Feeding tricks

[AnnaK231]

My BP was eating f/t just fine for the last 2.5 years. He got injured in January and hasn't eaten since. He's going back to the vet in two weeks and they said they can try to get him to eat. I'd love to get him eating at home though. Any tricks or tips beyond the usual heat it up real well and make the rat dance?

The size of the food isn't the problem either.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It is not unusual for an animal that age to go off feed during the winter it is often seasonal or related to sexual maturity.

An injured or sick BP will often cease to feed nothing unusual here either.

Not eating for a month is really NOTHING, the important is that the animal is well hydrated and not loosing too much weight.

As far as vet getting your snake to eat again there is nothing he can tell you that will be different than what people will recommend here.

Make sure your husbandry is optimal.

Offer smaller prey, BP tend to get a lot more food than what they actually need and feeding smaller preys less often especially for a male will lead to an animal that will eat with more consistency.

Most importantly PATIENCE.

If your animal is 2.5 years or more and a good body weight the fast could last months.

[Montypython696]

I really really advise against having the vet try to get him to eat. That normally means they will try to force it, which causes a lot more harm than good.

Balls especially older ones go off feed around this time of year, it is normal and they can go up to 6+ months without eating anything.

If he doesn't lose a large amount of weight relatively quickly, I would leave him alone. He will eat when he's ready.

[AnnaK231]

He got burned on his UTH the 2nd week in January and hasn't eaten since middle of December. So he hasn't eaten in about 2.5 months. He is healing up great, I'm just worried. I had him at the vet last Saturday and they said he's lost a lot of weight. I can't remember exactly how much but the vet was stressing that he needs to eat.

Last night I thawed out a mouse (smaller than the rat he usually eats) and he was interested, thought he might eat but he didn't. I left it overnight too. I guess I can just keep offering. I'm just worried he will get too skinny. Everything is pretty optimal in his cage except I don't have a UTH right now because, well A I have nothing to regulate one and B I haven't gotten a new one since the other one "exploded".

[AnnaK231]

It is not unusual for an animal that age to go off feed during the winter it is often seasonal or related to sexual maturity.

An injured or sick BP will often cease to feed nothing unusual here either.

Not eating for a month is really NOTHING, the important is that the animal is well hydrated and not loosing too much weight.

As far as vet getting your snake to eat again there is nothing he can tell you that will be different than what people will recommend here.

Make sure your husbandry is optimal.

Offer smaller prey, BP tend to get a lot more food than what they actually need and feeding smaller preys less often especially for a male will lead to an animal that will eat with more consistency.

Most importantly PATIENCE.

If your animal is 2.5 years or more and a good body weight the fast could last months.

he doesn't look bad at the moment, he did go from 1160grams to 1067grams in a 3week period. Maybe I'm just worried because he's recovering from an injury. If only he would just eat. Argh.