Hunger strike, and I'm pretty stumped.

[Blightedchemist]

Several weeks ago I posted a thread regarding my mojave BP and how well it was doing and how he eats like a champ.
Well I lied...kindof, a few weeks after that post(one week ago) he has decided that he does not wish to eat anymore.
Thanksgiving week, I chose not to feed him because he had eaten a rather large rat pup the prior week. This was probably a mistake, I should have given him a couple mice that week.
the week after that, I gave him some mice and he seemed completely uninterested. He seemed more interested in finding a way out of his separate feeding tank.
I tried a F/T small rat several days later and he ignored it as if it wasn't there.
My temps and humidity are in tolerance with the warm side getting a little too warm on occasion, easily fixed by putting more bedding between the UTH and the snake. Humidity is also fine. nothing changed at all as far as temps, humidity surroundings, or ambiance go.
It hasn't been that long since then, so should I be concerned yet?
I am a little because his eating habits were so great before I hardly needed to prescent for him.
Anyone have any thoughts on things I could try? I've looked him over and he looks just fine and acts just fine. He is hidden usually all day long until about 8-9 at night then hides again at about 11pm-12am and occasionally takes a stroll around his tank at around 5 when I get home.

[gmcclurelssu]

could just be as simple as a seasonal off feed. my ball is doing the same thing at the moment. the best advise i've been given is to just keep offering either every week or every other week. keep checking temps, humidity, ect... and see what happens. as long as his weight doesn't drop too much he should be fine

[Blightedchemist]

Thanks, that was my thought, I've heard all sorts of animals can go on a seasonal off feed cycle. I don't ahve my own scale at home but I can bring one home from work. I'll see if I can't get my own out of someone this holiday :-P

[Melicious]

My kids normally do that. I wouldn't worry too much.

[td30]

I am in the same boat. I am not too worried as she is still eating, just not as much. Here are my 350g female's feeding records... she did eat last night.

12/07 Feeding 1 Fed (1) F/T Rat - Pups
11/30 Refused Food 1 Refused (1) Rat - Weaned
11/25 Refused Food 1 Refused (1) Rat - Weaned
11/17 Refused Food 1 Refused (1) Rat - Weaned
11/09 Feeding 1 (1) Rat - Pups
11/02 Refused Food 1 Refused (1) Rat - Pups
10/27 Refused Food 1 Refused (1) Rat - Weaned
10/27 Shed 1 Shed
10/14 Feeding 1 (1) Rat - Weaned

[MDB]

I had my ball pythons on f/t for the longest time. And out of no where they decided that they did not wish to eat anymore, about 4-5 weeks of this went by and I had enough of them not eating. So I took a journey to the petstore and bought some live feeders mice/rats. They took them as soon as I put them in their tubs. I would recommend to keep trying, and to maybe try small mice. There is a good possibility since you fed it that big rat pup, that it didnt digest the best, and now he is turned off by them or afraid of them. I may be wrong, but its worth a try. Also try putting your mojave in a plastic plant pot, turn it upside down put a small whole in the top, and drop in a mice crawler/rat crawler. This seems to do the trick, so Ive heard. Just make sure its a crawler, for it cannot cause your mojave any problems. Best of luck to you!

[Blightedchemist]

OKay awesome(ish) but im glad to know this is pretty common. I tried to feed him last wednesday then again on saturday, so I will try again on wednesday.

Which leads me to another question. What would be the best way to prescent with a F/T rat pup? seeing as I've fed live previously and prescenting is as easy as putting the mouse/rat box ontop of his tank with the breathing holes feeding into the snakes feeding tank.

[bigballs]

what are your temps and humidity exactly? how big is your enclosure and how big is the snake?

maybe you can try prescenting the room and feeding him at night within his enclosure. dont handle him for at least a day before feeding attemps.

[MDB]

OKay awesome(ish) but im glad to know this is pretty common. I tried to feed him last wednesday then again on saturday, so I will try again on wednesday.

Which leads me to another question. What would be the best way to prescent with a F/T rat pup? seeing as I've fed live previously and prescenting is as easy as putting the mouse/rat box ontop of his tank with the breathing holes feeding into the snakes feeding tank.

I would say continue to feed live, already sounds like you have a possible picky eater. And if that is the case, f/t in my opinion is much harder. And unless you have an incredible amount of patience this is not the way to go.

[anendeloflorien]

You could try feeding him in his enclosure. I don't believe in moving a snake to a separate enclosure to feed. It just causes undue stress at a time when they are at their most vulnerable. Even though he may have done fine with it in the past, that combined with the temperature fluxuations you mentioned could be enough to make him go off feed. Also, thinking that the hot side being too hot is

fixed by putting more bedding between the UTH and the snake.

is entirely wrong! It's way too easy for them to just move the substrate aside which they will do to get at the nice warm heating pad. Do you have the UTH on the outside of the tank?? Are you using a thermostat? It's very important to actually CONTROL the temperature of a UTH because they can get extremely hot, hot enough to burn your snake and cause permanent injury or even kill him.

As far as pre-scenting with a f/t rat what you can do is set a heat lamp up about a foot or 18" away from the food item and let it warm it up near the snakes enclosure for about 15-20 minutes. Just make sure that's it not so close or so strong that it's going to cook that rat because they can explode! NOT a pretty picture lol. You can also use a hair dryer which works well because it warms the rat up while it circulates the air (that's what I usually do) pre-scenting the room.

Good luck!