3rd Week without food!

This is 3 weeks now that Zeke has refused to eat! He is starting to lose weight. His skin is not tight and smooth like it use to be. Tonight was feed night again and he refused totally hanging at the opposite end of the tank from the rat. His temps are good. His humidity has dropped but I have adjusted for that and it is up to 43% now. For the last week there has been no handling and only been in the tank to do spot cleaning and clean water. During the day he of course is in his warm hide and about 8 pm he comes out to do his snakey thing, but he spends the whole time trying to find a way out and totally knocking over the plants in his tank. I have checked him completely over tonight and there are no mites, his belly looks good, and no breathing probs.(I have read so much on RI and I am so freaked out that I keep trying to think something is wrong, I am going down a list he has this, no he doesn't have this) I am really getting worried, does someone have any idea what is going on and if there is anything I can do to entice him to eat! Really need some help here guys!

myabe you could try dropping in a mouse? i dont know if that will work, but it won't hurt to try

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Originally Posted by Kizerk

myabe you could try dropping in a mouse? i dont know if that will work, but it won't hurt to try

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I did that tonight. Left the small rat in there for 20 minutes and Zeke stayed at the other end of the tank trying to find a way out!

do you normally feed mice and tonight you offered a rat?

i've heard of bps off feed (if they were fed rats) take mice, and vice versa

do you happen to have a recent picture of him? he might be "catching up" on his weight.

this time of year snakes will fast because of a little too much feeding earlier in the year.

my male fasted for about 5 months last year because i fed him medium and "large" small rats the whole year before. i know better now, ofcourse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kizerk

do you normally feed mice and tonight you offered a rat?

i've heard of bps off feed (if they were fed rats) take mice, and vice versa

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always rats except for his first 2 feeds way back in August

hm...you could always try a mouse next time, maybe his taste buds have changed :)

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Originally Posted by mr~python

do you happen to have a recent picture of him? he might be "catching up" on his weight.

this time of year snakes will fast because of a little too much feeding earlier in the year.

my male fasted for about 5 months last year because i fed him medium and "large" small rats the whole year before. i know better now, ofcourse.

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Just took these:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i1...l/IMG_0735.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i1...l/IMG_0731.jpg

He just looks like he is sucking up on his sides and if you look in this last picture at towards the end of his tail how his skin is loose and baggy where it is bent.
any help?
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i1...l/IMG_0730.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i1...l/IMG_0733.jpg

Hi,


Well he still looks ok so there's no need to panic just yet :)

When did he last shed?

Does he always come out at the same time - and is that the time you have chosen to offer him the food?

Is this live rodents?

As for the knocking over the plants then yeah they can be destructive little nuggets when they feel like it :D



dr del

Our wild caught Saoirse seems to be back to fast mode again she did it last year from mid october to maybe may ish have to check records for exact dates. She was 600 grams or so when we got her got up to just over 900. She then lost mabye 100 to 200 grams druing the fast and is now up to between 1200 and 1300 grams. Fall set in and she is fasting again so will get her thru the winter and hope to put more weight on her next spring and summer. With luck she be up to breeding weight next year. So if your snake isn't loosing weight to seriously or you don't supspect so other reason ie medical for weight loss I wouldn't worry about it too much I know we would all love our snakes to eat every week but am pretty shure they don't get anywhere near 52 meals a year in the wild.So if you don't any any other reason's to be worring about your snake I would say when the weather turns to spring again you will find it eating again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,


Well he still looks ok so there's no need to panic just yet :)

When did he last shed?

Does he always come out at the same time - and is that the time you have chosen to offer him the food?

Is this live rodents?

As for the knocking over the plants then yeah they can be destructive little nuggets when they feel like it :D


dr del

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He shed just over 4 weeks ago.
Most of the time you find him out right around the same time but not always.
On feed night I wait until I see him sticking his head out of his hide and remove his hide and plants on that side , wait longer for him to decide to move a little bit and then feed. He usually takes it right out of my husbands hand but there have been times we have had to drop the rat in.
He feeds live.
Last night we found him hanging from the loop of elastic that I use to lift the plexi off the top of the cage. He had made his way to the top and looped in it to get himself closer to the top!

My girls consistantly don't eat from early October to February, maybe once or twice all winter, even with proper temps. I got them switched to pre killed ths summer, but before that I would put the rodent in a small cardboard box inside the cage to allow them control over the contact, and an out if they got intimidated. They ate every 7-10 days, spring thru fall, without fail like that. We are trying the first feedings with the new ones today, so we'll see how that goes.

Man....that's a pretty snake!!!


He doesn't look anywhere near "too skinny" or anything. He looks very healthy, so a few missed meals aren't going to hurt him, even if he loses a few grams of weight.

He looks too young for a seasonal fast, so the two things you need to look for are: Environmental issues....and how much he's had to eat so far.

What size prey items has he been eating up til he started refusing? If he was eating relatively large rats, he may just be "catching up" from the "feast."

And/OR it could be environmental. Maybe he'd prefer if you didn't remove the hides and "furniture" from his home. They're ambush predators by nature, so he might feel more secure if everything is the same and he can ambush the rat from a hide. Besides that...look around for any possible "stressors." Is there a bright white light shining directly into the cage? Is there a TV or stereo speaker nearby that might be causing vibrations? Sometimes it can be something little that we would scarcely notice, but it could be a big deal to your snake.

He has been eating a large/small rat. I thought maybe it was things around him also so i covered the backs and sides of the tank, there is no bright light over him.
I guess I will just leave him alone and wait another week and try. This time I will leave all of his "gear" in the tank.
Thanks to everyone for listening and responding to this "freaked out" mom:D

I'm betting the prey size is a bit too big to encourage consistent feeding. Kisasa only gets fuzzies and weanlings. The few times I've fed her something bigger (which she can easily eat) she ends up skipping meals afterwards.


Here's what I would try:
--Skip the next scheduled feeding...give him a chance to totally settle down and realize he's hungry again

Then:
--Leave the cage and furniture completely alone on feeding day
--Buy a fuzzy rat...or weanling at the most
--Pre-scent the room for about 30 minutes before offering the rat. (Put it in a small, ventilated cage/box and right next to the snake's tank)
--With as little disturbance as possible, drop the rat into the tank.

And I'll bet ya you see a snake ready and anxious to hunt.

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Originally Posted by JLC

I'm betting the prey size is a bit too big to encourage consistent feeding. Kisasa only gets fuzzies and weanlings. The few times I've fed her something bigger (which she can easily eat) she ends up skipping meals afterwards.


Here's what I would try:
--Skip the next scheduled feeding...give him a chance to totally settle down and realize he's hungry again

Then:
--Leave the cage and furniture completely alone on feeding day
--Buy a fuzzy rat...or weanling at the most
--Pre-scent the room for about 30 minutes before offering the rat. (Put it in a small, ventilated cage/box and right next to the snake's tank)
--With as little disturbance as possible, drop the rat into the tank.

And I'll bet ya you see a snake ready and anxious to hunt.

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Judy thanks so much for the great advice! I will follow your advice and let you know how things go. Oh, and thanks for saying how pretty Zeke is:D

How long have you had him ? Is this the first fall you have owned him?

I am no expert so I am only speaking from exper. w/ my bp who is 3yo and has been fasting the last two yrs during the winter. When mine starts to move about at night and go back and forth along the front of the cage and climbing up trying to escape thru the top it usually means he is about to fast and is thinking about the ladies.
I have tried everything including upping the temps and maintaining them that way year round, leaving a light on this year to make him think the days are still long ( will see if that helps ).

He looks ok from the pics and bp's can go up to a year w/o food if they are healthy etc. I would do as Judy suggested and try and keep temps on the 82-84- 92-94 range and keep that and your humidity stable and just wait a couple weeks and try again.
I know I pre-scent the cage and if within a few moments if Ozzy doesn't not poke his head out and go into his Cobra stance he isn't interested.

Good Luck !

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Originally Posted by jotay

How long have you had him ? Is this the first fall you have owned him?

I am no expert so I am only speaking from exper. w/ my bp who is 3yo and has been fasting the last two yrs during the winter. When mine starts to move about at night and go back and forth along the front of the cage and climbing up trying to escape thru the top it usually means he is about to fast and is thinking about the ladies.
I have tried everything including upping the temps and maintaining them that way year round, leaving a light on this year to make him think the days are still long ( will see if that helps ).

He looks ok from the pics and bp's can go up to a year w/o food if they are healthy etc. I would do as Judy suggested and try and keep temps on the 82-84- 92-94 range and keep that and your humidity stable and just wait a couple weeks and try again.
I know I pre-scent the cage and if within a few moments if Ozzy doesn't not poke his head out and go into his Cobra stance he isn't interested.

Good Luck !

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Have had Zeke for almost 5 mths, so yes this is our first fall together. I always pre-scent. I try to follow the care sheets to a t! Thanks for all your info and I will keep everyone posted. I am going to wait 2 weeks and try again! Wish us luck:)

UPDATE: Zeke ate tonight:fest: It was just one little rat fuzzie, but I am so happy:carrot:

That's great!! I'm glad he's eating for you again!

LGL

Congrats. :sweeet: