She Wont Eat

[Reptile_Man]

My royal Carmen wont eat,i thaught it was because she was shedding but she isnt shedding.she had a nice round body when i got her about 5 weeks ago but now its beginning to look triangular.
iv tired feedint her many times but she refuses to eat what ever i present to her.iv tried different colours and sizes but still wont eat,i split the brain of one mouse and left her in a box with the mouse but stil she didnt eat.
humidity and temps are perfect so i dont knwo what the problem is,she has ni signs of illness, no wheezing or no mucus coming from the mouth.she just wont eat and is losing weight.

[lillyorchid]

Double check your temperatures and humidity (92 warm end, 82 cool end, 50-60% humidity).

I've seen rats/mice walk up to and walk over ball pythons w/o them being ready to eat. It might freak them out, and shut down their feeding response. Try and raise the temperature a degree or two, and try again in a week. Attempting to feed day after day is stressful and will probably cause him to continue to refuse food.

[Reptile_Man]

done all that,and i dont feed live mice as it is illegal here..temps and humidiidty are perfect like i said.and i dont try and feed the day after.i always leave it a week before trying again.

[Kesslers Kreatures]

Do you think that she could only want a live mouse? How is that illegal?

[Reptile_Man]

i was going to try live mice but it is ilegal so im told,because of animal cruelty or something like that.everything is perfect, temps,humidity, hides,water, evrything,thing just wont eat and losing weight.i dont have an exact weight but going from a nice rounded body to a triangular body is an obvious sign but no other ileness signs.

[Jahbeard]

Five weeks isn't really that long. I have one male who hasn't eaten since November, and two others who have gone off feed every winter for the last four years. As long as they are drinking I try not to stress over it too much. I have never had one go longer than five months though.

[Kesslers Kreatures]

Where are you from? I was having problems too feeding my girl, They say that sometimes in the winter they just fast and wont eat. Just keep trying once a week, when she gets hungry, She will eat.

Did she used to be fed live rats from her previous owner? If she has been fed live rats her whole life it might be hard to switch her to a dead one. I have read that around these boards too

[Reptile_Man]

nope,he was feeding her frozen thawed hoppers.im from kilkenny in ireland.
she is losing weight fast so it is a worrying cause,like i said earlier, she had a nice rounded body but no a triangular shaped body.
she is only 3 months old or so.

[elevatethis]

i was going to try live mice but it is ilegal so im told,because of animal cruelty or something like that.

Feeding live rodents, as far as I know, is not illegal in any state. It is frowned upon, and possibily illegal in UK, but I actually read an article a while back examining the law, which found that it wasn't even totally illegal there either. I'll dig around and see if I can find it again. There were some clauses and exceptions for animals that required feeding on live prey - basically it contained a lot of ambiguous language that wouldn't make me worry about getting arrested or fined for feeding live prey over there.

Back to the point, again, check your temps and humidity and make sure everything is spot on. If so, chalk to up to being wintertime.

How big is your snake? There's been discussion about a slow down phase from around 700-1100 grams...a "teenage" phase for balls where they often get picky...

[Reptile_Man]

ok without sounding ungreatful, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!! read all the posts in this thread.im tired saying this : TEMPS AND HUMIDUTY ARE FINE!!!!! EVERYTHING IS PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!