Longest Off Feed?

[Brock Wagner]

The female spider just ate two mice last night I couldn't believe it.

Brock

[kurgan]

Good for you (and him/her!), at 13 months I'd be finding someone to force feed I think.

[frankykeno]

Moved him from a 30qt tub to a 15qt tub and....BAM! Had to do the rat dance for a couple seconds but every prior week until last night he would just look at the rat and retreat to his hide.

Rich we have 3 young females here that all should likely be in 30 qt tubs but every one of them will refuse to eat if you move them up. Put them back in the rack with the 15qt tubs and they all eat like troopers. Drives me nuts as they really are a bit hefty to be in that rack but heck, if they like it and refuse to eat if they are moved out - I guess for now they are staying put.

As far as longest fasters, we have two WC adult females that both came to us having not eaten in close to a year. Both were severely underweight but are doing much better now. One of them, Saoirse, has been with us going on 3 years now and still fasts every winter. She normally will lose about 100 grams over the fast which is really not much at all for her.

We know winter is coming when Saoirse turns her snout up at her dinner and goes off to her hide to snooze. We don't need a silly groundhog to tell us spring is here when Saoirse comes out, starts searching around and whammo hits her ASF's.

Oh btw, spring is here folks! Saoirse took her ASF's the last two weeks. It may be snowing like heck where I live but I'll go by the instincts of this snake any day of the week.

[MeMe]

Oh btw, spring is here folks! Saoirse took her ASF's the last two weeks. It may be snowing like heck where I live but I'll go by the instincts of this snake any day of the week.

me and you both!

[FIREball]

So heres another question to throw in there, whats the youngest and/or lowest weight of one that has gone off feed for you.

[Argentra]

Good question. I wondered the same thing as my 9 month old normal female isn't eating either. Since 12/17/07 she's only eaten three times. I figured it could be a number of factors: winter, the moves to other enclosures (first to a large display cage, then a tub), or a sudden dislike for live mice. She's only lost 6 grams in that time(330 to 324), so I'm not really worried, but I would like to get her going again since she's still so young.

I have one more trick to play, though. Since she's refused the most due to being moved out of her 20L tank, I have shifted the corns so that I could reclaim that tank for her. It's been disinfected and I'll be moving her back to her old home this weekend. Hopefully after a few weeks, I'll see some mouse snatching once more.

But, to get back to the original question... what IS the youngest and lowest weight to go off feed for long??

[frankykeno]

For me, I'd worry if a really young one stopped eating. They seem to be eating machines that first year or so. The youngest ones we've had that stopped eating, after a good feeding history, this year were both 06 females. They did not like their move to bigger tubs and once we returned them to the tub sizes we felt they'd both outgrown - well both of them immediately started up eating again.

[kurgan]

Yay.
He ate two rats tonight after almost 3 months (last winter he only went off for 2 months)>
I know I probably should have left it at one but he was holding his head up in that adorable 'i'm waiting to ambush more rodents' pose so I gave in.