Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do any of you have males that go off feed in the middle of summer?

I have this spotted male who has always been shy and rather small. It has been over three weeks since he last ate and he has been actively cage cruising frequently. He did the same thing to me last august for nearly a month, and then fed only sporadically until I cooled him.

The room is not too hot, he can get down around 75 degrees, so I don't think its heat estivation.

Any ideas?

I've got a wild caught male that does that. Very frustrating when you're trying to put weight on a snake!
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Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
0.1.0 Boa Constrictor
1.2.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Hypo Everglades Rat Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Pacific Gopher Snake
2.1.0 Sonoran Gopher Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Sonoran Gopher Snake
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3.2.0 Rosy Boas (Mexican, Temecula, & Bagdad)
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1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Western Hognoses
0.0.1 Lyre Snake
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LIZARDS
2.0.0 Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 African Fat-Tail Gecko
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
1.4.2 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
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1.4.0 Banded Gecko
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AMPHIBIANS
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Bubbling Kassina
0.0.1 White's Tree Frog
0.0.2 Gold Frogs
1.0.0 Fire Salamander

Cant say this for sure as I have only really worked with brooksi........but it happened to me this summer, you will never guess how i solved the problem? I put him in with a female and they bred, in fact i witnessed 7 lock ups in a 24 hour period, i think he thinks she is hot lol. After asking about it, and doing some thinkingt i think its a breeding response. if its not food why else would a male pace his cage? ladies.......

That's right...i felt badly for the males I had no females to put in with them...next year...they will be happy campers...Helane

Hi Zack, August is the begining of their feeding season, and nearing the end of their breeding season. Your snake should be feeding. Normally

Reptiles feed if conditions are right and if there isn't something better to do(attend a cycled female) Because its not, its telling you something.

Most reptiles require a range of temps to accomplish normal behaviors. In captivity, this does not always occur and the snake cannot adjust on its own. In nature, it would move to an area thats suitable for the seasons.

You may be measuring air conditions, which is nearly meaningless to most snakes. Most snakes work with and live in, mass or surface temps. Of course, air temps can sort of be related, but not so well. The reason is, mass temps and surface temps and air temps are products of sun exposure(the big heater in the sky). Many conditions effect this. Air is the least effected by the suns radiation and actually is a combination of surface and sun radiation, cloud cover etc.

In your cage, your snake is not dangling in the air(which is what your measuring) its IN the mass, which is touching other solid objects, all radiating heat from the summers sun exposure.

Phewwwwww sounds difficult, but try putting the cage of the floor for a few days, and/or adding some ice bags to one corner(ask Noc Tom)

You see, the temps you take are only a loose guide to try and understand your animal. Your animal IS the animal.

Of course, no matter what time of year, if a male smells a cycled female, he may stop feeding until that task is completed. Its seems to be a snake etiquette to not copulate on a full stomach.

It appears with you and the first post, you have no faith in your snakes. They are telling you something, and you are not listening. As your snake appears otherwise healthy, it is indeed telling you something and it may not be the temps.

The first responce mentions a male going off feed then copulating with a female. That keeper appears to think the female is not cycling. He should ask himself how the male knew to breed her, a cell phone call perhaps?

I hate to inform you, if you allow them freedom to choose, they will surprise you and do thinks you do not understand. Which to me is always fun. Its kinda more fun the telling them exactly what to do, if you get the picture. It surely is more natural to them, but then shoeboxs, wooden boxes are not all that natural.

I do not keep many snakes, but, some are gravid now. Last year, a thayeri laid her third clutch in the begining of sept. Shes on her second now. Dang I hate to be this to death, but if you give them choices, they teach you, if you tell them what to do, you CONTROL them. Which would you want to happen to you? Cheers

great stuff when FR talks I listen,,,,,,,,,thomas
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Morphs... just like baseball cards BUT ALIVE, how cool is that???

my website www.barmollysplace.com

Thanks for the advice.

I do recognize the importance of measuring surface temps. I only use a temp gun. I also always try and give my snakes as wide a temp range as possible. During most of the year it is about 70 - 90/95 degrees. However at the peak of summer sometimes the cool end creeps up just a few degrees.

I also thought about breeding, although he did breed this spring. I put him in with the only adult female who is an option, and she tried to kill him. Not cycling I'm assuming.

I am trying to listen to my snakes, that was the greatest concept I learned on this forum years ago (thanks mostly to you) and it made me an infinetely better snake keeper. I just don't get what this one is trying to tell me. Especially since the other 14 cal kings in the room are all doing the exact opposite - eating like pigs to keep up with the slightly warmer temps.

I will try making him a little cooler, but do you think that cooler will get him to eat more?

This is just my theory but I believe your snake is acting on priority number one, which for midsummer means avoid desication. He probably doesn't realize that there will be a water dish provided for him and is acting under the instict that most surface water will dry up as it does in the wild. He is probably seeking cool moist underground temps. This behavior is very common with pyromelana in my experience and mostly affects sub to young adult snakes. After a few years in captivity they seem to lose this behavior. I suspect in a month or so he will resume feeding on his own as in the wild he would probably normally need to bulk up for winter when water will be plentiful but temps are cooler and less condusive for digesting food.
As far as what you can do now, giving him a moist hide may help. I had a wild caught mountain king that would stop feeding and rub it's nose raw every July and August. It was kept in a standard sweater box cage. I broke it of this habit by moving it to a terrarium and providing a large pile of dirt on one side of the cage bordered by softball size rocks. On top of the dirt mound I piled up pine needles then about once a week I would pour a cup of water on the dirt. The snake made its own hide that had one entrance at the top and another on the bottom between the rocks. It was apparently very secure with it as it stopped pacing and rubbing it's nose almost instantly and began taking live fuzzies. It was really neat to watch because eventually the snake began basking on top of the pine needles in the afternoons and would jet into the hide whenever I got near the cage.

I thought about that. And while I don't usually give my adult male calis a humidity chamber, after he refused food for two weeks in a row I put one in with him. He hasn't spent more than ten minutes in it. He has three clay pots to hide under and he has been using the middle one, not even the cool one.

I'm at a loss.

Hes not losing weight so I'm not overly worried, I just don't get it.

His cage is set up identically to this one, except with 3 pots instead of cork.

If it's any comfort Zach, a lot of my adult male tropical milks are now beginning to feed agressively after the summer fast and my (very few) male kings are following in similar fashion. Your one non-feeder is following his particular normal routine.
I know I fret over my males more than the fems because of the lenghty seasonal fasts - there's a blast of food going into them in the spring, 1 or 2 small meals (maybe) during the entire summer and a feeding frenzy in late summer/early fall. The females are already plump and shutting down for the winter.
Jeff

I agree with FR and Aaron, and everyone else too.

I had the experience of seeing my male Sinaloan eat 6 mice in a row in August when in prior years he would refuse food that month. I toyed with substrates (got rid of those moisture-less substrates) and tried ice-packs to make cooler areas because we were having an extended heat wave. So my cage-changing reasons were not to prove he would eat, but he reacted by feeding on 6 mice one after another and then hiding.. and staying buried for some time. Just makes you realize that snakes really do react to their environment. And that caresheets are written (purposefully or not) to keep captives in "average" conditions at all times, because it is easiest for keepers to provide that.
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Mark