Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so ive had this gtp for about 6 weeks and hes only eaten once, about 3 weeks ago. hes a 4month old sorong gtp ive read acouple other not eating posts and im still having problems getting him to eat. ive tried using live, ft, and prekilled pinkies and fuzzies. i tried feeding him on tongs, dropping it in the cage, and putting him in the brown paper bag the pinkie came in. Hes in a 12"x8"x8" rubbermaid see through tub with 10 holes on each side, 4 coathanger perches,and a piece of glass covering the top with a 10 gal zoomed uth above the water dish. he gets misted every 2 days the humidity never goes below 60% and i try to keep it below 95%. the hottest end of the tank is a little over 90 and cold side is about 86 at night drops to about 80. he dangles his tail down at night and one time struck at the glass 5 times when i shut the light off it seems like hes hungry but just wont eat. any suggestions?

I’ve had this problem before. If you are using thawed, grab it with the tongs and put it in front of the heat lamp for about 1 to 2 minutes. Then stick it in the snakes face (sounds harsh but its not) and once that tongue starts to flicker tease him with it. Sometimes I have to tease my snake with it so he will become aggressive b/c my snake is not aggressive at all. Even then I’ve had problems where he just won’t eat and then ill try like 2 or 3 days later and he will eat no problem.

lower your temps!!!! Just above 90 is too high for neos and 86 should be the max. Get your ambient temps to around 80-82 and try again. Try to piss him off. These snakes weren't designed to eat pink mice right off. You need to condition them to believe they eat pink mice. lol. If you don't get any strikes, bump the neck about 1-2" behind the head. Alternate from side to side, underneath, over the top, tickling the tale, lightly pinching the back, etc. Be persistent and you should make progress. The first thing to do though it lower the temps. Good luck.

Brandon Osborne