This is Realy Getting Sickening

[beaglegod]

Sorry to vent here guys but I just have too. After 9 days since last offering Plissken any food I just offered a tiney mouse ,nice and warm, plus I had a realy warm small rat scented and ready to feed should he take it , and to no avail, I just cant get him to eat. The room is quiet , the temps are perfect, the humidity is perfect, I havent handled him more than once in 9 days , and still no feeding response. If anybody has any suggestions please feel free to share. :cry:

[iceman25]

give him another 6 days, that would make it two weeks. Try again but get some gerbil bedding and scent the mouse or rat with it. That should help some.

[steelsack]

Are you feeding thawed? Maybe try a fresh stunned/killed......
Or perhaps it's gerbil time....
How long has it been since last feed?

[beaglegod]

today makes 20 days since the last feed.

[JLC]

How old is Plissken again? It's really not at all uncommon for male balls to go off feed for months at a time, this time of year. They start thinking about finding a mate and could care less about food. Unless he's REALLY young or underweight to begin with, I wouldn't let 20 days send you into any last-resort measures like gerbils.

[beaglegod]

Well Judy if Alex Hue is correct, plissken was hatched sometime in September wich would make him at the most 7 months old,hes about 23 inches long last time I measured bout a month ago. I just refroze the rat I had ready for him, :cry:

Ive noticed a visible decline overer the last 4-5 weeks in his feeding response , as if it were getting weaker, week by week.

I hope he starts eating and growing soon :wink:
I sure as hell hope my blood will be a bit more eager than my lil buddy.

[JLC]

I don't know what to tell ya, Paul. How does he feel in your hands? You say his feeding response is getting weaker, but does he remain active and alert when being handled? Does his muscle tone still feel solid and healthy? If so, then it could be an early maturity. I've heard of people breeding male bp's at less than a year old, if they have grown big enough.

I hope the blood does well for you, too...but it seems to me that you picked another difficult species to work with. I'm sure you've been following Smulkin's trials with his new blood. It doesn't mean that they won't eat, and won't thrive for you...just means that you'll end up with an ulcer or two in the process. :wink:

I do know how you feel...I'm trying very hard not to worry myself sick about Caesar, who has eaten nothing but a scant few pinks since early December. It just doesn't do me any good to worry beyond what is necessary to make sure he's well cared for.

You're doing all you can do. His environment is as good as it can be, I'm quite sure. You just have to leave the rest of it up to him.

[beaglegod]

Yep your absolutely right Judy, good advice and council I should know by now after hearing it over and over again, but being human, Ive got to be told yet again :roll: :wink:

[Marla]

Paul, if he doesn't eat next time, I'd say wait another 10 days or so then offer a live mouse. Often live will get them going when nothing else will. You can hand-pick a timid one at the store (go for female) and carefully supervise to make sure nothing goes wrong.

[Ginevive]

Is he a baby, or adult? My adult male Goblin has not eaten since Valentine's day, but he is still fat as ever.
My little female BP Octavia was another story. Like your BP, she would go off feed for weeks; her record was two months. Finally she actually took the mouse (it was a fuzzy, live.) I think that the bigger mice were just too scary for her, and she had completely ignored the f/ts of all sizes that I tried. I kept trying, but I limited my tries to once a week. I left her completely alone between-time, since handling seemed to frighten the hell out of her. Oddly, one day out of the blue, she began eating when I fed the live fuzzy. Now, she eats everytime I try feeding her, even eating f/t rats headfirst without even constricting them.
During the time she wasnt eating, she seemed to not grow much. Now she is growing like a weed.