Holding but not eating???

[PecanPied]

Hello all! Pecan’s been eating really well lately, but recently he’s had some issues. Namely he’ll strike the food, hold it, constrict it, and then not eat it. I’ll try to get the food away from him to reheat it and try again but he won’t let go of it, but also won’t eat it. Is this something to be concerned about or is it a quirk?

[Bogertophis]

When did he shed last? Many times I've seen snakes that aren't "obviously" in shed do this, only to find that a week later, they're in shed. So they obviously know it's coming way before we do, & don't want to eat. Another reason a snake might do this is if they're being over-fed. They instinctively grab the rodent so it won't hurt them (yes, even f/t), but still don't want to eat it. Or, maybe it's not warm enough to start with so he loses interest? (could it still be frozen inside? )

[PecanPied]

He last shed on July 6th, so he’s not terribly due. And the thing is he shows interest right away and WILL try to eat it but sometimes he’ll just… hold onto it. I don’t think the rat is ever frozen still, I leave it to thaw at least 24 hours in advance and the head is always warm when I feed.

[Bogertophis]

He last shed on July 6th, so he’s not terribly due. And the thing is he shows interest right away and WILL try to eat it but sometimes he’ll just… hold onto it. I don’t think the rat is ever frozen still, I leave it to thaw at least 24 hours in advance and the head is always warm when I feed.

Young snakes can shed every couple weeks sometimes, there's no exact schedule. And I hope you don't think we all remember the age of your snake? Please include that information if you want our best answers...we shouldn't have to search for the information.

If it's not a shed & the prey is properly prepared & offered, that leaves overfeeding...& again, you haven't given much info- we're not seeing him, nor his feeding schedule nor what you're feeding him (in terms of size). (Another possible issue is illness but that's the least likely issue.)

[Malum Argenteum]

You've mentioned before that the snake is "a picky baby". I've seen snakes that I call 'picky' do what you're describing. Usually (always?) they're hungry, but holding out for a prey item that they prefer -- sometimes something smaller, but often something that isn't frozen thawed.

You had noted his weight on 5/7/22 to be ~600g and eating jumbo mice but you talked then about switching to rats; on 1/5/24 you noted that a recent vet check weighed him at 370g. There were some medical issues involved, yes, but the change in feeders is worth considering especially in light of such a troubling weight history.

If that were my snake (constricting but not consuming; fussy feeder; history of erratic weight), I'd offer freshly prekilled prey (preferably rats) to see if it makes a difference. Fresh prekilled can make a fussy snake into a very reliable feeder, in my experience (even if the fussiness did not exist back to hatching). I personally would also make sure that the feeder I was offering was on the small end of appropriately sized.

[PecanPied]

I didn’t maliciously leave out information, I just forgot because this was more of a one-off curiosity than anything. He’s around three and a half years old now, he weighs ~500 grams, and he’s fed “size small rats” that are about 3-4 inches in length. Since seeing the vet ~3.5 months ago, he’s been eating every meal consistently offered every 10 days, and this diet was prescribed by his vet, and was reaffirmed when he went for a check up on 7/25.

I’ll look into freshly killed options, I was mostly just curious to see if this was a common behavior or if it was unique.

[bcr229]

A 3-4 year old male ball python is an adult and not a voracious growing youngster any more. Try feeding every two or three weeks instead of every 10 days. My adult males are all on a 21 day schedule and even then they will skip meals.

[PecanPied]

The problem is he WAS very sickly and underweight and so the vet’s prescribed the every 10 days until he’s closer to 500-600g. I’ll definitely bring up spacing the feedings farther but when he was on an “every two weeks” diet he dropped down to nearly 200g so im really scared of losing that progress if I were to try and put him back on that, seeing as he hasn’t hit his “goal weight” yet