BP Behavior

Well it has finally happened, my ball python wont eat. He is 2yrs old now and he has never given to much trouble. Usually he will take hours to eat (he plays with his food), but now he just licks them and goes about his business. I wanted to know if you guys know of any ways to entice them to eat or at least strike the food.

Also I recently got a Boa and I love him, but in comparison with my BP, the BP just seems lazy and likes to keep to himself, but the BOA loves being out and will sleep in your hands and it all around better.

Is my BP acting normal?? Here are some recent pics of the gang.

He is about a foot bigger than this pic shows...
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8751/img2754lp5.jpg

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/7...8876917ey0.jpg

Do you feed live or frozen all the time? There's times during shed he won't eat, some times he won't take food and some times he's a very active eater. I wouldn't worrie about it if he skips a week or so. It really depends on the animal itself. Mine didn't eat last week and now he's hunting like crazy ready to eat. I'll feed him tomarrow and he should be racked out in his hide for a couple days. Nice collection of Animals

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Originally Posted by WizzySRT10

Do you feed live or frozen all the time? There's times during shed he won't eat, some times he won't take food and some times he's a very active eater. I wouldn't worrie about it if he skips a week or so. It really depends on the animal itself.

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I feed live every time..he has never missed a meal before and he isnt in shed. He is just being stubborn it seems, but i was wondering if there is a scent or something that makes them want to eat.

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Originally Posted by mricyfire

I feed live every time..he has never missed a meal before and he isnt in shed. He is just being stubborn it seems, but i was wondering if there is a scent or something that makes them want to eat.

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I wish you luck on getting the big guy to eat. I know what works for me but might not work on other people.

an 8 foot fall could really hurt that snake.i think you should rethink how you treat the animal.

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Originally Posted by Butters420

an 8 foot fall could really hurt that snake.i think you should rethink how you treat the animal.

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I take the best care of my snakes...im under the door..my roommate took the pick, we were amazed that he cclimbed that by himself from the bottom.

My guess is that he's hit THAT age... A lot of times, when males hit breeding size, they'll go off of feed during the natural breeding season. If your husbandry is right on, that's probably what is going on. Just keep offering him the same type of prey that he's used to every week. He'll eventually come around!

hes definitely not acting normal. im no expert but from the pic, its seems he thinks hes an arboreal species... havent you told him hes supposed to be terrestrial. good luck keeping him on the ground.;)

So anyone got any ideas...the thing is I still have the rats that he was going to eat, I have been taking care of them, but Im not much of a rodent kinda guy and am not sure what else is needed to keep these guys healthy until my guy eats.

It's getting colder, and if your temps and outside environment is getting chillier, that may trigger a breeding response, and therefore stop the animal from wanting to eat as much.

It definitely could be the temps, etc. Most of my breeding age/size males went on hunger strikes. I got two back on feed with ASFs (they were too skinny to go off feed), and the other two eat every once in a while. If I see them losing weight, I will probably try ASFs also.

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Originally Posted by Butters420

an 8 foot fall could really hurt that snake.i think you should rethink how you treat the animal.

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it acctully looks like a very healthy and well kept animal...i say you keep up the good work

maybe try prescenting the room and feed at night?