Female Albino BP hasn't eaten in 6 weeks.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I keep my 4 snakes I have in a snake rack in separate containers and the heat tape is controlled by a herpstat. I bought my rack prebuilt. I check there enclosures with my temp gun and the range is between 80 on the cool end to 94 along the heat tape though the container. I have a log hide in her enclosure along with her water bowl. I use print free news paper and always clean as soon as possible. Thank you for the info. .

Sometimes making little changes may help, I would replace the substrate with some coconut chips, and would likely lower the tempertures a bit.

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[MindzEdge]

https://jkrballstreetjournal.com/201...-eating-again/

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=1zyUsgt4K9E

I thought both of these were very helpful for info with feeding and going off feed.

Thank you for the links.

[MindzEdge]

Sometimes making little changes may help, I would replace the substrate with some coconut chips, and would likely lower the tempertures a bit.

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I will try this out then. Thank you.

[sneakysnake611]

my 12yo bp, was real picky when I first got him, keep in mind snakes can go a loooooong time without food, mine went 11 months at one point. they have a verrrry slow metabolism. honestly one month I wouldn't even blink an eye over. I think when you are weighing him/her you could be "micro-managing" its eating habits. they'll eat when they are hungry as long as they act fine and arnt getting skinny you are good. mine didn't have any noticeable weigh loss after his long fast. I did not weigh him either. but he was full grown when he hit this phase also. id give your snake about 2 more weeks without offering food then try again. if you try everyday it could be doing more harm that good. try and offer him something next time you catch him roaming around at an unusual time than normal.

[cletus]

My ghi het red axanthic just ended a 10 month strike. He only lost 60g the entire time
If your set up is correct she will eat again. Just be paitent. But keep a eye on her weight to make sure she isnt loosing too much. And her over all health. As long as she is healthy and your husbendry is correct all you can do is offer and wait.

Wow. 10 months? That would drive me crazy. lol

[StillBP]

Wow! How old was he and how much did he weigh before he went on the strike?

He was about a year and 700g. Went off after his first breeding season. Just ate last week

Might add if your snake is in a rack sometimes moving them can help

[cchardwick]

It would be helpful to see your setup. There are several reasons ball pythons can go off of food. I switched from a paper towel / newspaper substrate to Retichip coconut husk substrate and it really increased the appetites of all of my snakes. First it increased the humidity which can help a lot, if they dry out they won't eat at all. Second it absorbed all the smell of their waste. If you open the tub and can smell anything bad that's probably the number one reason they won't feed, especially if they shed and poop and the tub is a mess, then they usually never feed until the tub is cleaned. I usually power feed most of my snakes, I have one over 500 grams that can eat three adult mice twice a week. He really packs on the weight and looks like a balloon LOL. He is so big and fat that he could fast for a whole year and it wouldn't phase him. That's one of the reasons I like to feed a lot when they are in the mood.

Another big reason snakes will go off of food is that you offered frozen thawed that was too old (smelly) or not the right temp, maybe too hot, cooked from being too hot, or too cold (or partly frozen in the middle). If you feed them just one of those bad frozen thawed they can go off of food for quite some time. Personally I prefer to raise my own rodents and feed fresh killed. Although right now with my 19 snakes I can't keep up with them all feeding twice a week, so I do a lot of supplemental feeding with larger frozen thawed adult mice and rats. I use fresh killed or sometimes live rat pups to entice a picky feeder. Usually most of my snakes will take a live rat pup and then follow up with just about anything including frozen thawed.

I've also found that some of my snakes can shy away from frozen thawed if you 'chase' them around with the FT rodent to the point where they are scared of it. I accidently did that to a couple of my snakes, seems like it's really hard to get them to feed after they get scared of rodents, I'm still not sure really how to break them out of it other than going with all live. I don't like to feed adult live rodents if I can help it, just too much risk for my snakes. I actually just picked up a couple new snakes that have never had frozen thawed, they had live their whole life (both are 4 years old). I tried fresh killed ASF on both and both took them right away.

I also have an Australian Woma python that was beat up in the mail and refused to eat for about 4-5 months. He finally started eating live rat pups even though the last guy fed him fresh killed all the time. He has yet to eat anything besides a rat pup and he takes those instantly.

I also have a female King snake that is on a long fast and she is getting super skinny, she actually has just recently taken a mouse crawler here and there, but not enough to put on weight. That was my fault as well, I actually put her in the same tank as my male when I first started out keeping snakes. I think she went into breeding mode, which I didn't even know about at the time, and she didn't have the body condition for it. Be sure to keep your snakes one to a cage.