Reptile & Amphibian Forums

and when i came back today i went to feed my bps and there not eating. it did get fairly cool here and my window is broke so im sure it got pretty chilli in the room, maybe they went off feed for winter? this is the first time either has refused a meal so im not to sure what to do. one is a 07 spider maybe 300g and the other is a 06 pastel probably 600g or so if that matters any. any help would be greatly appreciated

Sorry to hear about that. I'm faced with leaving my snake alone for some time and am a bit worried about this sort of thing as well.

I'm no expert about balls and their fasting tendencies, but maybe you could try to see what happens after stabilizing temps. Perhaps when the situation returns to normal, from the snakes' point of view, they'll be more apt to eat.

Who knows, maybe all that peace and quiet has them freaked out to have you back home. Wait a few days and offer food again.

I'm sure someone more informed will offer you an opinion soon, but I hope this helps.
-----
---
Seren
---
"The universe is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering." (Chinese proverb)
Stormwraith Sidelines (blog including occasional tales about my ball python, Ella)

Fix your temp problem... That is most likely the problem.

Curious. I'll be on vaca soon too. What if anything special did you do for them when you left? Thanks.

i feed them before i left and gave them a bigger water bowl so they wouldnt run out. and a friend of myne was suppose to come over and give them fresh water every evening and turn on a heater in the room to keep the temps up but he never did.

Here is the solution I have for this situation. I wouldn't keep my animals where I can't control the temps. When I go out of town, I go to the local pet store where I buy my feeders and make arrangements to have my snakes taken care of. I worked for the owner there for 7 years and trust him to take care of my animals. I know none of them will take my snakes, and I have pics of all of them to prove if a snake was switched. I usually pay about $10 a day to come take care of the animals which takes about an hour. Doing this ensures that my animals continue to receive care from a knowledgable person. The last piece of advice is to have whoever is going to take care of your animals come to your place and help you care for them a couple of times so that they know what you expect.
-----
Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

the only places i have around here are petco and im def not leaving my snakes in there care. and one mom and pop place that would probably try and sell them when i left. so i dont really have that option. one of my friends was suppose to come to my house and turn on the heater but he never did.

What kind of heating elements are you using, what kind of enclosures, and are you using a thermostat? With the proper heat and thermostat, temps shouldn't be a problem while you're gone as the stat will control everything and keep it where it should be.
-----
~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

i got the pastel to eat this evening but not the spider. temps are back to normal so ill try again in the next couple days or so.

ya im using an apple herp thermostat. and using flexwatt. the hot spot stayed the say but the ambient type went down like 10degrees as well as the cool side. as it hit around 45 degrees here in the evenings.

Does your house/room not have heat? You may want to consider getting a space/fan heater for the room you keep your snakes in. If it dropped to 10 degrees, your snakes could end up with RI's -- you're lucky they aren't dead.
-----
~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

lol. i meant it dropped 10 degrees lower than normal. no i live in like a studio type deal and have no heat. my friend was suppose to come over and turn on a little heater i have in there in the evenings but he never did.

10 degrees isn't too bad. I lower 10 degrees every night for my breeders. I wouldn't go lower than that though. A good solution, would be to buy a $10 appliance timer, and plug you space heater into it. You could set the time for it to come one and shut off. That is what I use for my breeders. I turn it on during the day, and it shuts off at night. Hope this helps.

Get a heater with a thermostat on it. They're not expensive, and could save your snakes lives.

I use one of the oil filled heaters and hook it up to both a thermostat and a timer. This way the heat comes on when you want it to and heats the room up to the temp you want it to. Don't EVER trust the built-in thermostats on any heater you buy though, they are worthless.
-----
Ryan Sherman
Scottsdale, Arizona