Ball with strange fasting-yet-active behaviour

[Crowleys_omens]

Hello everyone! My ball, Crowley, is 3-4yo, and he has been acting very strange this winter. He was getting a medium rat every 2wks, but he started fasting last August. I was expecting him to be dormant like he was last winter, but instead he became very active, out every night for a few hours trying to figure out how to get out of the tank (he did twice, each time to hide under my <65degreeF desk drawers, the strange creature...). Since then, he has eaten twice (a small rat in January and a large mouse in March) and subsequently shed. Since that last shed, he is now doing the dormant-fasting thing.

He has lost weight (I don't have a scale for an accurate number), although you can't tell unless you knew him before, i.e. he still looks healthy with good skin, no vertebrae showing, etc., and he has even drank some water. I'm just getting worried since his behaviour has been so erratic and, aside from those two small meals, he has been fasting for so long.

So, what do you all think of this? Should I take him to the vet, or at least consult with one? If not, at what point should I get worried? (I don't want to go if I don't have to, as I'm not exactly rolling in money right now, but I will if I need to.)

Also, is it possible that it's the weather? I ask because the initial fasting (both in winter 2011 and 2012) started with a shift in the weather, and this year it has been veeeery strange, with alternating warm-cold weather almost all of winter with the occasional 1-2 day long storm (normally it's supposed to rain nearly non-stop Nov/Dec-March/April). The trees were even tricked into blooming in January and February more than once, and a lot of people (including myself) have been getting pressure headaches and such due to the rapid shifts in weather, so I wouldn't be surprised if other animals could feel it, too. But then again, I could just be making up coincidences.

Thank you for any help!

[interloc]

Well males can go off feed for the winter. That's not uncommon. But I think what's happening is the poor little dude is a bit randy! My pastel HRA has been off feed for a while and paces around like you are describing. After I've placed him with the girls and put him back into his own bin, he calms down and goes back into hiding. So my opinion is he wants the company of a lady.

Now my spider who fasted for 6 months last year was enticed out of it using live food. I has to feed live for a few months to put some meat back on him but then he came back to frozen. So I would try live to get him out of it.

[Crowleys_omens]

I don't have a female companion for him. =[ Though I assume since he has stopped being active, that shouldn't be the case anymore?

As per live food, I'm just worried about using live since he has never had it before. At least to my knowledge, he was completely raised on frozen, and so he always has just checked out the food and slowly started eating it. I've only ever seen him strike once (my cat had herself plastered against his tank while he was trying to eat), and it was the slowest most pathetic thing I have ever seen...
And I've never had to kill a mouse before/have never been taught how, and so I'm extremely worried about not doing it right and just making the little thing suffer in pain (and that hesitation will most likely guarantee it will happen). And I know how dangerous it is to leave a live mouse in with a snake, especially if he doesn't want to eat it. Hence my dilemma.

[interloc]

It's ok to feed live. I had the same thought about them being raised on frozen and not knowing how to kill properly. You have to think tho, is a few years of eating F/T guna wipe out millions of years of instinct? No.

Here's what I would try. Feed a live mouse or rat of whatever size he is eating. DO NOT JUST WALK AWAY. Watch and see what happens. This way you can intervene if need be and you can watch his actions. My guess is when you toss that live in there, you will see him perk up and track it around his house. Then strike like you've never seen him strike before. He will constrict for a couple of minutes. It's kinda scares how little time it takes. Then you will be happy that he's got some food in him.

If he doesn't eat the mouse or rat, you can keep it for a week then try again or I'm sure there are some herp people around you that would take an extra meal off your hands for ya.

That's my suggestion. Up to you to take it or leave it.

[BCBallPythons]

It's ok to feed live. I had the same thought about them being raised on frozen and not knowing how to kill properly. You have to think tho, is a few years of eating F/T guna wipe out millions of years of instinct? No.

Here's what I would try. Feed a live mouse or rat of whatever size he is eating. DO NOT JUST WALK AWAY. Watch and see what happens. This way you can intervene if need be and you can watch his actions. My guess is when you toss that live in there, you will see him perk up and track it around his house. Then strike like you've never seen him strike before. He will constrict for a couple of minutes. It's kinda scares how little time it takes. Then you will be happy that he's got some food in him.

If he doesn't eat the mouse or rat, you can keep it for a week then try again or I'm sure there are some herp people around you that would take an extra meal off your hands for ya.

That's my suggestion. Up to you to take it or leave it.

^ This


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