Not Eating, Weight

My BP is just over a year old, used to shed once a month, pooped regularly, was an eating machine never refusing a meal, and 3 months ago weighed a little over 900g. About 5 months ago, I was forced to switch her to f/t instead of live because I had to move to an area where live was unavailable. It was hit or miss for a while with the f/t but then 3 months ago just stopped. She has visibly lost weight and now weighs 860g. She doesn't really look drastically skinny, just a bit smaller then she used to be so I am not too worried at the moment. Basically, I just want to know how much weight does she have to lose before I should start to get worried. I can't figure out if she has just given up eating because she's not hungry, or if she's sick of me putting dead rats in front of her lol. She also used to be very active and moving around her cage often. Now I almost never see her, but I do know that people say a hiding BP is a happy one.

Also, I just switched to newspaper substrate. Do you guys have any suggestions for keeping humidity up? Especially during sheds? I'm using wet towels right now, but they dry out rather quickly.

Thanks!

What are you housing the snake in, and how do you serve the rat to the snake?

She lost 40 grams in 3 months? Don't worry about it. It sounds like a normal fast to me. She should start eating again soon. If you can get your hands on a live rat, can you keep it alive? Then you can offer it once a week until she takes it.

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Originally Posted by rocknhorse76

What are you housing the snake in, and how do you serve the rat to the snake?

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I got her a couple months after she was born. She has spent that time (a year now) in a 20g tank. I don't believe housing is the issue. As for feeding her, I have tried many things but she has always given me problems with f/t. If she takes, she usually does it when I drag the rat on the ground in front of her.

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Originally Posted by Inarikins

She lost 40 grams in 3 months? Don't worry about it. It sounds like a normal fast to me. She should start eating again soon. If you can get your hands on a live rat, can you keep it alive? Then you can offer it once a week until she takes it.

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The reason I moved was because of college and after this next week, I'll be moving home again and will have access to live rats. If she doesn't eat any of the remaining 2 frozen rats I have by then, I was actually already planning on seeing what she would do if I tried live.

Just don't bother offering until you move back, then, if you don't think she'll take them. There's not point in wasting them, unless you're far enough from home that they would thaw out on the way and be wasted anyways. At 900 grams and not eating already for 3 months, two more weeks won't hurt her. Give her a week to settle in once you're back home, then maybe try a live rat smaller than she would normally take.

I agree, I would not worry yet. It may not even be the F/T that is the issue. She's the right age/size for a fast, and it is that time of year.

Yeah like I said, I'm not really worried that much yet. I just am curious on how much weight do they need to lose before its a problem?

If you monitor her weight and she's losing weight quickly instead of mostly staying steady, that's when there would be a problem. I know somebody on here has numbers on when exactly you should start getting worried (a % weight loss over so much time) but I'm not sure I remember it, so I won't say. If she'd dropped 40 grams in one month, then 40 the next, then 40 the one after that that would definitely be a problem.

I wouldn't really worry until she's lost enough weight to look visibly skinny. I'm talking you can see the backbone, there's less weight in the back half of the body, and she's more shaped like a triangle than a circle. I wouldn't put a precise number on it, because it's hard to say exactly when a snake hits that point. Obviously losing half their weight is an issue, but is 1/4 the weight an issue? It really depends on the snake.

So in your case, 3 months doesn't sound like much to be worried about, and as others have suggested, try waiting until you get home and offering live again. Personally, I'd get her eating again, and then at that point try switching back to F/T while you still have access to live rats just in case.

Good luck!

-Jen

Jen, I have a girl that has been off food for 5 months and definitely is showing those warning signs. She is in shed now, but any suggestions for what I can try to he her to eat?


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Have pics? Could just be breeding season fasting, too. I've had great luck getting my off-feed normal boy to eat after shedding, he's always ravenous afterwards.

Sounds more like 'the wall' than a breeding fast since she is quite young.
I personally look at physical condition(what Jen described) over the weight % thing. However, I do believe the weight % people usually use is more than 10% loss in body weight.

Have you tried mice to coax her to eat? All of my snakes are rat feeders, but I often use mice to jump start a feeding response.

Yup. She is a 2011 female who went off food in mid December. She only took f/t rats for me previously, and since her fast I have been offering food every week (rotations through live and f/t mice and rats). She is looking pretty terrible. She went from 800ish to 650ish grams in the past 5 months and she looks very thin.


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No, I haven't tried mice to coax her into eating. I'd rather not even introduce her to mice to be honest. As far as I know, she has never seen one and since BP's usually like mice better, I'd rather keep it that way haha. I'll try live when I get home if she hasnt eaten by then. It looks like she may be beginning her first shed cycle in 3 months so maybe she'll eat after that. Like I said, I'm not too worried about her weight or fast at this point. I was just curious as to what the weight loss % when I should begin to be slightly worried. Thanks

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Originally Posted by missriss2012

Yup. She is a 2011 female who went off food in mid December. She only took f/t rats for me previously, and since her fast I have been offering food every week (rotations through live and f/t mice and rats). She is looking pretty terrible. She went from 800ish to 650ish grams in the past 5 months and she looks very thin.


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I'm assuming you've made sure that your husbandry is correct and she has plenty of hiding places, etc. If all that hasn't helped, it may be worth a shot to treat for internal parasites. We had a female that was not eating and starting to lose weight, and she went back to pounding food after being treated.

I would try scenting with mice just to give it a shot. If they're starting to look worrisome skinny, then I'd be more concerned with putting weight on them than what exactly they'll be eating.

I also have had surprising success by skipping a week, waiting to see if the snake is poking just its head out of the hide, and then offering a rat that seems too big. I had an import male that hadn't eaten in over 10 months (so skinny a small rat would have been a big enough meal) start POUNDING good sized large rats. Once he started eating, he started eating everything, so I switched down to smaller, more appropriate sized meals, but that first one was definitely not what I expected. That same idea has worked for kickstarting snakes that were fasting during the breeding season, so it's worth a shot. A coworker suggested a while back, with the reasoning that maybe because the snake has gone a while without eating, it's waiting for something too good to be true to come by as a meal, rather than wasting energy on something smaller.

In any case, whatever the reason, that works for me sometimes. Worth a shot!

-Jen