3rd Week without food!

[ZEKESMOM]

This is 3 weeks now that Zeke has refused to eat! He is starting to lose weight. His skin is not tight and smooth like it use to be. Tonight was feed night again and he refused totally hanging at the opposite end of the tank from the rat. His temps are good. His humidity has dropped but I have adjusted for that and it is up to 43% now. For the last week there has been no handling and only been in the tank to do spot cleaning and clean water. During the day he of course is in his warm hide and about 8 pm he comes out to do his snakey thing, but he spends the whole time trying to find a way out and totally knocking over the plants in his tank. I have checked him completely over tonight and there are no mites, his belly looks good, and no breathing probs.(I have read so much on RI and I am so freaked out that I keep trying to think something is wrong, I am going down a list he has this, no he doesn't have this) I am really getting worried, does someone have any idea what is going on and if there is anything I can do to entice him to eat! Really need some help here guys!

[Kizerk]

myabe you could try dropping in a mouse? i dont know if that will work, but it won't hurt to try

[ZEKESMOM]

myabe you could try dropping in a mouse? i dont know if that will work, but it won't hurt to try

I did that tonight. Left the small rat in there for 20 minutes and Zeke stayed at the other end of the tank trying to find a way out!

[Kizerk]

do you normally feed mice and tonight you offered a rat?

i've heard of bps off feed (if they were fed rats) take mice, and vice versa

[mr~python]

do you happen to have a recent picture of him? he might be "catching up" on his weight.

this time of year snakes will fast because of a little too much feeding earlier in the year.

my male fasted for about 5 months last year because i fed him medium and "large" small rats the whole year before. i know better now, ofcourse.

[ZEKESMOM]

do you normally feed mice and tonight you offered a rat?

i've heard of bps off feed (if they were fed rats) take mice, and vice versa

always rats except for his first 2 feeds way back in August

[Kizerk]

hm...you could always try a mouse next time, maybe his taste buds have changed

[ZEKESMOM]

do you happen to have a recent picture of him? he might be "catching up" on his weight.

this time of year snakes will fast because of a little too much feeding earlier in the year.

my male fasted for about 5 months last year because i fed him medium and "large" small rats the whole year before. i know better now, ofcourse.

Just took these:




He just looks like he is sucking up on his sides and if you look in this last picture at towards the end of his tail how his skin is loose and baggy where it is bent.
any help?

[dr del]

Hi,


Well he still looks ok so there's no need to panic just yet

When did he last shed?

Does he always come out at the same time - and is that the time you have chosen to offer him the food?

Is this live rodents?

As for the knocking over the plants then yeah they can be destructive little nuggets when they feel like it



dr del

[McAdry]

Our wild caught Saoirse seems to be back to fast mode again she did it last year from mid october to maybe may ish have to check records for exact dates. She was 600 grams or so when we got her got up to just over 900. She then lost mabye 100 to 200 grams druing the fast and is now up to between 1200 and 1300 grams. Fall set in and she is fasting again so will get her thru the winter and hope to put more weight on her next spring and summer. With luck she be up to breeding weight next year. So if your snake isn't loosing weight to seriously or you don't supspect so other reason ie medical for weight loss I wouldn't worry about it too much I know we would all love our snakes to eat every week but am pretty shure they don't get anywhere near 52 meals a year in the wild.So if you don't any any other reason's to be worring about your snake I would say when the weather turns to spring again you will find it eating again.