How long has your bp gone off feed for?

I am ust wondering how long one of your bp's has gone off feed for? mine has stopped eating for a while. I know its the season theyt stop feeding, but sometimes i get worried. so out of curiosity, how long has one of your guys bp fasted for?

I have one male that has been on and off for just over a year and a half.

He has taken about six meals, and then skipped one... tomorrow is feeding day and he is nice and freshly shed... *fingers crossed*.

This snake also came to me severely burned and was a rehab.

Bruce

oh please explain if you put more/other.

thankfully only had my normal go off for 1 month and 2 weeks.

My male has been off feed for about 5 months now. He usually feeds frozen, so im trying live currently. he doesn't seem too interested. hmmm.:confused:

i had one big normal girl go off feed for 8 months. now shes a pig on everything and trys to eat me at times

I have a male that's been off feed since Dec, and another since Nov. The one since Nov did take a live rat in Jan, but hasn't eaten since.

:mad:GOT ALL BUT TWO BACK ON,BEEN OFF SINCE EARLY JANUARY .ONE GIRL MAY BE GRAVID THE OTHER IS ON THE 1000g FAST:mad:

Mi normal 750g been off since Jan 22, first time it has happened to me so yes is very frustrating, now my new blood has refused food first time I offered hope its not the same as my ball

Most of our adults go off feed for 4-5 months each year during breeding season. We do have one female normal who is just a pet who has gone 8 months with out eating. She is over 4000 grams and healthy so I try not to worry too much.

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Originally Posted by greghall

:mad:GOT ALL BUT TWO BACK ON,BEEN OFF SINCE EARLY JANUARY .ONE GIRL MAY BE GRAVID THE OTHER IS ON THE 1000g FAST:mad:

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1000 gram fast ? whats that ? I bought 1100 gram girl in early Jan. She ate 1 time and hasnt eaten since. She was 1100g when I bought her and is 1000 now.

Ive talked to alot of BP keepers & breeders & they can go off feed anywhere from 750g to 1000g for no reason,when I first got mine they would eat good for a few meals than stop,Its frustrating but thats what they do,it don't bother me anymore except when your trying to get a nice female pastel up to size for breeding next year!!!:mad:

Is it worse if a younger ball (like age between 6 months to a year) stops eatting?

Also what are the ages of everyones balls that are going off food for long periods of time?

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Originally Posted by van_garret2000

Is it worse if a younger ball (like age between 6 months to a year) stops eatting?

Also what are the ages of everyones balls that are going off food for long periods of time?

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yes it is. it is normally adults that go off feed because of breeding season. But its okay if young ones go off feed as long as they don't begin to lose weight, which could hint at some kind of sickness.

I wouldn't worry too much if you have a male that goes off feed between fall and spring.

I have a 10 year old male that I've had since he was a hatchling. Starting from age 2-ish he refuses to eat between late October and early April (he's gone to May before). He loses a little weight, but as long as I'm maintaining his temps/humidity/light cycles I know that it's him and not me.

It's hard not to stress out about, but now that I've experienced the same thing year after year it's finally sunken in that a reptiles metabolism is very different from mammals!

I said "other" for me. Jakey went 16 days. I'm told that's OK, however, with him eating twice a week at the store, that kind of scared me some. We've had him a week and he's ate once for me. I haven't had him long enough to really know.........

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Originally Posted by joshn6805

yes it is. it is normally adults that go off feed because of breeding season. But its okay if young ones go off feed as long as they don't begin to lose weight, which could hint at some kind of sickness.

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Yeah i always hear "as long as they don't lose weight". What are you supposed to do if they lose weight?

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Originally Posted by pythontricker

oh please explain if you put more/other.

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I have a 2005 66% pos Het lav albino male that went off food for 14 mos. He was offered every week during that time, he was offered rats, mice and ASF...nothing worked...I put him in a smaller tub, did the paper ball trick and still nothing....All of a sudden after 14 mos of no food, he took a rat wean...now its been about a year and he's eaten everything that he is offered each week....weird.

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Originally Posted by greghall

Ive talked to alot of BP keepers & breeders & they can go off feed anywhere from 750g to 1000g for no reason,when I first got mine they would eat good for a few meals than stop,Its frustrating but thats what they do,it don't bother me anymore except when your trying to get a nice female pastel up to size for breeding next year!!!:mad:

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I track our ball pythons weight every month for several years (I'm a data freak) and have found exactly what you're saying. Between 750 and 1100 grams many females stop ating and growing for several months. Not all, just many. I know it's not, but it seems like it is usually those very cool new morphs that I'm trying to get up to breeding size. :mad:

We've had ours for almost 2 years and he seems to have done the same thing... he was just under 1000g, then stopped eating the middle of November and just took his first meal last week.

Thankfully he ate again this week, and during the whole time he only lost about 50g total, so I wasn't too worried. It did make us a bit baffled since he's never had a single problem before this.

Good to hear it's somewhat normal anyway. :)

i have had 2off feed since january and both were around 700 grams and now are 680.identical loss of weight.kinda weird.my younger ones are now catching up.within 4 more weeks all my snakes will be the same size.trippy!

My male and female have never been off feed, I give them mice every 9-10 days and they always eat. My male is 2.5 years old and the female is almost 3 years in june

my w.c have gone 8 months with no food

Lennie has been off since november... annoying, but he did the same thing last year when i first got him. not too stressed about it though

My pastel male takes 2-3 months off of food every breeding season I also have a normal female who took 4 months off this year. All the others feed all the time.

I have an 08 male that just ate today for the first time in 2 months. I was starting to get a little worried, but I've offered him food every week along with the others, frozen/thawed rat/mouse.

A year... wow. I would be pretty scared.

My girl has eaten 2 mice (she's always eaten sm-med rats until now... BPs are so finicky!) in the past 4 months. But she's always been picky; won't take f/t (:mad:), skips meals now and then, but this is her first fast. I guess it's just that time of year.

If you're worried about your BP, you could take a fecal sample (if you have one) to a vet and check for parasites.

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Originally Posted by van_garret2000

Yeah i always hear "as long as they don't lose weight". What are you supposed to do if they lose weight?

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you could assess the husbandry and current health of the animal and determine a course of action such as husbandry correction or a vet visit.

Looks mine is in the majority he is going on about 6 months now. He looks interested but nothing I have been trying every-other week and no luck yet. I am not worried tho my other whent 9 months one time. I do however get a kick out of people that come in where I get my rats. They come in kinnda freaking out saying " My snake has not eatin in like 3 weeks" in a frantic tone.

mine has finally started eating again after 5 months. last year I ended up offering frozen/thawed fuzzy mice, which got him eating when regular sized mice just seemed to scare him.
that trick worked again this year, though it took about 3 weeks of offering fuzzies before he finally took one.
Once he gets something in his stomach though, he'll eat just about anything immediately. I followed the fuzzy with a large mouse and he took it like a champ.

My Female BP is 995 grams right now and has just started skipping meals - its been sorta sporadic for about the past 6 weeks but so far its been two weeks since she has eaten anything - don't know what this week will bring.

At what point do you start to offer different food like going from F/T to live or going from Rats back to mice??? I don't want to confuse her further or turn her off to food even further by changing things up - what do you all suggest.

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Alice

She is over 4000 grams and healthy so I try not to worry too much.

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Okay, I'm still a newbie, but how big in grams can these guys get? I've heard the most here so far 2000g, but 4000?...

I had 2 07 girls do that to me last winter, go off food right around the 1000 gram mark. One was at 950 grams and the other at 1150 grams. Both are back on food though.

I still got a couple males that haven't figured out breeding season is over yet ... lol. They both have healthy size though, so i am not too worried about it.

As for other hunger strikers, i had a pastel ball python that was off food when i got him for a couple months already. He went another 6 months without before finally taking a live mouse. He was consistent after that though, never missed a meal.

Robin
H2 Exotics

My male never misses a meal, on the other hand my female went at leat 3 weeks without eating

I have a big normal girl who isn't eating. She locked with my 100% het pied male at the end of February (this was before we went and got actual pieds, we were going to hold back her daughters and breed them back to the 100% het if she did lay eggs), and she stopped eating a month ago. I do not think she is knocked up, though. I don't know what her deal is. We're going to take her to the vet this week to be sure.

About 3 weeks. Just long enough to shed!

i had my two balls off feeding for 3 weeks. 1 of them just wouldn't eat and the other escaped for 3 weeks.they both never refused a meal before and both cases were a little odd:)

our male whos about 9 months old has gone off feed for about a month and a week...so far...i thought he was gonna eat the other day but he decided he didn't wanna...so its the waiting game. We offer him a small mouse every week to see if he wants to eat or not...

what does every1 use to get there bp to start eating again last year when i started trying to get my normal male to start eating again he would refuse a rat but would tear a gerbil up then he would start eating rats again and also does any1 else use coco bark for substrate.

My oldest male went over 8 months. To the above poster: I use repti-bark. BPs can be finicky eaters; the same male that didn't eat for 8 months prefers mice over rats. You could try scenting rats with gerbils and that might help to keep him on rats.

I had a WC male back in '94 that went 9 mo off feed. Got him to eat a long haired hamster if I remember right.

My male hasnt fed since November.and is still off feed as of today,He is down from 525g to 495g..had an RI but was treated. hes 18 months old,will be going for a followup exam next week.My 2 year old female is a eating machine,feeds regularly every 7 to 10 days,Med Rat and weighs 1270g and growing..Her picture is my Avatar pic..check her out

my male pastel has been off feed for almost three months now and has lost about 100g in that time span. my female normal has just recently gone off feed a couple weeks ago but I believe this is because she is going to ovy quite soon. for the most part these snakes know when they need to eat and how long they can go without food. simply, if they want to eat they will, all we as owners can do is offer (this does not apply to hatchlings whatsoever, as they can be finicky and some may need to be assist fed to insure proper feeding cycles occur).

-xan


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Originally Posted by Xan Powers

my male pastel has been off feed for almost three months now and has lost about 100g in that time span. my female normal has just recently gone off feed a couple weeks ago but I believe this is because she is going to ovy quite soon. for the most part these snakes know when they need to eat and how long they can go without food. simply, if they want to eat they will, all we as owners can do is offer (this does not apply to hatchlings whatsoever, as they can be finicky and some may need to be assist fed to insure proper feeding cycles occur). Good morning..just curious.How old is your male pastel?what was his weight at the beginning of his fast.My male normal hasnt fed since november.Starting weight was 560g is now down to 490g'He is noticebly thinner and isnt acting any different.When do you begin to get concerned and seek a vets opinion if you know the answer to this question.Thanks:confused:

-xan


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my longest off feed was 1 month and thats my choosing not my BP. had to do that since i gave her a big rat and i know that once i feed her after 2 weeks she'd just ignore the rat. now, she just ate a bigger rat and might not feed her for 2 months, maybe less. that is basing it on what i had experienced with her.

my pastels starting weight was around 2190 or so I'm at work so i don't have exact numbers but he is currently at 2040g I believe. this male is a proven breeder so he goes off feed every year as soon as he is introduced to females. as long as the habitat is clean and no health issues are observed than fasting is totally normal. most balls do it at some point or another especially breeding snakes. if you are ever worried a vet visit can't hurt, but I've known of breeders that have had snakes fast for months and months. when they eat they will eat and then we just get them back up to size for the next season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Xan Powers!

Had a '05 female go off feeding for 15 months (that's not counting how long she may have been fasting for the previous owner) threw in a male for a couple days, and she ate the day after I took him out. Not a recommended practice, but I took a chance andit paid off. Believe I caught the beginnings of ovulation today as well.

I have female she dont eat till today since Jan 23r when i got her... She was 1072 then she is 993 now... Thursday is a feeding day... she was in hunting position yesterday when i opened tube to check on her...so... we will see...

6 months and still going. 4 yr old normal male.

I had a male lesser go 13 months from 05 till mid 06.