Fasting Now Resulting in Weight Loss

[Vanthios]

I made a post a few weeks ago detailing my concern over my older BP, Archimedes, who has refused to eat since January 19th. He still refuses to eat. According to my charts, he's gone from 734g to 688g in a mere three weeks. Most concerning is that I haven't found a poop, so I'm not sure where this substantial weight drop has come from.

I've tried feeding cold, warm, and hot F/T rats to him in the light and dark, in his cage and out of his cage, with no luck. I've left him in an empty tupperware container with the rat for an hour and a half with no luck. I don't know what to do.

I'm becoming increasingly frustrated as I invest more and more time and money into a problem that seems to only get worse. If anyone has any ideas, it'd be greatly appreciated.

P.S. He's still very friendly and very active. It seems as if he's more interested in exploring than eating since he often disregards the food to attempt to get out of whatever he's in.

[Sauzo]

Try leaving the F/T rat on a paper plate or on top of a hide in the cage. Dottie went off food back in Oct or Nov and has just started eating again this past few weeks. She too was active and stuff during the winter fast. I never bothered to weigh her or anything. I saw her drinking and I found urates so I just went with that. I tried a F/T rat for her every 2-3 weeks. Then a few weeks ago, she seemed kind of interested so I left the rat on top of her hide and in about 5-10 mins she slithered up there and ate it. Now she is back to striking at the rats. As long as the snake looks ok, is drinking and acting fine and the husbandry is ok, I wouldn't worry. They will eventually eat. An adult BP will not starve itself to death. Babies are a different story and some need to be taught how to eat lol.

[Kiryu]

I have heard that a lot of ball pythons will fast this time of year, something about the temps and mating season so some of them don't eat. I have a young ball that I just got a little less than three weeks ago, and she hasn't eaten since she's been here, but her eyes are just starting to cloud so maybe she is going into shed and thats why. But if you see really dramatic weight loss, and her body starts to take on an upside down 'V' shape, then you may want to take it to a vet and see if maybe it has internal parasites?

[bcr229]

That's not a really substantial weight loss. If he's still passing urates that could easily account for the difference.

How is his body shape/condition? Unless he's actually appearing thin I wouldn't worry.

Also I've found with my adult males that they are more inclined to keep eating over the winter if they're put on a every two-week feeding schedule, except for my one old normal guy that regularly fasts between Halloween and Easter.

[Smitty33]

I sure know the feeling and been going through the same thing. Mines almost to the point he seems to be taunting me lol. He was eating small rats fine before but I'm going to start this next feeding day playing around with different size prey items. I have a ton of f/t fuzzy rats and I'm going to try and see if one of those may get him going again and if that doesn't work the next weekend I'll run up to the expo and pick up some weanlings and try those. Hopefully maybe get him going again and work him back up to the small rats.
My daughters little Mohave girl when we first got her refused the first time but seemed VERY interested. Next feeding I tried a different size larger fuzzy rat and she slammed it. Been eating great ever since with just a change in prey size.