At My Wits End

[Kinra]

BPs tend to go off food occasionally. I haven't had most of my BPs long, but someone of them are picky eaters. You just have to wait them out. Yeah it sucks when they don't eat because it means they aren't gaining weight, but you have to be patient. With the exception of my normal all my BPs are 2010s, and they are all rather small, my spider is the largest at 351g and one of my spotnoses is that smallest at 213.5g and she skipped her last meal. I don't plan on attempting to breed my 2010 until at least the winter of 2013, so I still have a ways to go and it doesn't bother me as much when they go off feed. The thing I'm learning with my BPs is that you have to be patient.

Snakes can fast for a while and still be healthy so don't worry about it too much.

[freezingdwarf]

I am into my third year with BP's. I started with one normal, and now have over 60 animals, and currently have 7 clutches in the "cooker". I do a lot of things to keep my animals interested in eating, including breeding ASF's for those picky ones. Sometimes I wish I never would have tried to cater to the finicky ones, because now I have to.

They will eat when it is time. Maybe some others have seen a BP starve itself, but I have not. The exception of course is newborns, but yours are well started and will feed. This also is an off time of year for some of mine.

They will eat at their pace, offer once a week, and if they don't want it, don't fret. Of course keep tabs on their weight. If they are sick that is a whole different story, but you didn't mention anything about weasing or respiratory issues.

GL

[nor_cal1980]

Yeah....as far as can can tell there are absolutely no health problems with any of them. My male fire and female normal eat enough that they are still putting on some weight and my female fire has hung right around 340 gr for the past few months and hasn't lost any weight. I also have a false water cobra, a couple corns, and other various colubrids who slam food religiously. I know it makes no since to compare the feeding habits of a FWC or corn snake to those of a BP, but it always re-assures me that they are healthy when they eat. It leaves me scratching my head in frustration when my BP's will cease to eat for weeks or months at a time. I know its silly but, sometimes I feel like they're never gonna eat again. Thanks you guy's so much for your re-assurance. Im really teetering on the line of giving up on BP's and just focusing on colubrids, but for now im just gonna hang in there and keep my fingers crossed. Patience is not my best virtue so I just have to learn not to stress out when they don't eat.