Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Over the past month, my black milk has decided he doesn't want to eat anything larger than a f/t rat pup. He's been eating a f/t med sized rat every 7-10 days for the last 6 months. I haven't changed where I buy my food from. He'll eat rat pinkies and rat pups, but nothing larger. I've tried small rats but no go. It's kind of funnny to see a 66" milk snake eating/inhaling a pinkie. Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior from any snake?
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1.0 Malagasy Giant Hognose
0.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.0 Black Milk
1.0 Black Pine
1.0 White Lipped Python
0.1 Guyana Red Tail Boa
1.0 Yellowtail Cribo
1.0 Unicolor Cribo
0.0.1 Blacktail Cribo

Hello,
I have an adult Sinaloan with the same problem, although once every few months she'll decide to take freshly killed adult mice. After maybe a month or so, she'll always go back to her old (bad) habits. Sewing a pinkie to one end of a larger food item sometimes works, though often times she'll either rip the pinkie off, or spit the whole thing out about halfway through. When I first got her 4 years ago, she'd eat anything I put in front of her. *shrug* The only time my gaigeae have gone off feed is during the breeding season; the male will refuse to eat in the spring (I assume he smells or otherwise senses that the female in the adjoining cage is ovulating), and the female goes off feed just before laying her eggs, which should be any day now. Since you say "he"... maybe the big guy is a bit lovelorn? Do you have a female nearby?

Nate

My big males are just beginning to feed again. Is it possible as Nate said, that instead of your male not eating altogether he's at least nibbling on very small things instead of nothing at all like ours and in time will go back to normal when he can get his mind back on regular things?
Bob.

I wouldn't worry too much. My adult male hasn't really eaten well since April as his mind has been focused on other things.

Even if you don't have a female in the room that he can smell, he may still recognize its breeding season and go off feeding on regular sized prey. I've had males from other species eat very small sized prey during busy season as well.

Give him another month or so to get back to normal.

Good luck.

Dave

DNS Reptiles

There are no other (black milk) females in the room. It sounds to me like this is not uncommon this time of year, although this is the first time I've experienced it. Thanks again for the replies!

There are no other (black milk) females in the room. It sounds to me like this is not uncommon this time of year, although this is the first time I've experienced it. Thanks again for the replies!

Perhaps your snake is done growing and as he is non reproductive needs less food than before. Therefore preferring smaller food. Perheps rehgular sized food less often is the key (way cheaper!).
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I had an eastern king that did this...ate f/t adult mice like a machine for months, then wouldnt eat anything bigger than a fresh killed fuzzy for about 4 or 5 months...would go ballistic with live prey and attack anything that moved...he eventually was cooled down, came out eating like a pro...acts normal now, even taking live prety...

no clue how to explain it, but thats my story.