Back on feeding...

If you have had a BP go off feeding because of the winter... when did he/she pick back upon feeding again? What month?


My snake gang is fine except for Sebastian who just won't eat (big surprise) and has only eaten 9 times since I got him this time last year. I was told not to worry because some males go off eating during winter season. He went off eating last August. I got him to eat a African soft furred rat on 1-21-07. On 1-23-07 he puked it up. Has yet to eat again. Wants nothing to do with rats, mice, gerbils, African spiny mice, African soft furred rats... live, prekilled, brained, f/t... nothing. I've tried it all! I feel like I'm just watching this poor snake slowly starve to death. I hate to say it, but I'm just waiting for the day to wake up and see that he has died.

Everyone just keeps telling me to wait, that he will resume eating again when it gets warmer out. I highly doubt he will. Only one person has told me that I should force feed him and well... eh I'm not sure if I should do that or just wait. I just don't want to wait and have it turn out to be to late. I just witnessed this same thing first hand and it really tore me up and the snake wasn't even mine.

Have you gotten him check for internal parasites???

Yes. He hasn't pooped since last summer but this past fall my vet went a head and wormed him just in case. We were both in hopes that he'd pick back up eating normally. No luck. I brought it back to my vets attention when I had that RI out break this past December and was told to wait till spring and not to force feed him.

my BP went off feed during winter.he ate last month.i tried once or twice again,but didnt take it.i'll try feeding him again soon and see if he takes it.

I'd get a cloacal swab done just in case he has something like giardia/coccidia that wasn't present in the fecal sample from last year(the oocysts shed at different intervals, so they may not have shown themselves last time).

Also, I would get him in a 15qt tub with one hide, and a water bowl(how I have my extremely shy girl set up and she's eating every week), and leave him completely alone for a week and a half to two weeks. Maybe even put him in a dark closet. Just change the waterbowl every so often. Keep heat high, 95/85(all of mine are kept this way 24/7 except for the breeders). NO handling until he eats a few consecutive times.

See what the fecal test shows, and if it doesn't show anything, preventatively treat him with some Albon(sulfadimethoxine-treats coccidia) and some metronidazole(Flagyl-treats giardia) and see how he does. The Flagyl is a good appetite stimulate. After a week or two, try to feed him a small, live mouse. Then leave him completely alone for another week. :)

Hope this helps and I hope you can get his problems resolved.

Awesome, thanks Becky!
I'll set him up like you have said and I'll make a appointment for him on Monday.

Allison -
How big is he???

In addition to what Becky said, you may want to give him some Bene-Bac for Birds and Reptiles after the flagyl and before the mouse. This will boost the beneficial bacteria in his digestive tract, which is most likely very low after regurge and not eating for a long time. Oh, if you don't find Bene-bac in the reptile section, check the bird section. I have gotten it from Petco in the past. It comes on a little hang card with 3 little tubes on the card. The Flagyl and the Bene-bac could possibly boost his appetite to get him going. If not, you may want to assist feed SMALLER than appropriate sized mouse until he does get going. Offer it to him live first, and if he doesn't take it, kill it and assist feed. You'll want to get him putting on some weight, so feed every 3 or 4 days until he picks up on his own. Once he puts on some weight, and gets a little stronger, he will most likely become more confident and surprise you by eating on his own.

I've had very good luck doing this with several problem feeders, two of which I'm sure would not have survived otherwise.

Good luck!
Steve

Thanks for the info & tips Steve! I'll give that a try also. He's got a vet appointment tomorrow. After that he's getting stuck in a 15qt tub and getting put in my closet with is dark with the heat on 95.

Becky...think I should leave him like that for a week and try or give him two weeks to just chill then give feeding him a ago?

I'd give him 2 weeks, just to be on the safe side. It won't hurt him to go one more week if he's gone this long without eating.

I have a little 450-500g 2005 female I got from Cue last year. She wouldn't eat well at his house and where he lived, mice weren't readily available(all she eats is mice.. when she wants to). So, she came here, and after 3 weeks alone in a 15qt tub with high heat, she ate 2 mice, I think it was? The week after, the didn't eat, but the following week, she took one mouse. She now takes one mouse every week without fail and is still in that same 15qt tub. She's packing on the grams slowly but surely and is looking good. She's a picky little snit, but I love her ;)

Hopefully his appetite will kick in and he'll be on a nice steady feeding schedule. Make sure that cool side stays up to, mine stay 85 year round in the juvie rack. They like it toasty it seems :)

Well it's now been two weeks since I took Sebastian to the vet. He checked out with nothing wrong, no parasites or anything. The vet did give him a dosage of flagyl since I asked him to since it's a stimulant. Brought him home put him in his 15qt tub with just his one hide and water bowl and hooked him up with some heat. Stuck him in my closet and left him alone.

I put a mouse in there since I knew he was awake. At first he didn't seem interested in it, then he stuck his head out of his hide. Mouse went by, nothing just flicked his tongue a few times. Mouse went by again, nothing... but he followed it out and just followed it around and kept putting his head on it. It would freak out and scare him so he'd just ball up.


So yeah... still have a snake who just doesn't want to eat at all. He looks bad. His back bone is really sticking out and his tummy is getting that sucked in curve to it. Also he's getting that "female BP who just laid eggs look" with his body.

I guess I'm just going to have to force feed him. I don't want to but then again I don't want to see him starve to death either. So frustrating!

Allison if you know anyone that breeds rats ask for a really nice chubby fuzzy/crawler rat...say about 8 days old. I've found them to be pretty hard to resist for a lot of snakes. They move just enough to attract interest but can't scurry off. I'd pop one in with the snake, close the closet and leave them completely alone together overnight (no peeking). The fuzzy rat cannot possibly hurt your snake and hopefully will interest it enough to get it to eat. If your snake takes this fuzzy/crawler then offer it another the next week, then one a few days older the week after and so on, very slowly upping the prey as the snake becomes more and more interested in eating. The fuzzies aren't enough to actually give them enough calories but they seem to kick start the digestion again and bring on a feeding response.

Saoirse our female WC adult rescue has always fasted over the winter. We simply cannot break her of this no matter how stable her husbandry is. She however is of good body weight now and loses almost nothing over the winter so it's not a huge concern with her. We got her started last spring and will likely do so this spring by offering 8 or 9 day old rat fuzzy/crawlers then slowly getting her back to her regular small rats over a number of weeks.

Best of luck sweetie. Keep us up-to-date on how things go for this lovely snake.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Allison if you know anyone that breeds rats ask for a really nice chubby fuzzy/crawler rat...say about 8 days old. I've found them to be pretty hard to resist for a lot of snakes. They move just enough to attract interest but can't scurry off. I'd pop one in with the snake, close the closet and leave them completely alone together overnight (no peeking). The fuzzy rat cannot possibly hurt your snake and hopefully will interest it enough to get it to eat. If your snake takes this fuzzy/crawler then offer it another the next week, then one a few days older the week after and so on, very slowly upping the prey as the snake becomes more and more interested in eating. The fuzzies aren't enough to actually give them enough calories but they seem to kick start the digestion again and bring on a feeding response.

Saoirse our female WC adult rescue has always fasted over the winter. We simply cannot break her of this no matter how stable her husbandry is. She however is of good body weight now and loses almost nothing over the winter so it's not a huge concern with her. We got her started last spring and will likely do so this spring by offering 8 or 9 day old rat fuzzy/crawlers then slowly getting her back to her regular small rats over a number of weeks.

Best of luck sweetie. Keep us up-to-date on how things go for this lovely snake.

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Good stuff! i hope this helps for your allison! Good luck! we're pulling for ya!

Thanks Joanna. The good news is that the rat trio I have right now, one of the moms has a litter that is about 10 days old. I'll throw one of them in with him tonight and leave him be.

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Originally Posted by lillyorchid

Thanks Joanna. The good news is that the rat trio I have right now, one of the moms has a litter that is about 10 days old. I'll throw one of them in with him tonight and leave him be.

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Good! hopefully he takes...........maybe put like a little bedding from the rats in the corner of his tub like an hour before hand, maybe he'll catch the scent and be very willing to strike! Good luck!

One thing you might want to try Allison is putting a few crawlers and a bit of stinky litter into a container with tons of vent holes. Put the whole deal on lid on the warm side of his enclosure a couple of hours before you intend to feed. Close the door and leave them in there in the dark (another trick we did with Saoirse to get her to eat at first). It makes sense to me that a snake that's designed to hunt in a dark, warm, enclosed space would key up to the sound of movement in the dark and the smell of live prey moving around nearby. When we did this with Saoirse we would often find her peering intently upward, tongue flicking like mad at the smells and sounds above her. Also, and I know this sounds a bit stupid, but we fed her in the dark, at night with absolutely no sounds allowed. Just a quick sneek in to place the container, two hours later a very quick and quiet opening of her tub to place the feeder and then we basically snuck off. Seemed to help her to disturb her as little as possible (when she was finally on larger prey we monitored the live feeds with a black t-shirt over a flashlight).

Awesome! I'll do this and let you know tomorrow how it goes.
*crosses fingers*

Crossing all my crossable bits for you and your snake hon!

Just went and checked on him and the rat pup was still there and alive. I did everything as you said Joanna from sticking a few and dirty bedding in a small aired container in there to present, then quietly placing one of the pups in there and leaving him alone in complete darkness over night.

Blah.
Next idea / tip in line please!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lillyorchid

Just went and checked on him and the rat pup was still there and alive. I did everything as you said Joanna from sticking a few and dirty bedding in a small aired container in there to present, then quietly placing one of the pups in there and leaving him alone in complete darkness over night.

Blah.
Next idea / tip in line please!

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:soapbx: geeesh! he's giving you a run for your money allison! i thought for sure what Jo suggested would work!

Tyree in most cases what people have told me to do for him, would have worked with a lot of picky eaters. This guy has been a horrible eater since I first got him last year. He just doesn't ever want to eat. Now it seems as though he'd rather just starve himself to death then even attempt to make a move to eat. He'd rather just stalk and harass the rat or mouse and have fun with it.

Well dang it all! All I can suggest hon if you know he will eat rats (he has in the past right?) is to keep trying the weekly offering of a rat fuzzy/very young pup with the pre-scenting and hope it works. I wish I had any other ideas...he sure sounds like a stubborn cuss! :(

Yup he was started on rats. Took a mouse or two from me, then ate more rats.

I'll try again next Saturday. Next week the rat pups will be a little bit bigger so maybe that will help.

Nope, nothing again.

Should I attempt to force feed him?

Good luck. Hope whatever works for you! Sounds like a repeat as what Zeus is doing with me right now. I'm going to peek in every once in a while and see how you're doing Allison, so that maybe I can get some ideas for my stubborn cuss, too! :rolleye2:


Hang in there!

Hon I wouldn't try force feeding without a very experienced person there to help you or a vet showing you how. Even assist feeding has it's issues so best to talk that out with a very experienced breeder or your herp vet and get some concept of how it's done properly and whether it's warranted in this situation.

Well Sebastian -finally- ate today! First meal since late last August. He shed last night so I thought maybe he'd at least like to smell and harass a small African soft furred rat since he likes to play with his food then to eat it. I put one in and WHAM! I about fell over and couldn't believe what I was seeing. He got that one down so I put another small one in and he grabbed it right on up.

So I'm happy! He seems to be stuffed and happy.

That is awesome. Gives me hope for when I imagine will have to deal with a similar situation. No problems yet. Knock on wood. :bonk:

Congrats!!! That's good to hear! ^_^ Hope he continues to eat now that he remembers how to do it! :D

Allison -
That's great news! Start him off slow and small though! He hasn't eaten in a long time, and I didn't see anything about you giving him Bene-bac. He needs a little time to re-establish the beneficial bacteria before giving him a very large meal or you'll risk regurge. Good luck with him!

Steve