TL;DR - I had success thoroughly cleaning my male and his enclosure to get him to eat during breeding season.
My bumble bee has been breeding since November. He ate for a while and then went off feed about 3 months ago. He spent the whole day out of his hide, cruising his tub, nosing at the crack. From my observation he was going nuts looking for the ladies and just ignored food like it wasn't even there, in some cases pushing it out of the way with his nose to try to cruise out of the tub.
Well this last week I thought I would try something a little different since he has lost about 100 grams and I started to get worried that he was getting a little thin looking. Normally when I clean I disinfect the tubs and rinse the bowl and refill it and simply transfer the hide over. I realize the plastic the hides are made out of can harbor bacteria but I really keep my tubs very clean and haven't had a sickness before.
This time I completely cleaned every nook and cranny of the tub, hide, water bowl. When I put the snake in the tub I first scrubbed him head to toe with an unscented baby wipe. When I came back in the next day I offered him a F/T and he ate it furiously!
People scrub the tub and the female to get the egg scent off their females and get them back on feed quicker. I figured after being with the ladies he probably still smelled like them and was going nuts in breeding mode 100% of the time as a result. While my little experiment could be a coincidence with the seasonal change and other factors, I really think it had to do with the smell.
Thanks for reading
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