Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, just to keep those of you who have been following my dilema posted, my BRB still will not eat. I am flat out of ideas.

About a week ago I moved him to a very quiet room in the house where there is no "traffic". Knowing that some smaller snakes can be stressed by a cage that is too large, I moved him to a slightly smaller cage with a hide on each end and a water dish in the middle (although, based on info from this group, I don't think the old cage was too big). The temps have been stable and the humidity has stayed very high. I left him alone for about 4 1/2 days. I tried feeding him again. Still no luck. I did peek in on him a couple of times and he was in both the warm and cool hides and I even saw him at the top of the cage exploring a couple of times.

He hasn't eaten now for about a 5 weeks. I am going to make a decision soon of what to do. I don't want to wait to long. I want to ensure that he stays healthy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Nick

Nick,
. Let's go back to the basics. Whan a snake does not eat it is either because there is something wrong with the snake or there is something wrong with how the snake is being kept and housed or there is something wrong with how or what the snake is being fed. I have never had a newborn BRB that would not start eating. It might be time to take the snake to a vet but make sure you know that the vet has lots of reptile experience. Most vets are not even going to be able to identify your snake, much less diagnose and treat a problem. I would keep offering small adult live mice every couple of days. I bought a pair of 3/4 Diamond Pythons at the Daytona show in August. They were hatched several weeks before the show and had not eaten. One ate as soon as I got them home. The other refused to eat. I kept trying different tricks to get it to eat including offering a small live adult mouse in it's cage every couple of days. In early october it killed but did not eat small mice a couple of times and then around mid october it ate one. By that time it had not eaten anything and was over 2 months old and had lost considerable weight and I was JUST starting to worry about it. It now eats one or two small live mice a week and is growing quickly. If your snake is healthy and has not lost too much weight there is still time to get it to eat. Whan I used to breed Jungle Carpet Pythons most of them would start feeding with no problem but a few would not eat anything but live anoles and a few would not even eat them. I tried different methods over several years with the difficult feeders. I even resorted to force feeding a few of them. About half that I force fed eventually began eating on their own and about half eventually died. IMO force feeding is a very last resort method. Go back and relook at all the basics.
Jeff

>>Well, just to keep those of you who have been following my dilema posted, my BRB still will not eat. I am flat out of ideas.
>>
>>About a week ago I moved him to a very quiet room in the house where there is no "traffic". Knowing that some smaller snakes can be stressed by a cage that is too large, I moved him to a slightly smaller cage with a hide on each end and a water dish in the middle (although, based on info from this group, I don't think the old cage was too big). The temps have been stable and the humidity has stayed very high. I left him alone for about 4 1/2 days. I tried feeding him again. Still no luck. I did peek in on him a couple of times and he was in both the warm and cool hides and I even saw him at the top of the cage exploring a couple of times.
>>
>>He hasn't eaten now for about a 5 weeks. I am going to make a decision soon of what to do. I don't want to wait to long. I want to ensure that he stays healthy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>Nick