Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

So both of my snakes are on hunger strike, a ball python and a brazilian rainbow boa. Both of them are 2009 editions so they're roughly 6 months old. I've always bought adult snakes in the past so this is my first time dealing with babies. I know adults will sometimes stop eating during the winter due to temperature change and breeding season, but will baby snakes do this as well? My ball python hasn't ate in 3 weeks and my BRB hasn't ate in 2 weeks. I know this isn't that long so I'm not really concerned, but rather curious. Nothing has changed in their setup and they were both great feeders who typically ate every 7 days. They refused to eat last night so I was going to leave them alone for 5 or 6 days and then try again...

You're right, a couple of weeks is not something to worry about but should keep an eye on it. Of course, first step is to re-visit your husbandry, are temps and humidity good?

What are you feeding them? How often?

I find that baby BRB's have the BEST feeding response when fed weekly, prey on the small side and live (stunned) hopper mice. By feeding smaller prey, you keep the feeding response high while still getting in the food weekly. Past a certain point, more food simply = more crap. I've kept many a baby BRB on the same weekly mouse hopper diet for a full year and more and they grow very nicely and eat darn near every single week.

A word on food size, don't get hung up on names. I was feeding some live fuzzies and hoppers last night and found some "fuzzies" that were quite plump but still did not have their eyes open that were clearly larger than some skinny hoppers from another tub. A lot depends on the available milk. Several moms and a depleted baby pile = lots of milk / baby. few moms and lots of babies = less milk / baby.

One other thing I do is occasionally skip a week, let them purge their systems and get good and hungry.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (05/26/2009):
36.51 BRB
29.42 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Right now she's in a small glass aquarium, same floor space as a ten gallon but it's only about 6 inches tall. The warm side sits at about 88 degrees and the cool side is at about 76 degrees. There are several hide spots and she spends most of her time between the hot side and the middle height spot which is usually at about 79 degrees. The ambient temperature is a little low I think, it's at about 78 degrees and drops to about 72 at night. I put her water bowl over part of the heat pad so it helps keep up humidity in addition to me misting the cage every day. So the humidity is at 80%. I have a somewhat limited selection of mice/rats in my area. I don't have any "hopper" size mice available, only pinkie, fuzzy, and then adult. I started her out on fuzzy mice and then switched her over to fuzzy sized rat pups. I wish I had my scale out so I could tell you how much they weighed since "fuzzy" and "crawler" are rather subjective terms : ) My BRB has no interest in eating at all, my ball python strikes and curls around her prey but then loses interest...

Just curious, when did your baby Brazilian last shed its skin?
-----
Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

She shed about 5-6 weeks ago. Her eyes clouded over last week so she should shed soon. Shedding has never stopped her from eating before but I'm hoping she'll eat once she sheds...