Hello everyone! My ball, Crowley, is 3-4yo, and he has been acting very strange this winter. He was getting a medium rat every 2wks, but he started fasting last August. I was expecting him to be dormant like he was last winter, but instead he became very active, out every night for a few hours trying to figure out how to get out of the tank (he did twice, each time to hide under my <65degreeF desk drawers, the strange creature...). Since then, he has eaten twice (a small rat in January and a large mouse in March) and subsequently shed. Since that last shed, he is now doing the dormant-fasting thing.

He has lost weight (I don't have a scale for an accurate number), although you can't tell unless you knew him before, i.e. he still looks healthy with good skin, no vertebrae showing, etc., and he has even drank some water. I'm just getting worried since his behaviour has been so erratic and, aside from those two small meals, he has been fasting for so long.

So, what do you all think of this? Should I take him to the vet, or at least consult with one? If not, at what point should I get worried? (I don't want to go if I don't have to, as I'm not exactly rolling in money right now, but I will if I need to.)

Also, is it possible that it's the weather? I ask because the initial fasting (both in winter 2011 and 2012) started with a shift in the weather, and this year it has been veeeery strange, with alternating warm-cold weather almost all of winter with the occasional 1-2 day long storm (normally it's supposed to rain nearly non-stop Nov/Dec-March/April). The trees were even tricked into blooming in January and February more than once, and a lot of people (including myself) have been getting pressure headaches and such due to the rapid shifts in weather, so I wouldn't be surprised if other animals could feel it, too. But then again, I could just be making up coincidences.

Thank you for any help!