Feeding Question

[Yaqcubper]

So I have a roommate who owns a Normal BP Female that either is about to be a year old or is a little over a year old. She weighs over 600 grams and around the end of October she refused to eat for 3 weeks. When we finally got her to eat again it was by leaving a p/k mouse in her tank with her and then leaving her in the dark alone (she was a live feeder before).

My roommate though, does not like feeding her in her tank because of her aspen bedding and doesn't like that she is now only eating p/k.
I think that as long as she's eating he should just let her do her thing in her tank but he's insisting that because she used to eat in a "feeding tank" that that is what she needs to start eating more again. That maybe she needs that glass tank back to feel comfortable eating.

I feel like he's not keeping in mind that he's had to move her to 3 different locations in the last year, that the overall temp in the apartment has been dropping to the 40s/50s at night and says that "cooling down" periods only happen when the UTHs are turned off.

What do ya'll suggest about all this? Should he be trying all these new/old ways of getting her to eat or will it just stress her out more than she obviously is?
Also, are cooling down periods really only if you leave them in a low ambient temp with the UTHs off? Or can they happen even with UTH on?

[Ezekiel285]

So I have a roommate who owns a Normal BP Female that either is about to be a year old or is a little over a year old. She weighs over 600 grams and around the end of October she refused to eat for 3 weeks. When we finally got her to eat again it was by leaving a p/k mouse in her tank with her and then leaving her in the dark alone (she was a live feeder before).

My roommate though, does not like feeding her in her tank because of her aspen bedding and doesn't like that she is now only eating p/k.
I think that as long as she's eating he should just let her do her thing in her tank but he's insisting that because she used to eat in a "feeding tank" that that is what she needs to start eating more again. That maybe she needs that glass tank back to feel comfortable eating.

I feel like he's not keeping in mind that he's had to move her to 3 different locations in the last year, that the overall temp in the apartment has been dropping to the 40s/50s at night and says that "cooling down" periods only happen when the UTHs are turned off.

What do ya'll suggest about all this? Should he be trying all these new/old ways of getting her to eat or will it just stress her out more than she obviously is?
Also, are cooling down periods really only if you leave them in a low ambient temp with the UTHs off? Or can they happen even with UTH on?

Feeding in a separate enclosure is unnecessary. Also ambient temps are going to be way to cold if your apartment is getting into the 40s and 50s, regardless of whether or not the UTH is on.

Edit: she should be fine eating on the aspen btw.

[Yaqcubper]

Feeding in a separate enclosure is unnecessary. Also ambient temps are going to be way to cold if your apartment is getting into the 40s and 50s, regardless of whether or not the UTH is on.

Edit: she should be fine eating on the aspen btw.

Yeah we have little heaters in our room that we can turn on/leave on throughout the day to raise our ambient temps in our rooms (where the snakes are). I check the temps in the room throughout the day and then turn off/on the heater as necessary so that my "cool" side stays at a good temp but I can't always be all up in my roommate's room checking things out so I just give him advice when I feel it's necessary and check things out when I get permission to. :/

He read that a snake can die from ingesting too much aspen and is now VERY uncomfortable feeding her on aspen. I used to be worried too but found out that as long as the rodent I was feeding was nice and dry there was a very low chance of the aspen being ingested. He doesn't seem very comforted by that fact though. There's only so much I can do as it's not my snake but I just wish he would take in all the factors instead of concentrating on his worries and trying to push things into happening.

[Ezekiel285]

Yeah we have little heaters in our room that we can turn on/leave on throughout the day to raise our ambient temps in our rooms (where the snakes are). I check the temps in the room throughout the day and then turn off/on the heater as necessary so that my "cool" side stays at a good temp but I can't always be all up in my roommate's room checking things out so I just give him advice when I feel it's necessary and check things out when I get permission to. :/

He read that a snake can die from ingesting too much aspen and is now VERY uncomfortable feeding her on aspen. I used to be worried too but found out that as long as the rodent I was feeding was nice and dry there was a very low chance of the aspen being ingested. He doesn't seem very comforted by that fact though. There's only so much I can do as it's not my snake but I just wish he would take in all the factors instead of concentrating on his worries and trying to push things into happening.

Gotcha, well tell your room mate that they are risking giving their snake RI which will lead to expensive vet bills. And i mean if its not eating you could try the separate enclosure again, but really there's no reason to feed in a separate container. Tell him to put paper down over the aspen if he is that uncomfortable. I mean snakes eat stuff like that in the wild and are fine, it would take a lot of aspen to do damage.

[Annarose15]

The low ambient temps could definitely be why she isn't eating. BPs can't digest without the help of a heat source, so it would actually be unhealthy for her to eat if she won't be able to digest properly. There is no reason to cool a BP that is not breeding, either (and plenty of breeders don't even bother to cool at all).

[Yaqcubper]

So is "cooling" a thing that is done purposefully? Or is it something that can also happen as a result of the ambient temp being low, warm spot or no?

[Ezekiel285]

So is "cooling" a thing that is done purposefully? Or is it something that can also happen as a result of the ambient temp being low, warm spot or no?

Anna is saying the only reason people "cool" their snakes is for breeding. Which your room mate doesn't appear to be doing. So he has no reason to "cool" the snake. Ever.

[Yaqcubper]

No yeah I get that.

What I'm saying is. Can the cooling happen even with an UTH on? Or is it something you have to do yourself? (as in turn off the UTH and let the room dip in temps).

Because he has his UTH on but I assumed coldness could be a factor anyways because the overall temp in the room has gotten lower.

[Bigfish1975]

You want to maintain much higher temps than what it sounds like your roommate is doing. Like Ezekiel mentioned cooling is usually only done for breeding purposes. Some snake species will hibernate but not ball pythons. There is no reason to turn off the UTH that is being used. You may want to have a hide spot right over the heat to try and maintain a warmer spot due to the cold temps in the room. Actually when we breed the ball pythons, I don't lower the hot side temp. My hot spot stays at 89. I actually have to increase my thermostat settings to about 104 which translates to an 89-90 degree hot spot, because I do have to compensate for it being colder. I then try to heat the room to about 78 during breeding season which is a drop from the normal 82-84.

As Anna said, your roommates snake is danger of RI (Respiratory Infection) that is extremely contagious and can be fatal. Just a few weeks ago my friend asked me to check on his snakes while on vacation and when I did I found very cold temps in his house. His big Burmese had major RI and the other Boa was sick as well. I had the Burm taken to a vet that specializes in reptiles and even with aggressive treatment she died. Needless to say that experience sucked but hopefully your roommate will take some of our collective advice and maintain better temps. Good luck you sure seem to have the snakes best interest at heart.