Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry,,,,I TRY to read all the archives before I post but after doing so I still have a couple questions. A little background, I've had my female snow since she was a hatchling,,,about a year and half,,,,,she's 45-48 inches,,,she's always been a great feeder, she's housed in a 20 gallon alone, she's the only snake I have. Her temps are fine, the same as always, 70's to 80's with 2 hides. She always sheds great also. She hasn't eaten now for about 7 weeks. I have tried repeatedly to offer her a mouse, dangle it in front of her, braining it first and she's not even a little bit interested. The other odd thing is that she's out ALL the time,,,,,,she wants out all the time. I go to her tank and talk to her and she comes right to the top for me to take her out. I know they can go awhile without eating but this is TOO long now. I am considering buying an anole and freezing it, but the only place I can get one quickly is Petco. So if I buy one, freeze it, then let it thaw do I just feed it to her whole like that? If she doesn't take that should I buy a live mouse and try that (keeping close supervision I know at all times, especially since she's not showing interest in food). If I do do that is buying a fancy mouse from Petco okay to feed live even though they don't have specific diets for becoming food? I have read that it's typical for MALES to do this during breeding season but a female with no male around and without having been brumated? I also heard her sneeze about 2 weeks ago, just once though. So I cranked up her heat hoping to rid her of an RI if she did indeed have one. I'm really worried now. Am I on the right track? Any thoughts/help? Thanks so much.

Sheri =o)

Try a smaller meal (small hopper) or maybe a live rat pup .Try leaving it in over night. I wouldn't do it with a live hopper, but a 2 or 3 day old rat pup would be fine.
Alan

Are you certain, 100% that she's a she and not a he?? I had two 'males' this year breed with my known male. My known male exhibited the behavior you are describing to a T, and he hadn't eaten since November!! He had his first meal out of brumation (came out in March) on May 13th. He finally accepted a newborn pinky rat on that day, and has eaten every meal since.

He just flat out wanted to breed and wasn't gonna let anything else distract him! A couple times he would fool me and constrict the food but then leave it lay and not look twice at it.

The only recommendation I could give would be to try smaller and smaller prey items. I don't think giving her (him?) a lizard is going to cure anything, they may create new problems. The one mistake I made with my male WAS not feeding smaller prey items right away. I tried small mice, then hoppers, then crawlers, finally he bit on the pinky rats. By then his 'job' was done, he bred 6 times (the limit?) to 5 different females.

Which brings me back to what I started the post with. He was a busy guy cause like I said I thought I had 3 males and 3 females, turned out I had 1 male and 5 females!!

D80

Ya know,,,,,I'm not 100% sure. The guy at the petstore told me because she was a snow that he could hold her up to the light and tell she was female. But I've been thinking "she's" acting male! I'll try and post a picture of her and see what you think, if "she" is male then that explains a lot. I will try and find smaller food tomorrow though,,,,find a pinky rat or something like it.

What do I do if he is male and doesn't get to breed? Just wait till the breeding season is over and then he'll eat again? About how long could that be? It's been 7 weeks,,,,another month or so?

Thanks again,,,

Sheri =o)

To be quite honest, I didn't get worried about my snake's not eating until he started 'looking' skinny. He went into brumation after having pigged out all fall, and came out of brumation really healthy and solid. He started looking skinny about the last week before he finally ate. That was the only time I was really worried. Of course, I knew he had his mind on other things since I was actually breeding him to females. As to how long for you to wait if you don't breed him, I don't know what to tell you other than if he looks healthy he probably is, and not to worry yet. If he(she) has been a healthy eater previous to this behavior, it? should return to feeding without a problem.

D80

Thanks SO much for the reinforcement. She/he does still seem healthy, and doesn't appear to have lost any weight. I'll definitely try smaller food, and see about sexing her to be sure.

Hopefully that'll be the end of it.

Thanks again,

Sheri =o)

carrying a load of infertile eggs. Look carefully and also run your fingers down the belly to see if you can feel "lunps" that could be egg masses. If so, give her a laying box. Even if they are infertile, she needs to get rid of them and a good nest box might help.

It is probably more likely that "she" is "he".

Good luck!

Hi Kathy,

This is what I originally thought, that she was carrying infertile eggs so I did check her but her belly is soft as ever, and flat. Not firm and no palpable "eggs", so I sort of ruled this out. But being so new to snakes I wasn't real confident with my assessment. I could just put a laying box inside with her and see if it gets used. Just really moist vermiculite right? And just right inside with her is fine? I don't think she has eggs but I'll try anything right now to make sure "she's" getting what "she" needs.

Thanks so much for your time, I know how busy you are.

Sheri =o)

I prefer to use moss in a nest box. Seems like the females often get their noses covered in vermiculite and make a real mess, but it works too.

You can put a box in, but if "she" goes into it, it doesn't prove anything. Even males like to hang out in nest boxes if they have access. Don't leave it in the cage for more than a few weeks as the damp substrate can start to grow microbes and could cause skin problems if left in for too long. Sounds like infertile eggs are probably not your problem, anyway.