Help! Not eating!

[Bogertophis]

Thank you! I think I’m the first owner, I got her from petco when she was fairly small. It’s been 2 years since I bought her.Haven’t measured her length, and humidity is about 60 on the cooler side and 40-50 on heated side. I usually can tell when she’s going through a shed because she gets noticeably duller in color and this doesn’t seem to be the case. Also, she does seem to spend most of her time on the heated side, so what would you recommend I do to up the temperature of the non heated side? If I put another lamp it would cause all the humidity to go away. I try feeding her once a week, but usually becomes every two weeks due to being super busy on the weekends to feed her. They’re medium sized rats(frozen thawed)


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I think she is just "growing up": you shouldn't be feeding her once a week on a medium sized f/t rat...that's just too much food. When they're young & eating smaller prey it's ok for a BP to eat once a week, but the time between meals should get longer as the snake grows larger and begins to eat larger rodents (which just take longerto digest. Eating too much is as bad for a snake as it is for us, and like us, some will continue to over-eat while others get up from the table as she seems to do.

I do think you should make some modifications to the cage, it sounds like her humidity & temps need some help. While the speed of her digestion depends on warmth, it's also critical that she can choose higher & lower temperatures; over-head lights tend to dry out the air, and aren't efficient anyway-most of the heat rises away & out of the cage. I prefer to use UTH, and that might be just the thing you need for her digestive comfort ("belly heat" that rises from the floor), but all heat accessories MUST be regulated (thermostat) for your snake's safety. Those with screen-top cages usually reduce the air-flow significantly to keep in humidity, but you can also add a "humid-hide" using moisture-retaining (& thoroughly dampened) sphagnum moss, and some substrates hold in moisture much better than others too. (to be clear, I'd add UTH to this set-up, and keep using the over-head light for warmth too but run that with a lamp dimmer to balance the warmth with the UTH.) Every cage set-up is a little different though, because much depends on the room temperatures in your house too...as the seasons change, her cage may either be too cool or too hot, so you need to stay on that...make changes as needed & be sure you're measuring the temps. accurately.