I think my BP has forgotten how to eat
I've had my 9 or 10 yr old BP, Haku, for 7 years now. He's always been a fussy eater (always and only live feed) but I thought we'd developed somewhat of a routine. He's grown well and is a beauty. He's about 5' long and as of this morning, is 1099 gr, which is down 100 gr since last summer's weight.
HOWEVER. . .
He hasn't eaten since August 31 of last year. He's shed several times. I let him lead the way through the winter months since he tends to sleep in and started making suggestions about 3 weeks ago when he started showing hunting behavior. Got him a nice plump rat. He wasn't having any. The local possum got it. Repeated the action several days later with a smaller specimen and there was lots of striking and yawning and dislocating of his lower jaw. But he didn't kill it. That rat went to join the circus. Then I got a smaller rat. This time, Haku killed it after an hour or so and curled up on top of it and snuggled with it for several hours before I took it away to feed the possum out back. Yesterday, I tried a rat the size of a big mouse and got the same results as last time.
With all the big jaw action going on, which frankly I've never gotten to witness before, I'd swear he was hungry. After 8 months without a meal and losing weight and several sheds, you'd think he'd want to eat. He's often active in the evenings. We give him privacy after watching for perhaps 5 minutes. He used to strike and coil before I could get my hand back out of his enclosure after tossing in dinner.
What am I doing wrong?
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