Another no feeder, 1 month

[hermeticcharm]

630 grams, unknown sex. Had him for over a year. Moved about 6 months ago but he was feeding once a week up until the past month. Nothing has changed in his set up. 20 gal. long, 2 identical hides, fresh water daily, on aspen, 90-92 hot, 80-83 cool, appx 85 ambient, 50% humidity off shed about 60-70 on plus a soaking dish in the tank, night/day cycle provided by ambient light.

Shed 2 weeks ago, this could be it but he's never gone off feed for a shed before. He has gone off feed for a week or so but always started feeding again. I haven't been handling him. Also, I have found droppings during the fast.

Feeding process: I feed him in tank, frozen adult mice (he hates live and he also hates the zombie dance). I lock the mouse up in a zip lock bag and submerge it in warm water until it's thawed through to the core. Then I submerge it in hot water to warm it up and feed. Since hes gone off feed I tried the blow dryer method too, thawing out the mouse and then blow drying it for about 5 mins and then another minute straight to the mouses head and feed. He's always been private so I just drop the mouse in front of his hide and either cover the tank or turn off all the lights and leave him be. Some times he'll eat right away, some times it happens over night. The past month when I put the mouse in he will pop his head out and seems interested but every morning I go to check the tank and he hasn't eaten.

I have 2 corns in the same room. I've read that its about time for mating season, maybe this is the problem? The corns have been acting strange too, unusually active. Also I think I found musk in my okeetee's droppings last night.

Any way, just looking for some input. I know balls are okay off feed for a while as long as they aren't losing a lot of weight, just, this is the first time he's gone off feed for this long.

[stevepoppers]

Mating season's actually in the fall, so most would be about to go back on feed. Seems like you've no problems with your husbandry, so I'm thinking he's hit that mid-growth wall. Some just do this when they hit about that weight. Some about 1000g. You can try a bunch of feeding tricks but I've mostly seen people told to just wait it out. I've never heard of the presence of other snakes making any difference whatsoever.

[Kaorte]

Since he is so shy maybe you can try filling the entire tank up with crumpled newspaper and offering a week later.

[don15681]

Like you said , as long as he don't lose alot of weight for no reason it's normal. I remember the first time my snake went off feed, I freaked. when we eat, somewhere around 85 to 90% of our food intake is to maintain our body temp (metabolism). snakes don't have this problem as they get heat from other sources to metabolizes their food.They can go along time without food.

[het.pied]

mine just got back on feed after 6-7 months. just continue to offer once a week. and make sure hes feeling secure.

[Tyrannosaurus Rex]

try dipping themouse in either chicken broth or tuna juice, it works every time for me.

[CeeJay]

I am at 2 months for 2 of my Bps. I started breeding them rather late (Feb) so that may have something to do with it. They went off as soon as I stopped pairing them.

[hermeticcharm]

Thanks everyone, I will keep feeding and just wait. Monitoring his weight of course. I might try some of the suggestions too.

[hermeticcharm]

Just wanted to update this thread. He is still not feeding and has dropped from 630g to about 577g over a period of almost 2 months. He has gone to the bathroom though since my original post so I'm not sure if this is an alarming drop in weight? Just gonna try to keep feeding every week or so. I took him out today to measure him and check him out and every thing seems in tip top shape.

[WingedWolfPsion]

You may think he hates live, but...try live, just once. I would also recommend a parasite check. Maybe he caught something. (The risk from FT is much lower, but it is not nonexistent). He might have also had something from before you got him, but it only now became a problem.

His weight loss doesn't seem particularly extreme. Check the inside of his mouth to make sure he doesn't have any sort of infection.