I need help. Im going crazy!

My 4 and a half year old female bp wont eat. I know that they are common for going periods of time without eating. But I got her when she was 3 and she was eating for a while and then about 10-12 months ago she stopped eating. Its driving me nuts. Ive tried EVERYTHING. Ive tried feeding her colored, white, and dead mice. Shes always ate live though. Ive tried feeding her a dead mouse with chicken broth on it and also put her in a paper bag with a dead mouse over night to see if she would eat it. But everytime Ive got no response and she shows no interest in it.

I got her a mate about 4 months ago. I keep them in the same cage. He eats prefectly fine. And Im pretty sure that hes not the reason why she has stopped eating because she wasnt eating before I got him anyways. Im also afraid that she might be pregnant. One of her spurs are missing and Insomnia (female) and Narcolepsy (male) have been sticking together like glue (they never use to). Is there a sure fine way of telling if shes pregnant?

Im sorry for bothering all of you but Ive tried asking a lot of people. The only vet I can go to says that it will cost me 250 dollars to get her checked on to see why she wont eat and I just dont have THAT much money. But please if you have any answers or tips reply back. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for you time,
Jamie

Jamie,
I'm the last person to give you any professional advice but there are several people that will be glad to help you, just keep checking back and you'll get some great advice, I did.

Hi Jamie, Welcome here. And don't worry, you're not "bothering" anyone, I'm sure.

Anyway, just a thought. You never mentioned rats, have you tried feeding her rats instead of mice? She could just be a weird one. :) There is no way of knowing for sure if she is pregnant or not unless you begin to notice she lay "inverted" or "upside down" (belly up). This does usually mean she has ovulated, and is gravid. But I would doubt it if you haven't witnessed any copulation.

Get back to me. :)
Jennifer

well...if your housing a mature male, and a mature female togehter and your husbandry is near correct...shes probably pregnant. has she gotten fatter even though she hasnt eaten? let her crawl through your hands and GENTLY press two finger on her belly. see if you can feel a series of bumps in her belly. if shes pregant you will feel those bumps (which are eggs)
if you are trying to get her to eat (which probably wont happen while shes gravid) you shouldnt keep her in the same cage with another snake. it might not be obvious but it is stressful to both of them. they can also transfer disease or parasites to eachother much easier.
if you can confirm that she is gravid you should go buy an incubator. 10-12 months is a long time....but i guess if shes still not losing weight then shes ok. whats your setup like...what are your cage temps (hot end/cool end/night time)? do you have several hides throughtout the cage for both snakes? how big is your cage?

such picky eaters. don't worry Jamie, i got one like her...

Thank you to everyone that replied back. It helped.

I never really thought about feeding her rats because she seemed to be fine with just eat a mouse every one to two weeks. But I think that I might try that and if she doesnt eat it the store that I go to will take it back and give me store credit. I havent noticed her laying with her belly facing up. But now Im just curious on how she lost one of her spurs then if shes not pregnant.

I havent really noticed her getting fatter but she hasnt lost any weight. The cage that I have for them is a 35 gallon tank (I think) its 36x18. The temp is normally between 82 and 90 through the whole day and night. I have a heat lamp on through the whole day and night too unless it gets too hot. I have a big hiding box that my male likes to go behind and my female normally goes inside. But lately shes been bathing a lot in the water.

Well I guess that Ive come to the conclusing that she is most likely not pregnant. Thanks guys :).

-Jamie

Well, just some FYI, the spur being broken off really has nothing to do with fertility. It's almost like braking a finger nail. (except spurs don't grow back). So, that really has nothing to do with it. And a little further FYI, I would check her over JUST in case, for mites. Sometimes when they spend a lot of time soaking, this could be a factor. Otherwise, she probably just likes to soak, Since your temps sound right, she shouldn't be overheating. (I'm assuming your talking about 82 on the cool side and 90 on the warm side). I would give them two hides, so the other isn't out of a hide.

Just keep an eye out for eggs. I almost want to suggest that you give her an egg laying box just in case. If she doesn't have one of these, she may decide there is no where "good enough" to lay her eggs, and will retract from the process. This is called becoming egg-bound. If not dealt with, she could die. If you would like more info on an egg laying box, PM me or post here. :)

Jennifer

Your tank sounds like a 40 Breeder. I have one and its 36X18X16. Nice sized tank.

-Chris

BTW, THanks for confirming that females have spurs. I still hold out hope that my Andariel is a chick :) I gotta find someone in town that can probe her for me.

-Chris

Andariel, did you buy her from someone who sold her to you as a female?

I got her from a pet store, and the guy there (seemed to know sorta what he was doin)... looked at her tail and said "yeah its a female". So I based everythin on that... I know better than to trust pet store employee's, but he was the only one there who I noticed caring for the snakes, so i think he might know a lil about them but i'm not sure).

-Chris

Thanks for informing me about the broken spur. I thought it had something to do with fertility because I was told by a couple of people that it was a good chance that it got ripped off in the process of them mating. So its perfectly fine that she got it ripped off? Im just wondering because I noticed that it looked a little red and raw around the area. Im definitely going to check her out for mites and my male. When I first got them they were fine but I guess you can never know unless you check again.

I have an extra hide that I used when my female was smaller (she out grew it). I think I might put that back in.

Oh geez I wouldnt want her becoming egg-bound or anything. Ive read a little about egg laying boxes but I dont know a lot about them. If I do end up going back to thinking that shes pregnant Ill go right to you to ask if you dont mind.

Chris you and I must have the same sized tanks then. Mine is 36x18x16 too (I just checked lol).

-Jamie

Jamie,
Do some searching around this site, there is a lot of good advice on everything you need to know and don't be afraid to ask any questions and your not bothering anyone.

I am a very new bp owner and have asked a lot of questions and got a lot of great advice that has helped.

Stick around :)
There are good people here!

By the way, Jamie, you didn't say what kind of lamp you're using. If it's white light, you should create proper photo periods for the snake by leaving it off 9-12 hours every night. Ball pythons don't actually need light at all, just heat and humidity, and the light may be stressing the snakes and affecting your snake's appetite. You can create the heat by putting a human heating pad under the tank.

Jamie, you might take a look at my photo album. I have pictures of my tank setup, and I can help u get temp/humidity right if you need any help (I know it took me FOREVER to get it right!)

-Chris

I second that!
Wizill taught me a lot about setting up my tank which is the same size you have Jamie.

Yeah, they can be stubborn sometimes! I didn't catch your humidity levels..........proper temps are important, but the humidity is right behind in importance, too. An infrared light may help relax your bp as well. If it's too bright and dry, your bp will most likely just hide and not act quite right. Infrared can be left on 24/7 without trouble. I think alot of people would agree that they have seen total changes in attitude with their animals sometimes with some simple tweaking of husbandry.
Good luck with feeding (I second the rat idea, try some mouse sized fuzzies) if she's expecting....sweet
Pics, pics, pics!

My heat light is infrared 100w. Ever since Ive got her shes also had a problem shedding (I have to soak her each time). Im not sure if thats normal or not but my male bp doesnt have a problem shedding at all. Im not sure how to check the humidity so if anyone can help me with that then it was be appriecated.

Chris how do I look at your photo album?

-Jamie

To check humidity, you can go to any hardware store or wall mart and pick up a humidity guage. They aren't expensive at all.
To look at albums, just go to "photo gallery" at the upper left of the page and start lookin at pics. Most of us have setup pics....mine's called "glass house" It shows what I had to do to get my temp and humidity correct. I also use 100w infrared. It sits on a screen top over a 29 high glass aquarium.
Hope this helps ya! :wink:

In fact, Wal-Mart has a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer/humidity gauge combo (with the outdoor thermometers near hardware) for $14.88 that you can use to check temps on both sides of the cage and the humidity all at the same time. It's great, and much more accurate than the stick-on type gauges.

Those work great! I bought mine there, but keep it outside the tank. The probe wire I have running into tank and under the astroturf over UTH. This allows me to have constant visual indication as to how warm Xaero's belly is when he's warming up. No stress about burns! For constant humidity monitoring I use a separate unit affixed to wall inside tank. For spot checking I use said wall mart unit and place it in different zones to take readings. Temps fluctuate very little.
Ah, wall mart..............they don't even realize they are a herp supply store! Reminds me of way back in the day when True Value Hardware was also True Value Head Shop!! :wink:

I actually have mine inside the enclosure, but have the excess probe wire tucked under the newspaper to keep Snyder from getting tangled up in it. The wire and the unit are on opposite sides, so I can peer in the front and check my temp and humidity for the whole thing at once.

Thanks you guys. I did look at set ups and saw the digital thermometer/humidity gauge that youve been talking about. It looks nice. I think I might try and invest on getting one of those. At least theyre not expensive.

Oh and how high should the humidity be?

-Jamie

I was surprised by how affordable they were, actually. Your humidity should be between 40% and 60% most of the time -- aiming at 50% is good -- and bumped up to 70% at shed time. You can raise the humidity with a 1x or 2x daily misting of the cage, by adding another water dish, by adding a humid hide (such as with damp sphagnum moss), or several other ways, including the forum-beloved Repti-flo.

OutOfTouch you can view my tank setup there ---->http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....view_album.php

Or you can msg me on AIM, my screenname is FTP4LFE.

-Chris

<EDIT>: just fixed a typo

Oh lol two things I need to get now. A Repti-Flo and a digital thermometer/humidity gauge.

I also took a few picks of Insomnia and Narcolepsy and their cage. The bad thing is that I dont have a digital camera and I took them on a throw away. So as soon as I can get them developed Im going to go to someone I know that has a scanner. If anyone is interested that is :).

-Jamie

We are allways wanting new pic's.

Definitely post the pics. :D