5 Month Fast Question

Hey everyone,

My female Autumn hasn't eaten a meal since early October. Her weight then was 826g. I'm almost positive the reason for her fast is that I was overfeeding her with F/T small rats that were a bit to big. I since then bought weaned rats but have had no luck getting her to eat. Its now about 5 months later and her weight is 746g. She still actively thermoregulates and is drinking water and urinating from time to time. She's also shed once about 2 months into the fast. Temps are 92 on the warm and 82-84 on the cool, humidity 45-55%.

Question is when should I worry and even consider force feeding as an option. She's a little skinny but by no means close to being emaciated.

Thanks all,

You have got plenty time before worrying too much. 5 months may seem like a lot but we have members here who had snakes go close to or over a year before eating.

I tried to not go crazy over it because I know 5 months isn't a long time but the other day I weighed everyone and noticed my little 06 pastel was already creeping past the 400g mark. That got the wheels turning. She was also my first snake and bought from a pet store so I'm not sure if she was WC or CB. They claim CB but you never know.

Any of the members with those year long fasting snakes have some weight loss details I could compare to?

Mine has been on a 4 month fast and has lost about 70 g so yours is fine I would say.

My Cyrus is approaching 1 year and has rejected food for the last 2 weeks. I am worried. His temp are good 82 on cool 92 on hot. He wanders around his cage. I have made two attempts to feed him a small rat however he just moves
away. Everything seems ok with him but he was always such an active eater.
Maybe I should back him down to large mice?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wholuvsyah

My Cyrus is approaching 1 year and has rejected food for the last 2 weeks. I am worried. His temp are good 82 on cool 92 on hot. He wanders around his cage. I have made two attempts to feed him a small rat however he just moves
away. Everything seems ok with him but he was always such an active eater.
Maybe I should back him down to large mice?

---

Not all snakes take a switch from mice to rats and vice versa. He may just be fasting because you could have possibly been overfeeding him.

I saw that suggestion and I wondered if that were the case. I feed him
a small rat once a week. Well another rat goes back to the pet store.
If I kept the rat what should I feed it. I have given it cereal, water, and
carrots so far. I think my son slipped him some m & M's.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wholuvsyah

I saw that suggestion and I wondered if that were the case. I feed him
a small rat once a week. Well another rat goes back to the pet store.
If I kept the rat what should I feed it. I have given it cereal, water, and
carrots so far. I think my son slipped him some m & M's.

---

many people feed it dog food. if you look at the stickied posts in the feeder section there is a recipe for rodent food that provides all the nutrition it needs

Im just wondering have you tied possibly feeding mice? Sometimes a mouse will intice him to eat. G'luck though :)

The only thing I haven't tried is a live rat, mostly because I can't find any small rats that are actually small enough to feed.

Rich,
I have had a female go 55 weeks without feeding. I bought her as a long term captive, but once I got her, I believe she was a gravid import that dropped eggs, and never ate. I try to feed all of my ball pythons rats, so that is what I did. If I remeber correctly, she came in at about 1200 grams. She got down as low as 900 grams. Well every week we tried feeding her. Sometimes a live rat sometimes a f/t rat, sometimes a fresh killed rat and sometimes a live mouse(i don't do mice any other way).. Well, after thinking she would die and 55 weeks of heartache, she finally ate a mouse. Now she gets 2 mice every four days, and gained 650 grams in about three months. She has since started breeding, but I haven't seen any signs of follicular development. I hope this helps, and if you have any specific questions, please PM, e-mail or call me. Hand in there. If you are persistent and have faith, she'll come around.
Sincerely,

Thanks Tim,

I'm hoping she'll come around, she used to have such a strong feeding response. Spring is coming though so I hope she'll come around.