Hello Everyone,
This is going to be a long winded post so bare with me. I just want everyone to get an idea of what has been going on.
I want to start by saying his enclosure is the correct heat humidity and he is in his own little corner of the room. He has a nice hide and a humid hide as well. Also has a fresh bowl of water in with him at all times. Now for story time.
I bought this guy back at the end of September. He was shipped to me on October first. He was already almost a year old. Right off the bat we noticed he was very afraid, skittish, very shy guy. I did write once here about his behavior and I got some good insight as to why he would be more skittish and stuff since he was an older guy and was used to his other home for almost a year and it takes more time for them to get adjusted. Made alot of sense to me. One thing we never at a problem with is feeding. He ate two mice the frost week I had him. Ate several more times after. He abruptly stopped feeding the middle of November. Ever since then, I continue to offer food everytime my other snakes eat. Like I mentioned, he is very skittish and the last thing I want to do is stress him out. He really does not like my going in there with tongs or any of that. I had an issue with another BP not feeding and everyone gave me very good advice with her that worked. That BP eats everytime now. I tried those tips with this guy, but ever so carefully since he is by far the most sensitive out of all of our snakes. I talked to a couple breeders. Some have mixed feelings. Most say they think he could be on a hunger strike because he is coming of age. I had one guy tell me he is too young for that. I wanted to add that my vet doesn't seem too concerned with it. But I also read that some snakes will starve themselves (I was hoping that wasn't true).
Couple of things come to mind, he turned a year in October. Do you think it may be a hunger strike due to the time of year? Second, he was born in FL. Lived there til October til he was almost a year. I live in Illinois which gets much colder, even though his enclosure is heated and all, they do feel bare metric pressure in the air. Can this have an effect on feeding? I even tried a rat, (he was raised on mice), and I figured maybe he smelled the rats being thawed for the other ball pythons that maybe he wanted to try one. But he still refused. I weigh once a month. On February 4th he weighed 414. I weighed him today and he weighs 405. I mean he still looks nice and chunky but I worry alot. He was in good spirits today only striking at me once 🤣.
I would like to hear everyone's opinions. Should I continue offering every week. Do you think I should try to offer a smaller meal? I heard that works somewhere. He was eating adult mice for me in the beginning.
Thank You everyone in advance. I hope I remembered everything I wanted to say.