Just curious....but how long can a snake go without eating before it become detrimental to its health??? This is something that I have thought about over the years as I had a number of reluctant feeders...
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FEEDING: How Long can a Blood Python go without eating....?
Alan
Jan 24, 2004 09:29 AM
Replies (2)
googo151
Jan 24, 2004 01:20 PM
Hey,
Recalcitrant feeders if in good health, and also taking into account the age of the animal or animals, can go for long periods without food. Young animals in the 1-5 month range can go for about 1-2 months with out food before you start seeing any negative effects from the lack of food. Older animals in the range of 6-12 months can go for longer periods - about 3-4 months of age. However, you must remember that this is in no way written in stone and some animals can have different reactions to fasting than others their own age.
Older animals several years older, can go for longer periods without food; especially if they are nice and fat when they go on a hunger strike; 6-12 months without food (time can vary from animal to animal). Again, the time line given is not a factoid given out of personal (imperical) experience, but rather, drawn from others experiences with animals that have under gone periods of starvation before they have started to regain interest in food again.
Wild caught animals are more prone to go off food than cbb animals, and will sometimes starve them selves to death if left to their own devices. So a choice of different foods must be experimented with to find the right food item that will kick start a starving animal to feed or regain interest.
Animals that are either starving or showing little interest in food or eating should at some point be taken to a vet for a check up and given a full work up, to check for parasites and other pathogens that can trigger starvation in captive animals; especially wild caught ones.
-Angel
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Sometimes on your way to your dream, you get lost and find a better way!
googo151
Jan 24, 2004 01:48 PM
Just a correction to the above post.
Older animals in the range of 6-12 months of age, can go 3-4 months without food before you start seeing negative effects.
- Angel
-----
Sometimes on your way to your dream, you get lost and find a better way!
