Quote Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy View Post
Congratulations on your long lived BP. She’s beautiful! That’s a testament of the good care she’s obviously received. For such a mature snake she seems to be doing very well. I think you could actually cut back on her feedings. My pythons only eat every 2-4 weeks after their 3rd year, and even less during the winter months. Does she eat rats or do you only give her mice? I don’t feed any of my snakes outside their enclosures. I don’t see any upside to it.
In years past I fed her in a separate enclosure mostly for cleanliness purposes. I'd feed her a mouse or mice, give her a quick rinse, thoroughly dry her off, and then leave her alone for a day or two. No mouse blood, mouse urine, or mouse feces on her or in her enclosure.

Now that she doesn't seem to be able to pinpoint her prey well enough to strike I feed her in her enclosure. I just leave the mouse right in front of the doorway of her hide and hope she eats it instead of using it for a headrest.

It is her choice to eat or not eat. I am worried that if I only offer her prey every other week or once a month that I may miss out on periods where she feels well enough to eat. I don't know that she feels bad but maybe she is experiencing some internal issues? Bloodwork would be great but as I mentioned earlier it is very difficult to find a true herp vet in my area. I would hate for some small animal practice to jab her 20 times trying to find a vein!

I tried to switch over to rats years ago without success but our local feed store had limited sizes and availability. Maybe I gave up too soon? Now that I am purchasing f/t I could easily try again. Fuzzy or pup size? She no longer seems to be using heat or smell to find her prey only touch (sight?) so might be interesting experiment...