Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ian, and anyone else with 2 cents to throw in:

Hopey, my ball python, has been off her food for about a month. She has been less than enthusiastic for about two months. She had been eating F/T junvenile rats from RodentPro, and from only eating mice, we had her at a point where she was even striking at the food as it was coming in.

Additionally, I have had occasional bouts of not getting her undertank heat pad at the right temp--sometimes too high, sometimes too low. I had thought that the ideal temp (given a couple layers of paper towel substrate and the fact that the pad does not have uniform contact with the glass) was 98-100-- only slightly warm to the touch, but lately she's only been sleeping on it when it's 95ish, and in the last 2-3 days she's been spending her time squished on the opposite side of the tank between her waterbowl and the glass, under the ceramic heater at about 85 or less degrees.

She's active when I took her out and let her crawl around the living room for 10-20 minutes a couple times over the past week; alert, interested, strong, and knows which way is up.

Is she just telling me that freezer burn might be setting in on her food?

IBD paranoid, and waiting for 2 boa mamas to give birth to litters we can't keep,
Antigone

Antigone, I wouldn't worry to much, but monitor her weight for now. The hot side of the tank can fluctuate a bit, as long as it's 85F to 100F it'll be hot enough for digestion. The important part is that the snake has access to a cool half of the enclosure. Ideally the setup has some sort of gradient inbetween both extremes so the snake can choose it's exact temperature. Do you have a temp gun? They are quite cheap and very usefull. Something overlooked when only using them though is that the surface temp can be perfect, but a chilly air temp might be bugging the snake.

Some ideas anyway; patience might be all that is necessary.

Ian

what part of the country are you in? ive had snakes go off feed in the winter even in Fla. i think its just in them to do so sometimes. you say she alert and all, thatsa good thing. id weigh her on a regular basis, and if the weight drops or shes not acting normal id get her checked out by a vet ASAP! witht he possibility of IBD around its good to stay alert, but with a ball, i wouldent freak out to quick (your stressed enough right now) take care!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

Hi

She's still acting normal, thankfully. Actually, I think that she's trying to downsize: She just shed two days ago. I'm hoping that now she can see again, she'll be hungry. I'm going to offer again on Friday.

Fingers crossed,
Antigone