For those who's bp's are off feed

[jotay]

My Ozzy has been off feed for about 9 weeks ( since begin of Oct) he seems fine and doesn't look like he is losing any weight, but my question is when your bp's are off feed do they still urate? Ozzy hasn't but two very small ones since his last feed. One small one was right when he shed a month ago and since then none. And of course no bm since a little after the last feed.
In all other ways he seems fine. Just wondering how others bp's do.

Thanks,
Jody

[steelsack]

The 18th will mark 3 months for Xaero............in that time I have found one log and one urates....sounds alot like your Ozzy. Mine seems fine also, no weight loss.
Now the bci on the other hand-feeds fine but always tail first. Maybe I should have them swish and spit with some listerine before feeding them off since he seems to prefer the wonderful taste of rat butt instead of going head first, lol.

[Smynx]

Hey Jody! Our Suki is doing the same thing Ozzy is. He's been off feed since the beginning of October. Every once in a while I find little spots on his newspaper where some liquid has dried, but no bm, and very few of the white urates.

[Jeanne]

My Betty has been off feed since the end of Aug/ beginning of Sept. She looks fine, very little urates and nothing else.

[Smynx]

I guess if nothing's going in, there's nothing to come out.

[Adam_Wysocki]

Zero off feed here, but I can add some info to the thread .... When ball pythons detect a natural temperature change in their environment their behavior changes. If they are sexually mature they will spend much less time thinking about eating and drinking and a lot of time thinking about breeding. If they are not yet sexually mature (and even if they are) and too cool they will become sluggish (heat == energy) and be prone to drink less and not want to eat.

Also, winter months tend to be drier and even if your hygrometers are reading the correct humidity inside the cage, your ball python can detect the drier air that is circulated into the cage from outside. When they sense this, they instinctively know to hold on to more fluids than when the humidity is naturally high.

Lastly, ball pythons get a portion of the fluids that they excrete from their meals, so less/no eating means lower natural fluid expulsion.

These are some of the reasons you may be seeing less urates this time of year.

Even though cage temps/humidity may appear to be the same, ambient room temps and humidity are changing and your ball python knows. In the winter months the air is naturally cooler and drier (especially with electic heat). Ball pythons are wicked smart when it comes to sensing the weather around them, inside and out side of their cage.

-adam

[Jeanne]

Adam Said:
Even though cage temps/humidity may appear to be the same, ambient room temps and humidity are changing and your ball python knows. In the winter months the air is naturally cooler and drier (especially with electic heat). Ball pythons are wicked smart when it comes to sensing the weather around them, inside and out side of their cage.


I always wondered that. Thanks for answering my not asked question. I have gone over my enclosures many many times, and all my temps and humidity levels are good in thier enclosures, but I have wondered if the ambient room temp is known regardless and may affect them. Thanks for sharing that info!

Also Adam- how come you have zero off feed, are all your bp's in thier own room that is set up differently than our own homes would be, meaning, is the ambient temps in where you keep them more thoroughly controlled?

[jotay]

Hi Smynx!

Thanks everyone, I figured no bm's but even off feed I figured they would still drink. But seems everyone's is about the same as mine so I guess I can not worry so much on that.

I to wondered if they sensed the change in temps outside their cages. His temps and humidity have stayed the same but the temps in my room go crazy.

I also before the cage change in July always used red heat bulbs but w/ the new cage I changed to black night glow bulbs. Then I noticed on the black light bulb it said it promotes breeding so I changed back to red.

Thanks for the info/help

[Adam_Wysocki]

Also Adam- how come you have zero off feed, are all your bp's in thier own room that is set up differently than our own homes would be, meaning, is the ambient temps in where you keep them more thoroughly controlled?

I have zero off feed for a couple of reasons. First, I keep my balls warmer than most of the recommendations I've seen on this site. A warm ball python is a hungry ball python. Second, I feed much smaller meals each week than most novice or intermediate keepers do. Smaller meals make a more consistent feeder. And third (I'm not sure if I'm even allowed to say this :mrgreen I feed live. Live feeders have MUCH better feeding responses, especially this time of year.

That said, I do keep my snakes in a commercial facility where the temperature and humidity is very precisely controlled, but even the snakes that I am purposely cooling for breeding are eating.

I very very rarely have a ball python fast. When it does happen it's ususally only new arrivals that haven't been in the collection long. Within a season or two, they learn the drill and figure out what time it is!

-adam

[Adam_Wysocki]

Then I noticed on the black light bulb it said it promotes breeding so I changed back to red.

That's a crock (at least as far as ball pythons go).

-adam