Still not eating

So it's been about 2 months and my snake is still not eating I am starting to get worried I know they can go 3 months without eating her humidity and temps are all where they should be I've been trying every couple of days to try and get her to eat she acts like she's hungry but when I put her in there with it she looks at it like she's going to strike but doesn't. Is there anything to try that may get her to eat? She doesn't look like she's lost any weight I need to buy a scale still I have a scale for humans that weighs pounds I didn't know if I could use that for now and convert the pounds to grams. She will be 5 years old next month.

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You are probably stressing your snake out by trying to feed too often. The general consensus around here is too wait a week if it refuses to eat before trying again. You can actually cause it to not eat by trying to feed too often. And u don't think a human scale is going to be very accurate for weighing snakes. You want something a bit more precise.

Offer every 7-10 days only. Did s/he stop eating as winter came in? If so, it’s likely due to the change in ambient temperature, winters being drier (lower humidity) and a change in air pressure. A similar thing happened to my male banana (fasted for 90 days - lost 100 grams) and I got him to eat again buy changing from rats to mice (one feeding only) and now I am scenting small rats with mice to get him to eat them.

My male recently started to do the same thing: interested but nope. Nothing else changed husbandry wise. I'm changing his feeding schedule now from weekly to every 2-3 weeks.

If it barely lost any weight, I would not worry about it. Personally, I would not try a different prey unless the snake lost a lot weight and needs to eat. Fasting is normal for this species. An annoying and frustrating habit of theirs but oh so common.

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Originally Posted by ShawarmaPoutine

Offer every 7-10 days only. Did s/he stop eating as winter came in? If so, it’s likely due to the change in ambient temperature, winters being drier (lower humidity) and a change in air pressure. A similar thing happened to my male banana (fasted for 90 days - lost 100 grams) and I got him to eat again buy changing from rats to mice (one feeding only) and now I am scenting small rats with mice to get him to eat them.

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Around the end of January she stopped eating so about a month and a half after winter started, we had a rat for her but it got too big and started to bite at her so we returned it for a mouse instead since we thought we might have it for a while and it wouldn't grow to be too big for her so we've had the mouse for about a month now

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Assuming she is of good body weight she could fast for a year without issue so 2 months is nothing.

Make sure your husbandry is on spot and try changing things around a bit.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Assuming she is of good body weight she could fast for a year without issue so 2 months is nothing.

Make sure your husbandry is on spot and try changing things around a bit.

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I'm not breeding her I only have one snake she's my only snake and I don't plan on breeding her

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Try an office supply store for a digital scale- I've had mine for many years- it only weighs up to 5 lbs, & either oz. or grams, battery operated. Weigh a container
by itself, then with the snake in it, & subtract the weight of the container. Bathroom scales for people aren't precise or accurate enough for weighing snakes.

As already mentioned, offering too often adds stress & makes a snake less likely to eat. Wait 7-10 days between tries, & try not to worry...BPs just do this. ;)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Try an office supply store for a digital scale- I've had mine for many years- it only weighs up to 5 lbs, & either oz. or grams, battery operated. Weigh a container
by itself, then with the snake in it, & subtract the weight of the container. Bathroom scales for people aren't precise or accurate enough for weighing snakes.

As already mentioned, offering too often adds stress & makes a snake less likely to eat. Wait 7-10 days between tries, & try not to worry...BPs just do this. ;)

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Well I was going about 5 Days in between trying but yeah I will give her more than that to see what happens it's just weird because she acts like she wants to eat acts hungry but when I try to go and feed her she sticks her nose up at it.

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I know...I've kept BPs in the past...they can be frustrating. Like when we cannot decide about something, I think they "want to eat" but their instinct over-rules
their stomach. Remember that in the wild, a snake that gets stuck with a meal when it's too cold to digest can actually die when it spoils in their stomach.

Natural selection has weeded out those that made that mistake- those that didn't make that mistake went on to live longer, breed & pass their genes forward to
the frustrating pet you now have...;) They had no way of knowing that humans were going to come along with RHP's & thermostats, & build them "condos", lol.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I know...I've kept BPs in the past...they can be frustrating. Like when we cannot decide about something, I think they "want to eat" but their instinct over-rules
their stomach. Remember that in the wild, a snake that gets stuck with a meal when it's too cold to digest can actually die when it spoils in their stomach.

Natural selection has weeded out those that made that mistake- those that didn't make that mistake went on to live longer, breed & pass their genes forward to
the frustrating pet you now have...;) They had no way of knowing that humans were going to come along with RHP's & thermostats, & build them "condos", lol.

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Yup and this is only the 2nd year she's done this, last year she did this but my boyfriends sister and husband had her for a year I had to give her up for a while because of some personal stuff I was going through so I just got her back in September this past year. I was really excited to get her back I missed her. Now she's a pain in my ass lol

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Originally Posted by IllumiBunny

Yup and this is only the 2nd year she's done this, ...

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I've kept multiple BPs years back & they mostly do this when they're a couple years old (once they mature). If you want a snake that eats regularly & reliably, get a rat
snake (including corn snakes), bull/gopher/pine snakes, king snakes, even an Australian spotted python will happily eat all year. It's just not in a BP's job description. :rofl:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I've kept multiple BPs years back & they mostly do this when they're a couple years old (once they mature). If you want a snake that eats regularly & reliably, get a rat
snake (including corn snakes), bull/gopher/pine snakes, king snakes, even an Australian spotted python will happily eat all year. It's just not in a BP's job description. :rofl:

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Lol well I love her to death she just worries me sometimes since she is my first ball python first snake really in general I've had her for 2 1/2 years she was at the petstore for a year before I got her then my boyfriends sister had her for a year but I've just been trying to do everything right. She had wood mites a while back luckily not on her just on the bedding I get the Aspen stuff but haven't had a problem since being told to put it in the freezer since it will kill any mites. I would honestly love to have a black mamba lol deadly but I think their gorgeous their my favorite snakes. My snakes name is Syria though at the time I named her I never heard of the country Syria I thought I was being unique >.< she's a good snake though only bit me once that was my fault though me and my boyfriend were having an argument and I guess she felt my anger and thought I was going to hurt her it was feeding day so I went to take her out and she got me right in between my pointer and middle finger on the webbing hurt like hell I would of been alright with that if it was maybe my arm or any other part of my hand :/ though I didn't panic or throw her or try lol I just waited for her to release she hasn't bit me since then

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Originally Posted by IllumiBunny

I'm not breeding her I only have one snake she's my only snake and I don't plan on breeding her

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Not sure what breeding has to do with anything, I did not mention breeding?????

Wow, this story is a little bit of a ride. My adult males stop eating every year from 4 to 6 months, during that time I offer monthly. Probably not a good idea to handle on feeding day, if they can smell the prey, your probably gonna get tagged. And I’m sorry life is been difficult for you (I truly am). And while I don’t think moving the snake from home to home was bad, it would sure be hard to get an idea of the animals yearly behavior. I also don’t recommend switching prey items because of a hunger strike in an older snake. Peace, good luck.

I got my 2 1/2 year old BP May 13, 2018. She refused to eat for 5 MONTHS! My first BP, so kinda was really freaking me out!
She weighed in at 1189 grams on June 4th.
I finally took her back where I got her from in October, and he got her to take live food (I didn't want to feed live).
NOTE: she was eating f/t before I got her from him, but wouldn't take it from him either in October - but she did take the live.
Between Oct 20 and Oct 30 (when I got her back) she had eaten 3 live rats.
When she came back home, she again wouldn't take f/t from me.
She finally took her first f/t from me January 20 (another 3 months gone by!) - OMG talk about a happy dance!
So bottom line, between May 13, 2018 and January 19, 2019 - she only ate 3 live rats.
Jan 20 she took f/t. Following weekend she wouldn't take it.
Feb 2 she took a f/t from me. Following weekend was another bust.
Feb 16 she took one. But nothing since. Will try again this weekend.
She's obviously VERY finicky, but doing much better than when I first got her. lol
So since June 4th to now, her weight went down from 1189 grams to 1103 grams. That's not bad at all, considering the amount of time that she HASN'T eaten!
I will keep working with MY pain in the ass BP, but we're getting there. Slowly but surely.
I hope this helps to reassure you. :)

My personal record with an adult BP is 8 months with no food intake. At that point I was starting to stress, but he went back eating when he was ready. My female BP eats mostly throughout winter, but not as reliably as the rest of the year. For either snake after two missed feedings I generally wait about a month before offering again, regardless of time of year. They are quite often very overfed in captivity.

So I wouldn't sweat it yet. Not for a long while at least. I think the longest I heard of a BP going without food was just over the two year mark! Going a few months is nothing if the snake is healthy.

Good luck! You will get more comfortable over time. The first few years I had my first BP I was a wreck trying to get him to eat when he would go off food in November. Now I view it as a favor he does me to save some money in the food bill!