Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm just curious to see how many others have snakes that have gone a while without eating. I still have my Pastel (the one I posted about earlier) who I'm going home to feed tonight. He's about 3 months old and has only eaten once for me by assist feeding. I'm pretty concerned so I'm wondering how long others have had this occur for and pull through from it okay, although I know that with older snakes it's different than when a hatchling does it.
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Danne
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1.0 '07 BRB "Monroe"
1.0 '08 BRB 66% het Anery "Ace"
1.0 '08 Pastel BP "Sebastian"
1.1 Leos "Bowser & Peach"
0.2 Dumbo (non-feeder) rats "Josie & Holly"

Email = dshoback@eden.rutgers.edu

If he is 3 months old and has only eaten once you need to be assist feeding weekly. Adult ball pythons can go a very long time without food (my longest was 15 months), but babies need regular meals. What have you been trying to feed him?
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John Vandegrift

I'm going home to feed him again tonight, I've been doing pinkies since he spits out anything bigger but the pinky got stuck in his teeth much better and he swallows them by accident. I got a suggestion from someone to put in more mice while he's swallowing the first one so I'll try that tonight.
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Danne
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1.0 '07 BRB "Monroe"
1.0 '08 BRB 66% het Anery "Ace"
1.0 '08 Pastel BP "Sebastian"
1.1 Leos "Bowser & Peach"
0.2 Dumbo (non-feeder) rats "Josie & Holly"

Email = dshoback@eden.rutgers.edu

becareful not to spoke him....when the back end of the pink reaches the throat start putting the other rodent prefferably hopper let the snake think its a whole mouse he has..it should work with ez..let us know what happens...
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BRIAN FONTAINE
EXOTIC CONSTRICTOR REPTILE'S

I meant what are you offering him when trying to feed him without assist feeding?
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John Vandegrift

I had a 1500 gram male go for 10 months.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

I've got one male right now who weighed in at 2850 grams before his current "hunger strike". He is now entering his 17th month without food and has only lost about 150 grams.

Do I like this? Heck no! I offer him food every other week and will switch it up on occasion just to see if something else will entice him to eat. The thing is, he was my garbage disposal for so long and then one day, bam! - he decided not to eat anymore... like someone threw a switch. Nothing changed about his tub, not the substrate, the temps, a new hide... nothing.

The only thing I can even begin to imagine is that his "clock" is off somehow. (Bear with me here) It seems that most of my snakes will go off feed for their first time around 900-1200 grams. Usually this is in their second winter. Now this male on the other hand, never went off feed, in fact, the older he got the more he ate and the more aggressive he became about striking his prey. This is actually his first fast and he is a 2001 hatchling. I've never fed him live so I know that he wasn't spooked by a rat attacking him... he just decided he wasn't hungry. I try to keep everything as calm and as routine as possible for him I figure sooner or later he'll come around.

Wow, so they really can go for over a year without eating (I guess the guys at Petco don't lie, hahaha just kidding). That sounds crazy, I hope he picks up again for you but as long as he isn't loosing that much weight it shouldn't be the end of the world.

Anyways, I fed my guy again last night. He's looking duller which alarms me, but maybe it's because he hasn't shed in so long. I got him to take a pinky on assist feeding but couldn't get the other one without noticing, he's really head-shy and hates when you touch him (and I guess I wasn't subtle enough). I didn't want to push it and force feed him twice in one sitting because if he gets really stressed and regurges it's probably the end of him. So I guess I'll just go again next week and try to squeeze in another then.

Also as for what he's refused before, basically everything, frozen, live fuzzies and pinkies, scented, left in cage over night, etc.
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Danne
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1.0 '07 BRB "Monroe"
1.0 '08 BRB 66% het Anery "Ace"
1.0 '08 Pastel BP "Sebastian"
1.1 Leos "Bowser & Peach"
0.2 Dumbo (non-feeder) rats "Josie & Holly"

Email = dshoback@eden.rutgers.edu

Try a live hopper mouse. Sometimes the extra movement from a hopper triggers them to eat.
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John Vandegrift

nobody mentioned this but double check your set up and your husbandry! That is quite possibly where the problem lies. If your temps are off or there isn't secure enough hiding a lot of times they don't eat. Just a thought.