Breeders Not Eating!?

[brettsemrick]

Well, for the past year and a half I have been buying and feeding up ball pythons in preperation for breeding season this year. In the past month and a half three of my six snakes I have been planning on pairing have stopped eating. My 3000 gram normal female and 1100 gram pastel male have went from eating f/t like clockwork to refusing live and my yellowbelly male who is a live feeder has stopped showing interest in food at all. All my husbandry is correct, my ambient air temp is 85-86, hot spot is 89-90, cool side is 79-80, and the hummidity is about 55%. Is there anything else I could do besides continuing to offer food till october/november and would it be alright to start brumating snakes if they have been off feed for a little while if they have the proper body weight?

[J.Vandegrift]

Well, for the past year and a half I have been buying and feeding up ball pythons in preperation for breeding season this year. In the past month and a half three of my six snakes I have been planning on pairing have stopped eating. My 3000 gram normal female and 1100 gram pastel male have went from eating f/t like clockwork to refusing live and my yellowbelly male who is a live feeder has stopped showing interest in food at all. All my husbandry is correct, my ambient air temp is 85-86, hot spot is 89-90, cool side is 79-80, and the hummidity is about 55%. Is there anything else I could do besides continuing to offer food till october/november and would it be alright to start brumating snakes if they have been off feed for a little while if they have the proper body weight?

They will stop sometimes. They are both plenty big enough to breed anyway so I wouldn't worry about it. Once it gets close to breeding season they will usually start eating again.

[ImBooBy]

Some ball pythons simply go off feed just to do it. Your temps and humidity can be dead on and they will still do it. It seems many females do it before breeding but will get back on feed soon. Dont stress too much over it unless they lose a bit of weight

[pitoon]

Well, for the past year and a half I have been buying and feeding up ball pythons in preperation for breeding season this year. In the past month and a half three of my six snakes I have been planning on pairing have stopped eating. My 3000 gram normal female and 1100 gram pastel male have went from eating f/t like clockwork to refusing live and my yellowbelly male who is a live feeder has stopped showing interest in food at all. All my husbandry is correct, my ambient air temp is 85-86, hot spot is 89-90, cool side is 79-80, and the hummidity is about 55%. Is there anything else I could do besides continuing to offer food till october/november and would it be alright to start brumating snakes if they have been off feed for a little while if they have the proper body weight?

don't drive yourself nuts trying to figure out what's wrong with them....this is what they do. it's just something you have to except. i just had a male fire start eating again after 8 months or so.

Pitoon

[Big Gunns]

Ball Pythons are weird and will want to breed at almost any time of year. Put the ones that are off feed(if it's a month or more) together now if you want. There's a good chance they want some lovin right now. If you wait until the "breeding season" you may have missed your chance.

In captivity numerous things can affect a Ball Python. You may have inadvertently done something to cycle your Balls and they want to breed now. Putting them together may get them to start to feed also.

[greghall]

Yep some of my males are still off since spring not sweating it yearling females are off too I guess they will eat when they want LOL