when is the right time to assist feed?

We got our male in September, he was 1560 grams and we were told he would eat no problem. he didn't eat after the first week (considered that due to stress and didn't worry) then he went into shed twice in 3 weeks. he then one full month into us having him ate his first meal. it has been almost 2 months scene then and other then that one rat he has not eaten. he refused both live and stunned rats. we tried a mouse and that seemed to anger him and made him start to defensively strike at everything. the people we had gotten him from said he only get's "bitty" when hungry so we tried a med rat and he struck several times but all defensively. the only reason i am asking this is he is starting to lose weight faster then that first month, he has gone down almost 50 grams in 2 weeks. he is just hovering over 1500 grams now. should i assist feed him if he refuses this week or wait longer. i know some have gone 10 months but i don't want to have any undo harm to the boy as he was my first and still has a huge place in my heart. i have been trying to find information on larger male's and their feeding habits but most people don't provide the weights of their males and the behavior they just either say they have this huge boy or they don't include the results of the hunger striking.

we do have him in a rack with 2 1500 gram females. we are trying to get a new rack for our adult girls based on the idea that the smell of the girls might be making him unhungry for food and hungry for something else.

we keep the tubs (28 q) at 79 cold side, 90 hot side, and he has a large water bowl (he actually likes to put his head in and keep just his snout poking out of it some times). is there more i should do? wait more time? get the girls out and it might go away? i knew getting an adult male was a risk of hunger strikes but i just want to make sure he is getting the same care from me that he would from some one with more experience then my self.

any tips from any one with experience is appreciated.

Too late to remind you to quarantine new snakes.
At 1500 grams I would never try to assist feed.
I have a couple males that only eat a couple rats a year.

thank you. so would moving the females help at this point or just give it time?

Why? Most keepers have their entire collections together unless you are asking about quarantine, then its too late and wont matter.

ok, the girls are at 1500, should i even be spending the money on a new 41q rack for them or save it and use it towards a quarantine rack in case i buy another snake?

Honestly both.
Your girls can wait a while before moving them up but at some point you will need both.

ok right now they are in a 6 shelf melamine rack that i made with its own thermostat. wife got me a 4 channel spider robotics thermostat for Christmas. was thinking of making a 41q rack with 6 inch heat tape and another rack that would hold 28's and 12 quarts on 3 inch heat tape. will get those built soon as i can and get them moved over to them and use the current rack (which will be empty then) as a quarantine rack. or is that a bad plan?

sorry if im sounding dumb or needy here just i really want to do right by these little guys and want to make sure that my money gets spent on the right things so that i am not stuck with 5 racks and only using one of them.

What rack do you have right now? I have one of those combo ones that holds 28's and 12's but I don't like it. I like the tubs to go long ways and the 28's just seem like they don't have as much space to thermoregulate. What I'm planning on doing is when my biggest girl gets big enough for a 41 qt I'll get a 41 qt rack (probably one that I can stack one more on top of later and have the racks be at the maximum height I'd want), then when I see my first lock I'll get a v18 rack. Then when hatchlings start to take up more tub space I'll get a 28qt rack for my males and probably double up on the 41qt rack for all my females growing up.

So this way I'll have that combo rack not used and I could use that as a quarantine, although it's a 6 shelf rack so it's not really something small and easy to keep out of the way, but it would work good if I got a lot of snakes at one time (like someone getting out of the hobby selling stuff).

As far as feeding I really wouldn't worry. Most people keep breeder males under 1kg so yours has plenty of body size to sustain him for a long time. I'd just cut back offering him food and only do it every 2 weeks or so, just to avoid any extra stress and wasting rats.

I keep my established collection in racks. For QT I prefer reptile enclosures so I can look in on the snake without having to pull the tub out. Plus this helps limit my spending on new snakes if I can only do one or two at a time, and I'm very picky about what I do bring in.

QT should involve the new snake living 90 days in isolation, as far from your collection as you can get it - preferrably on the opposite side of the house and on a different floor. I send mine to a friend's house to live for 90 days as his wife only lets him have one snake at a time.

The females will need a 41-qt rack in the near future so I would build that first. I have several and run 12 inch heat tape in them.

To answer your original question, there is no need to assist feed an adult male. I have several that go off food for the winter; one in particular stops eating between Halloween and Easter every year.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

one in particular stops eating between Halloween and Easter every year.

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religious snake?

we live in 3 bedroom house and have no kids so was planing on putting old rack in a spare bedroom and only use it when needed for new snakes. the new racks likely would either be xpvc or home depot racks. was planing on a 8 tub 41 q so i could expand with out so much worry when the other girls get bigger. the other rack would be 8 shelf capable of either 1 28 quart or 4x 12 quarts per shelf. I want to be able to breed one day but likely not for a year or more so that i can make sure they and my self are ready. In all honestly wouldn't mind waiting even longer as i am leery of breeding as I've never breed any pets before (other then molly's which was an accident).

Never.

Assisting is for animals that do not know how to eat or animals that are on death's doors.

At 1500 grams it could take a year before the animal resume feeding.

The key is to make sure the husbandry is optimum, to reduce handling to the bare minimum (maintenance only) and to offer the same type prey that used to be offered every 10 days (alternating preys is not helping).

This is a big male and there is several reason why he could be fasting, breeding mode, seasonal, fasting to catch up, stress, husbandry related or just for being a BP.

You can also try to take him on a car ride in a snake bag for 30 min or so,

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Originally Posted by Mada

thank you. so would moving the females help at this point or just give it time?

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Moving the females may help bc of the sexual maturity of the male and the approaching maturity of the females. The male can smell breedable females which can cause a food strike as the desire to breed in males supersedes feeding and is a very strong instinct. Definitely turns off the food clock. You should consider switching your substrate to 100% cypress mulch to help reset his feeding response. There is a lot in the literature to support switching to 100% cypress mulch in non- feeding ball pythons. Hope this helps. Also, consider rehydrating the animal with fluid before any attempt at assist feeding. Water bowl large enough for him to soak in if he chooses should be fine. It's much easier to administer fluids like pedialite or water through a gastric tube than trying to assist feed a 1500 + gm python.

his water bowl is large enough that he is able to fit his body in there when he balls up... some times find him like that but this is a snake that as soon as you put him in his tub after doing a poop or pee check he always crawls over the water bowl and many times dips him self in it. I'm going to just keep an eye on him and try the every other week feeding schedule that was suggested. i do think trying to feed him every week has stressed him some as he tends to be more moody after we attempt to feed then he would be a few days after an attempt.

one question on new rack, i have seen some say 1/3 or tub should be on heat tape and others say you can use 3 inch heat tape on a 41 quart tub. what would be the right size for the rack set up i mentioned. one rack all 41's (35 inches by 16 1/2) was thinking 12 inches going width wise so +- 1/3 of it would be on it, and other rack would be 28q tubs with 12 quart tubs on other shelves was thinking 4 inches so i could have the 12's have it go width wise covering about 1/4 of the tub and the 24's would go long ways with it covering about the same. would this work or should the tape be different sizes.

and yes i understand now that assist feeding is a no go unless he is deathly malnourished.