Adult Male (1.5 years of age) randomly stopped eating?

[Annarose15]

Hey guys,

My adult (or sub-adult, he's 1.5 years of age) male ball python is fasting. Its been a month, and I know I shouldn't be too worried, its just very strange behavior for my little guy. Well, not really little, before he stopped eating he broke 2100 grams empty! He was an incredible eater; struck fast, never had to do a dance or anything. He'd even eat while in blue! For about 2-3 months he was pounding 2 small rats every 7 days, and suddenly he stopped. Now I offer the prey, same prey item, and its like he's terrified of it! No defensive strike, he just tries to get out of his feed box.

My husbandry is spot on, always has been for Shrike. Nothing has changed, the boa in my collection continues to feed like a garbage disposal, and I'm worried about Shrike's odd behavior. In addition, he's already lost a good amount of weight, and with only one bowel movement! He went from 2100 grams to 1600 grams, and while he doesn't look skinny... he's no longer "fat and happy".

So when do I start to worry? When do I take him to a vet and bring in his most recent stool sample?

The stool sample isn't a bad idea, if you're worried. However, with that feeding schedule, he could easily have had a few hundred grams of food + poop in him when he weighed in at 2100g (think about it: 2 80g rats (food) + 2 80g rats (poop) + urates passing = 350g easy, just depends on your definition of "small rat"). Many people (myself included) only feed one small rat every 7 days to an adult male BP (my smalls are closer to 60g, and my male is 1700g+). This means he may not have lost any significant body weight yet. At his age, going off feed isn't anything unnatural. Just keep monitoring his weight, and maybe make a vet visit if he drops another 150g.