Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and fairly new to snakes. I have a pueblan that I got at a Reptile Expo in White Plains, NY, 2 months ago. She's been doing great until now. She refused to eat for the first time. Last week I just switched from 2 pinkies to a fuzzy, which she had no problem with. This week she would not eat at all. She tasted and smell the fuzzy that was it. I even placed a towel covering the feeding tank to make her more comfortable, but still nothing. BTW, she's about 18" and a pointer finger in thickness.

The only correlation I can come up with is that she just shed the night before and I handled her before feeding as I always do. Would a recent shed have anything to do with this?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. TIA.

This is normal during molting.

Judging by the time frame, it's due....

After you find the shed skin in the tank your snake will REALLY want to eat.

Make sure you have a rough surface for the snake to rub against, it may take a day or two before the shed happens.

If the eyes look cloudy, that's a sure sign of molting (Shed time)

Good luck,

Wayne A. Harvey

Some of our snakes - Click here

Oh man, sorry, I should have read the entire post.

She will come around, Sometimes mine will wait a day or two, but usually wants food very soon after shedding.

Take care,
Wayne A. Harvey

Yeah, it is the shed.

As the snake becomes an adult, you may see times when he/she is not feeding. Shedding, time of year, light cycle, breeding season, etc may bring about slightly different behaviors, and food may not be a priority. This is normal.

I'll even go a step further.. to expect a snake to feed every week like clockwork is a human thing. All of us keepers at some point erroneously expected this from our captives. Try to look at it from the standpoint of the snake. Every 5 or 7 days or pinky vs fuzzy means nothing to the snake. When hungry, the snake will eat if temperatures support that behavior. If in a shed or just after, the snake may not want to. If it is Winter and the light cycle suggests so, the snake may choose to not feed.

Just because you or I expect our snakes to follow some human schedule of 1 week does not mean the snake will do the same thing. Given the right temps and the right time of year, they will feed every day if offered. They will gorge sometimes if given the opportunity and conserve sometimes by choosing lower temps.
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Mark

Thank you both for your quick replies and thanks MARKG for elaborating a step further into the snakes typical behavior. I tried again 2 days later and he did eat!