Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I keep offering various sized rats to my WC Great Basin Gopher snake, but s/he wont eat. I had been feeding mice; but after the last one was killed and uneaten, I tried switching to baby rats (from pinkie to hopper). A few from the first two rat litters were eaten. Now, all that I offer are refused.

The tank, the snake is in, is in the living room. It is unheated, just at ambient room temperature (right now, upper mid-seventies). The tank is four feet long by thirteen inches wide by twenty inches tall. My snake is almost, but not quite, as long as the tank. This snake is still very active.

I have only the one Gopher snake (and am not even sure of the sex). Therefore, I am not going to breed him / her. So, do I need to brumate? If so, how do I do it? Often it already gets down to freezing (or lower) at night outside. We do not have a garage, or basement.

Snakey Lakey

Well it sounds like it's a WC adult right? It's probably used to going into burmation now. There's lots of info on how to do it. Simple google search should provide tons of info.

But basically stop feeding and let the temps go down to the mid 50s.
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1.2 Corallus Hortulanus
1.0 Morelia spilota cheynei
1.0 Python Regius
0.1 Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi
0.1 Lampropeltis alterna
1.0 Rhacodactylus ciliatus

Actually I have had this snake for several years, but it eats so rarely that my Mom (a senior citizen) is afraid it will starve.

I have never tried brumating before (since I am not breeding); but the snake usually spends winters and late summers sleeping. Which leaves only spring and autumn for eating. Well, it's autumn, and the snake refuses to eat. I am being overrun with baby feeder rats.

We have an old house next door, but the heater is broken, so temperatures over there drop below freezing. It's where I used to keep the snake (and I used to live, too), before the heater broke. A lot of the pipes froze and broke, so the water is off as well.

The old house is too cold for the snake. The manufactured house we are in doesn't have a good place to cool down for brumating. The old house holds cold. The new house holds heat.

Snakey Lakey

What temps do you have the snake @ now? Usually w/ most of the Gophers I've had, you have to force them to stop eating or they will eat year round. They're usually very good eaters. How long have you had the snake?

reako45

At 11:40 PM the nearest indoor thermometer reads 72 degrees F, while the outdoor thermometer reads 30 degrees F.

I caught this Great Basin Gopher snake about 4 or 5 years ago, about 2 miles away in the next town. These are very small towns, where the quail outnumber the people. The entire county only has a population of about 10,000 people.

S/he has always been a finicky eater. I have tried feeding at all times of the day and night. I have tried f/t mice and baby birds. (The smallest of the live baby birds were eaten). I have tried f/k mice. I have tried brained mice. Eggs raided from bird nests in the spring were eaten, but I haven't had access to the nests for several years (these were the same nests that I got the baby birds from). I have tried all sizes of live mice, sometimes these get eaten (usually in spring), but more often not. In the first year I had the snake, one nearly dead gopher (the mammel), caught by the cat, was eaten.

Lately, I have been trying pinkie, fuzzy, and up to small hopper baby rats. A few baby rats from each of the first two litters were eaten; but now, from all five subsequent litters, they are refused. Now, when I offer baby rats, the snake crawls away, and hides.

The snake was about 3½ feet long when I caught it, and now is almost 4 feet long. The snake is housed in a 4 foot long, unheated, tank in the living room.

When first caught, by tail shape, I thought this was a female; but since NO slugs have ever been laid, I am having doubts, and wondering if I have a male instead.

Snakey Lakey