Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can you stop your balls from going off feed in the winter if you keep the temps the same all year or do they have an internal timer or something?
Thank you

Good question.

I havent been able to. Each animal is different, IMHO.

Maybe its just coincidence, or maybe I notice it more in the females cause I want them to eat more, but the girls biological clock seems to really be in tune with the seasons?

These things will drive you crazy if you think about them too much.

This is a SLOW hobby- plain and simple.

Whatevers gonna slow you down is bound to happen.

I Live in pa and as soon as the weather changes to a little cooler even thou I have the heat on and all my reptiles are in my living areas they all changed, snakes stop eating , my bearded dragons slow way down on eating, When the outside temps start going up everyone kicks back in to eating mode. Natural instinct.It is interesting to witness, Frustrating but interesting..

I live in Connecticut and as soon as October or November hits even the ones that normally will eat anytime start to get finicky, then go off feed?

It would be interesting to see if people in Florida, Sothern California or Texas also have such a dramtic switch from animals on-feed to off-feed?

Interesting stuff...

I'm in Texas. I have had one that has been off-feed since October. The rest are still killing and eating fine. Had one kill and not eat it once about a month ago but picked right back up on the next feeding. I keep the temps and light cycle the same all year long.
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Lead us not into temptation. We can find it on our own.

I keep my temps fairly stable year round - and even through our dry 90* So. Cal. winters they go off feed. I just wish they'd breed as consistently.
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Tosha

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I live in CT too and winter is soooo frustrating. I feel like such a bad BP mommy - like im doing something wrong. But I know the ones not eating will be back in the game soon

Animals have their own built-in barometer and can sense certain changes. Many animals know about an impending storm before we know. I tried keeping my temps exactly the same, but as soon as winter hit, off-feed they went.

It would be an interesting experiment to manipulate both lighting and temperature (all that we can manipulate) to see if the combination of these two would stop them from going off-feed, but I doubt it.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

But I must live in la la land or something because I feed all of my ball pythons frozen thawed without exception even hatchlings and people think I am crazy or something. Im not sure if its because I keep the best feeders or if its because I breed them that way but yea I never have any female or male go off feed in the winter. Of course I do live in Florida. Who knows its a strange world down here lol. I do have a fairly large collection as well not huge but pretty big. I do slow them down feeding so they will breed but they will eat the entire year. Some even eat while still gravid go figure.
Pythons.Net

Do you compensate for lighting? I'm trying to convert some of mine to FT. Some do, some won't. But with my asthma, they all must convert or go. I'm sick (literally) of rats.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I keep them in the same room with my boas. The lights are only on 8 hours per day in the winter time. And the temps drop to the low 70s at night. I have said this before but I still think that many people are breeding live feeders. I dont think the large breeders take the time to try frozen thawed and therefore we are stuck with genetically bred live feeders. Although I could be crazy cause many import balls are this way. But I feed all of my hatchlings frozen thawed. If they dont eat them they dont eat. They come around sooner or later and they eat that way for life. It is a waiting game that way you cant sell them as fast but its worth it to me. But I will usually hold back the first frozen thawed feeder females and keep them in my program. Those females have never failed my in years feeding throughout the year no matter what.

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I live in southern California and my females go off feed every winter but my males do not

Enjoy a couple of months without daily cleaning chores. Its not at all unhealthy for them to take a couple of months off of eating, so why fight it? I, like alot of people, actually stop feeding all of my snakes when I'm ready, and start back again when I'm ready. Some folks try to feed throughout the year with varying success.....I say take the winter off, and get back at it in the spring...