Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My male still has not taken food, If you remember I got him at the Sep expo in Sacramento, Ca. Normally he is a very heavy willing eater but this is day 59 according to the program and since I feed every 7 days that means he took his last meal 65 days ago. Is it normal for them to go this long off feed? He looks healthy and fat and is not loosing weight but I just don't get it.
Foot Hill Reptiles

Just a note, We was weighed on 12/30/07 and came in at 217.50G I just did it again and he came it at 178.20G so it has gone down a little bit but the 12/30 one was right after eating and this one was no food for 65 days, His weight is still good considering right? I do not know the age but he is young, as far as looks he looks nice and fat.
Foot Hill Reptiles

How many times did he eat for you.
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I have it recorded at 5 times according to my records he did not take food for the first time until 10/6 then again on 10/26 and then not until 11/17 then 12/4 then nothing until 12/22. that was his last feeding. according to records it was not uncommon for him to take several prey items per feeding.
Foot Hill Reptiles

With the dates I would say it is probally the typical winter off feed. If he is still healthy he should eat soon. Balls can be very picky eaters as you probally already know. I have a het pied male that ate 12/28 for the last time, until then he was eating every 7 days. He is healthy just not eating. I still offer every week and looking for him to start back any day now. The only other issue would be security, how's his setup?
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His set up is 55G with one hid, a nice piece of drift wood for climbing, Large water bowl and reptile carpet through out. I thought of this, maybe its just to big. I have had other snakes go off feed after being moved to a larger enclosure however. He was in a 10G when he went off feed so I am fairly sure the huge cage now is not the problem
Foot Hill Reptiles

He has lost all sence of security. Get him back in the 10gal, wait one week, and I would be almost willing to guarentee he eats. In my opinion 55gal is WAY too big for even an adult ball python. I don't think a BP ever outgrows a 20long. If they were back in the wild they would be in a hole in the ground they could hardly fit in. They don't like a lot of room. At 200g your BP can stay in the 10g for a long time. I have 800-900g boys in a freedom breeder medium rack, the surface is much smaller than the surface of a 10g tank. Make the move and keep us posted.
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Ok I will do that right now, thanks I will post again with improvements.
Foot Hill Reptiles

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I have to agree with both the weather and the ginormous castle you gave him.
My full-size BP's always go off feed for the winter. They're just "fun" like that. I still offer food every 2-3 weeks just in case they might want to eat, but they're always the first ones in the feeding boxes because I don't bank on them eating until March/April. My reliable red tails always take the rejects from my picky BP's.
Definitely try putting him back in the little tank, that was a generous, but huge move for the guy. If you still want to upgrade him, maybe put him in a 20 long with a divider. Start with the floor space of the 10 and slowly move it out so he has a gradual move to a 20. Good luck!
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Shelter pets are best! Stop breeding designer mutts!

I move animals to diff. enclosures and they pick back up some times. Acouple of times my buddy and I switched non feeders for a couple days and presto they eat right away? Diff size enclosure, change setup, change food,even switch tubs from bottom rack to top. All have worked for me. Just my thoughts on things that worked for me. Or wait it out, this time of year surely does this I just hate it and usualy get em to eat somehow.
Casey

One thing that seems to work well for me, is to put the snake on a more natural bedding. I generaly use newspaper, but if a snake goes off food for that amount of time I switch them to aspen. I have had great success with this. Hope this helps.

Travis Whisler