I noticed over the last year my snakes have begun refusing larger prey and are eating less frequently. I have 5 colubrids and 1 ball python. The breakdown is like this:


Ball Python: was eating 2 medium rats every 2 weeks, now eats 1 small rat every 2-3 weeks
Cali king: was eating 2 small rats every 2 weeks, now eats 3 mice every 2 weeks
House snake: was eating 4-5 fuzzies every 2 weeks, now eats 3-4/month

Milk snake: was eating 1 small rat every 2 weeks, now eats 2-3 mice every 2 weeks
(I voluntarily reduced his prey size cause I wanted to see if he would like small rats, but decided they seemed amed a little hard to swallow so I switched him back to something easier)
Rat snake: was eating 2 medium rats every 2 weeks, now eats 1 small rat every 3 weeks to a month(this guy is sick and getting better so I can see that as a variable)


The ball python is 3-4 years old; the colubrids are 12+ years old.

So my questions are: has anyone ever experienced this? Could it be an age thing? Are they no longer going through growth spurts so they don't need to eat as much?

Everyone looks and sounds healthy aside from the rat snake and is acting normally. The rat snake is QT'd to the living room away from everyone else; all others are living in the bedroom with me. I feed every 10-14 days.

The only snake I have ever checked weight on was the ball python which I can check if anyone would care to know. Last time I checked his weight he was 1500+ grams. Don't have a date on the weigh in but it was within the last 6 months.


Comments, questions, concerns are welcome.