male too close to the female?

[Adam Chandler]

Like alot of people on here my male ball python has not eaten since he started breeding in Nov. 09. Last month I seperated him from the female becuase he was starting to look a little skinny, maybe not skinny but not his plump self. I washed him off trying to get the scent of her off of him and cleaned his bin out.
He keeps refusing meals. He was an allstar eater before breeding season. He lives in the bottom bin of a CB-70 rack. 7 bins up on the very top is the female he was breeding with. Everyone else in the racks is eating and I did some RF tempature measurments to make sure his bin was the same temp as the rest.

My question: Is he too close to the female? Could that be why he isn't eating? If so, how far away would I have to move him to remove her scent?

[Adam Chandler]

Still wondering about this, I just had a great eater male move into the adult rack and stop eating.
Do any of you guys separate your adult males and female in difference rack? Different room?

[coldbloodaddict]

How big are these males? My first guess would be the CB-70 tub is over kill for them.

I keep all my males in smaller tubs....Don't recall the last time a breeding male went off feed.

[loonunit]

I'd keep in him a different room completely if you're worried about the scent. Are there any windows in the room where he currently is? --if there's indirect light in the room, and he can see it from his tub, he'll eventually get the idea that the days are lengthening and it's summer.

My lovesick het pied did a 5 month fast this year. I finally got him to eat a live hopper last month, and another this week--somebody told me to try hoppers, because the mice are small and almost harmless, and the hopping around is hard to resist for the snake. My het pied ignored the first few I showed him in March, but in April he started to take an interest. Anyway, I don't know what you're offering, but I recommend the live hoppers.

[MKHerps]

I keep my larger adult males in a cb-70 as well. I have about half my males that eat during breeding and half that do not. I have never had a problem getting them eating once i have stopped breeding them. Sometimes it just takes a month of not seeing that female at all, but he will come around. Are you done breeding him? I use cb-70s for any ball over 900grams.


Matt

[davidnizmo]

dont worry to much with that he will start eatin when hes done i have not had this problem but my buddys male he has didnt eat the whole time he was breeding him and when he got done he started eating and the hoppers do help

[moravaguy]

well mine has to have asf live to get to eat usally???

[Adam Chandler]

Just an update on this. I bought a slightly smaller RBI sweater box rack and put it in a different room and just like magic all my males appetites came back. Not sure if it was the scent of the mature females or the bins being too big or both but I am very happy to have them eating normally again (especially my male that was breeding and fasted the last 7 1/2 months)
Thank you everyone for your advice