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Hey guys

My 4 yr old breeder male black pine stopped eating for breeding... has already mated ( 2 1/2 months ago ) and will not eat currently. This is the longest he has gone without eating and he is losing weight. He usually eats small rats, i switched to mice... live and dead but no luck. He has Florida temps ( 80's day 70's night )

Any advice?

Thanks

Tom

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Safari Tom
See'em Touch'em Save'em

1.1 Black Pines
1.0 Snow bull
0.1 Albino Bull
1.2 Kingsville/Stillwaters
1.1 Whitesided Bulls
0.0.1 Cape Gopher
1.0 Normal Honduran het for albino
0.1 Anerythristic Honduran Het albino/anery
0.1 Tangerine Honduran
Signature edited

A slight weight loss after 2 months is ok unless he's really showing it I agree with your idea of trying a smaller meal first but if that doesn't work you might try a live offering to peak his interest.

I just had an adult Baird's Rat male come back on feed after 90 days! He had lost a fair bit of weight too but was still nice and healthy, just lean.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Tom, try moving him away from all females. Sometimes it just takes them a while. I agree to try live prey to see if that interests him.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

Thanks Guys and Girls

I actually have a massive sectioned cage that I keep him and the female in. Ill post some pics later... but when season hits I mist them and he goes NUTS, he knows the females cage is just below him... he really goes haywire trying to get out of his cage and into hers... If I open his cage door he will try to get into her cage - its the funniest thing to witness... that cage system is in my detached garage in the rear of my property.. I have since brought him into the house for about 5 days.

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Safari Tom
See'em Touch'em Save'em

1.1 Black Pines
1.0 Snow bull
0.1 Albino Bull
1.2 Kingsville/Stillwaters
1.1 Whitesided Bulls
0.0.1 Cape Gopher
1.0 Normal Honduran het for albino
0.1 Anerythristic Honduran Het albino/anery
0.1 Tangerine Honduran
Signature edited

This behaviour is actually quite normal for Black Pines, especially males. One adult male I owned during the mid '90s went on and off food for weeks or sometimes even months, for no obvious reason other than that he simply wasn't hungry. Maybe he just wanted to loose weight, who knows? However, you may want to try something entirely new, like chicks. It worked in this case.
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I'm Dutch. Somebody shoot me.

If he is really losing too much weight you could maybe try a short brumation period, like pop him into a wine cooler for a few weeks (being in Florida, a way to have cool temps), and see if that doesn't reset his feeding response. Since this is almost August it is kind of the wrong time for brumation; just a thought if he is getting scrawny. At least at cooler temps his metabolism will slow and he wont keep losing weight so fast.

throw him a bird...chicken or quail of appropiate size.....

Live chicks work great when they go off feed.