Not wanting to eat

[Jamesjohnson28]

i breed venomous snakes but i recently got into ball pythons. All of mine stay in racks and eat well but i rescued a male bp 996 grams had him a month and he still will not eat and is losing weight. Before force feeding i wanted to see if anyone has any tips because the previous owner had him in a tank with no heat and the day i got him he was ice cold. I got him and warmed him up slowly to my rack temp of 89F hot spot. After a month of rack temp he still wont eat live or frozen. Any help will be great i don't like force feeding since it stresses the snake.

[John1982]

It's not uncommon for male royals to go off feed for months at a time. It's usually during the breeding season, or when they hit puberty, and have nothing but females on their mind. As long as his setup is good, and he was healthy, he'll come around eventually without the need to force feed. If he's losing noticeable weight after only a month, he might have some underlying issues. I've had males go off feed for the better part of a year without losing a great deal of body mass.