Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any help would be appreciated:

I've had an adult mexican black king for about a year now. When I first got him, he was very skinny (the guy who had him was only feeding 1 mouse a week). I fattened the guy up for quite some time. He was eating 3 or 4 adult mice every week or so for a while.

Any way, a few months ago, he just stopped eating. He also got very active...wanted to try to find a way out of the cage pretty desperately.
I also noticed he had a small bump under the skin along his back (slightly along the side away from the spine).

Now I'm not a new snake owner, so I took the guy to the vet right away.
She did a fecal exam...no parasites.
She checked for external parasites...nothing.
She checked the lump...wasn't cancerous...some sort of fatty growth that didn't seem to be harming him in any way.
She checked him all over...nothing seemed to be wrong.

It was suggested that maybe he was trying to brumate (only recently has the weather turned nice here in MA)...

I think he was a pet-co (or other nauseating pet chain) special, and I have no idea how old he is, nor how old/large he was when the previous owner got him...so he could have been wild caught? Shrug...

So I let him brumate for about a month. He seemed to be ok...checked him every few days, made sure he had clean water, etc. Brought him back up to normal temp...yet he STILL doesn't want to eat.

He seems to have settled down somewhat. He'll sit still for a while, but every now and then, he just seems to want to get out of the tank like before.

I've checked him over several times recently, but can't seem to see anything wrong...

I'm really stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

Males could be roaming about now looking for mates.
Y'know, it could be an unrelated restlessness from that in the Fall.
Are there any odors or perfumes or other snakes in the room that could be agitating him?
How about right in the cage with him?
Is the cage too warm?
Are there enough places to hide?
Is the cage bedding material possibly a form of discomfort?
Check everything.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Males could be roaming about now looking for mates.
Y'know, it could be an unrelated restlessness from that in the Fall.
Are there any odors or perfumes or other snakes in the room that could be agitating him?
How about right in the cage with him?
Is the cage too warm?
Are there enough places to hide?
Is the cage bedding material possibly a form of discomfort?
Check everything.

No other snakes are in the room. He's in my classroom actually. Incidentally, I have the tank up on some foam to minimize vibrations (if the kids get too loud, although this is VERY rare), and I have paper on the back and sides of the tank so he don't get spooked.
He's also been in the class snce I got him, so he's never been bothered before.

He used to be on just newspaper before I brumated him (while he was still restless), so I thought maybe something softer...I use aspen as bedding now.

His hides...hmmm...they might be too small now that I think about it. I'll add something new today...

Mating...I thought of that as well. I'm hoping its something like that, and not some unknown medical problem.

Thanks for the response guys. I'll try to keep you updated...

Sounds like he's got the love bug to me....
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
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