Got him from a breeder actually, know it's 06/06/2015 for hatch date, he just had a lot of feeding issues and breeder sold him to me up-front mentioning he was a difficult feeder and that's why he was held back until adulthood -- didn't want to sell a young, unreliable feeder. "Skipping weeks" was regular for him, but he has fed weekly for me since May.Originally Posted by Aerries
Why I'm thinking it's seasonal, possibly. Temps are down and sunlight wanes faster up here.
Yeah, this seems to be what I was thinking, or else there was some issue I couldn't see with the feeder. He's out cruising now which I'm taking as a sign he's still hungry but not gonna let him try again until next Saturday to avoid refusal syndrome. He's a sensitive case as mentioned above, just was a serious 180 into my care, then a 180 back out to refusal.My boy was hatched in July 2015, I got him in October 2015 at ~130g. He ate every feeding that whole winter and summer and gained weight steadily.
Then Sept 8 to Oct 21, 2016 did not eat at all (he was around 750g). After that he would eat every 14 to 20 days the rest of the winter 2016 and picked back in the spring 2017.
From mid March 2017 to August he ate every 10 to 14 days (as of August 9th he was 1115g), then went into shed on 8/15/17.
He stopped eating again from 8/9/17 to yesterday 10/7/17 (he is 1125g).
I can only guess that this may be a pattern (though two years is not much of a data spread lol). I am in Virginia (37*N so not as far as you). His temps / humidity have been consistent for the entire time. I will have more info in the coming years to see if it actually a pattern, but only time will tell.
I don't know how much weight v.s age plays into this, but I would assume that the first year of life is dedicated to growth and each successive year this drive slows and *may* lead to longer / more frequent fasts. In captivity when they have consistent meals and environment they probably don't need to divert all of their energy into growth, which would also be why petstore snakes or snakes that were underfed will pound every meal they get until they are "stable".
Don't know if this helps or is just rambling...
Nothing's changed which is kinda what blindsided me.
Brought up age/weight since I know 2 yrs and 500-600g is when sperm plugs start happening roughly (iirc) causing the refusals during breeding season. This would be his first year hitting both, unless he had previously and shed weight in the breeder's care. Putting fat on in a new home and then dialing back may indeed be another consideration.
Just definitely not wanting him to slide back into the biweekly thing if possible.
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