BP refusing food

[DatBoiAJ_]

So last time i fed her..maybe a week ago. So i fed her like i always do, my own bred mice, f/t, 2 mice. She ate the first one, and then, just wouldnt' take the second, which was VERY weird for her, shes ALWAYS eaten anything ive given her, never refused. It's not an issue, im not worried, but just wanted to put it out there. Shes eating rn, thats what reminded me. Almost forgot i wanted to post ab this lol. But anyways, shes fine, but still pretty weird. She had a streak of about 1 yr 5 months without refusing food......and it was so sad when she said no but all good things have to come to an end anyways, when was the first time one of your bp's didnt want to eat?

[Bogertophis]

When I kept BPs, I noticed that unlike many other kinds of snakes I've kept that will happily eat multiple items with no questions asked, many BPs will refuse to eat more than one item per meal.

And on forums like this, many others have reported similar behavior- which is part of the reason why many try to convert their BPs to eating rats- so that just one rat of the appropriate size will be taken per meal, rather than having the second item refused as wasted, & having the meal be inadequate.

I strongly suspect that up to now, you've just been lucky. Young BPs are normally better feeders than adults- time to meet your maturing BP.

[EL-Ziggy]

Disclaimer: I don’t keep BPs anymore.

It NEVER surprises me when BPs go off food 😀. I’ve had perfectly healthy beeps suddenly stop eating for 8 & 12 months for no apparent reason. They didn’t lose much weight, and picked up eating again as if nothing had happened. It just comes with the BP territory. I agree that feeding one larger prey item is better than feeding multiples. You’ll definitely waste fewer feeders. Since your BP is over a year old you could also increase the intervals between feedings to reduce the odds of them refusing food. I don’t feed any snakes weekly after their first year. They usually eat every 10-14 days at that point and every 2-4 weeks after they turn three.