Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have owned ball pythons for 3 years now. I currently own 11 of them and I am having some issues with them. Currently, all of my snakes have no interest in feeding at all. I know of winter feeding problems as I have experienced them before, but I don't think this is the issue. Even my most consistent eaters are looking at their food as if its a rock or something. They have absolutely no motivation to eat and don't even seem to recognize their food as food. I have not changed my supplier for food in over two years. All of my snakes are in 41qt racks with belly heat, a constant supply of water and individual hides. I keep an oil filled heater in their closet keeping the area at an ambient of around 80-82 F. What the heck is going on? Any ideas? Some of them haven't eaten in 3-4 months and are losing weight.

After 3 yrs I would think you are probably in tune to what your snakes feeding habits are. I have many more and some are still eating like there is no tomorrow and some have not wanted to eat for a month or two now and still others are just spuratic feeders. If its not just due to breeding season I would try upping your room temp maybe 3 or 4 degrees for a while and see if that stimulates their appetites. Thats the best idea I can come up with.
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JEMreptiles@gmail.com from sunny AZ.

Lots of cool Ball Pythons along with
0.0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty and some great Bull snakes.
1.1 Argentinian Black and White Tegus
1.0 Gotti Pitbull (Tank)
2.0 Beautiful Bengals (Stryker and Cynbad)
12 Tarantulas
Last but most Important 2.2 Children

I bumped up the cage temperatures a few degrees. Hopefully this will help them get back on track, as I am at my wits end with them.

why I fed live always....and they still stop when they want to...
I also had lots stuck on gerbils and hamsters and peromyscus or africans....eat what they want ....not what we want...

you have them lighted at all?....
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........JY

I would feed live, but a supply of live food would be ~3x more expensive than what I am paying now, which is a tough one to swallow. I was just buying into the whole feed them what they want to eat concept, and now everything has gone haywire. I have them on a natural light cycle (the closet that I have them in is in has a large window). I just paired them up male and female, minus one male that is still riding solo. Hopefully this will knock them out of their funk.

what are their weights? Are you breeding them?

I have had a couple females that hit 1000-1200 g and then stopped eating. After 3 months I couldn't get them interested if food. Finally, I threw a male in with them. After they bred, the were voracious eaters and would eat anything in site. After they quickly gained another 400-500 they slowed down a bit and one of them just ovulated.

Maybe they just want to sow their oats...

The problem I have with putting them in together to breed is that I only have 2 females that are breeding size. All the males are currently of breeding size though. I have 6 boys and 5 girls, should I just pair them up as best I can and see if it settles them down a bit? Maybe a little bump and grind will get them back into feeding mode. I am also considering going to get some live mice/rats and doing some monitored feedings. I haven't fed live in a very long time so I am somewhat apprehensive. Maybe feeding live will spark their interest to get back on the feeding train. Thanks for the suggestions.

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