g female that will put down a lg rat but she then won't eat for a month after that. If I give her a sml rat she eats weekly. Even after a md rat she won't eat for a couple to a few weeks. So maybe your friend can come and clarify. I see that being possible with mice but a med large rat it's just highly highly doubtful to in my mind not happening.

i never had issues with bp eating like that.. i had a female the way 4.5ft not sure on weight but she was on a jumbo rat once a week my burms an tics eat every2 das or so but that a totally different beast

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Originally Posted by johnlebel97

i never had issues with bp eating like that.. i had a female the way 4.5ft not sure on weight but she was on a jumbo rat once a week my burms an tics eat every2 das or so but that a totally different beast

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Every two days?! Holy cow. I think that's a little over doing it. My females eat a small rat once a week. That's it, and my males are on smalls every 2 weeks. Maybe once a month during breeding season.

I would make sure his hot and cold side temps are perfect, good humidity, and give him a week or two before trying to feed again. Too much is going to stress him out even more. How big is his enclosure? Have you tried not taking him out to feed him?

And, when you say "overnight" it's not a live rat is it?

Yes 1x a week I see. Also my terms for mg large and jumbo may be different. I just don't see a ball eating 2x weekly. But that's me. For the most part mine are 1x weekly but they get small/md.

Balls are really good at regulating their food intake, when they've had enough they just stop. Eating med rats twice a week was probably the cause. I've had a male go 6 months and he didn't lose but a few grams. Snakes are incredibly efficient but everyone seems to forget this when their snake goes of feed. I wouldn't worry about it...

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Originally Posted by stratus_020202

Every two days?! Holy cow. I think that's a little over doing it. My females eat a small rat once a week. That's it, and my males are on smalls every 2 weeks. Maybe once a month during breeding season.

I would make sure his hot and cold side temps are perfect, good humidity, and give him a week or two before trying to feed again. Too much is going to stress him out even more. How big is his enclosure? Have you tried not taking him out to feed him?

And, when you say "overnight" it's not a live rat is it?

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yes every 2 das or so but like i said that is my burms retics and rock pythons with super high metabolism.. everytime they "unload" i offer food... idk what size tank she has him in. she has tried to feed him in a shoe box the bathtub everything so idk maybe to much handling is the issue

I think that's half the issue. The other half I think was him fasting. But if he's losing weight it could be a bigger problem. It's definately time to do some weight checks so she van find out whether this is a normal thing or something that a vet should see. Judging by eye you'll never know until the animal is at deaths door.

Just wondering - has your friend contacted the breeder that she got him from about this? Find out how he housed the snake? A completely different type of enclosure could easily put him off food.

But I agree, if he's losing significant amount of weight, there could be something else at play.