What is this about fasting periods?

[redshepherd]

Out of 19 ball pythons I have, none of them have ever fasted. They are fed on smaller live prey items though, not sure if that matters. Can't get live rats here in Alberta and its quite surprising how hard it is to find live ASFs, so mostly my BPs are fed on one or two adult mice when ASFs are out of stock (which is quite often).

If what Deborah says is right, then I guess the smaller prey is the reason why they haven't fasted! It makes sense.

Many moons and no fasting here. But being the planted guy makes me the odd man out most of the time. Some do, some don't. I have noticed they are highly sensitive to chages in ambient room temp wether we like it or not. Triggered my moms and stepbrothers to go on strike as well. Had them raise the room temps about 5-10f and they went back to normal.

So perhaps cooler ambients on the tank cools them just enough to either make their digestion to slow down, or trigger the nesting behavior?

I think being very sensitive to dropping ambient room temps really makes sense. It would reflect the experiences of both sides- that "they'll fast in fall/winter season" and "if you maintain their temperatures/husbandry, they won't fast" meaning at least some of the BP's that fast might be because the owners don't maintain level room temps throughout the year.

My male generally quits feeding in the fall and starts up in the spring, usually taking one or two meals in there. This year he's in a different cage with a rhp + uth (instead of uth + heat lamp) and the room temp is being kept higher also so I'm curious to see if it was the temp drops causing him to go off or if he will fast anyways. 10+ year old male ball python in a pvc cage, was in a 36 x 24 x 17, now in 48 x 24 x 11, fed live mice bi weekly.

I'm curious too! Assuming you can keep the room temp exactly the same through the winter as it is the rest of the year.