Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 11 footer has ended his annual winter fast. But this year, he fasted longer than usual. I've had this snake for about three and a half years, and every fall he shuts down his feeding mode. Never had a RI, never been aggressive. He just simply refuses food for a few months. It usually lasts from October/November to March. But this year, he didn't eat from September until this past Saturday. We moved in October, and he got an entirely new environment. He went from an eight foot Neodesha cage to a python condo -- 12 feet long, 8 feet high, 3 feet wide. New substrate, new heating, the whole bit. I think that may have initiated his fast a little earlier as well. But he shed normally through the winter. I can't remember if he shed from September to December (I want to think he shed once, but I can't remember), but he did shed in January and again in March. Took me a few weeks to find a rabbit (long story but I've got a steady supply again), but I located one this weekend and he gobbled it up immediately. Can't tell you how happy that made me. He looks good with that lump in his belly.

Anybody else have snakes that fast during the cooler months? Murray is a garbage gut for 6-8 months of the year, eating everything I can give him. But that changes when the temperature dips. Interesting behavior.

RP

My burm did the same thing this year. I was worried but since he never lost weight and seemed okay otherwise I did not take him to the vet. He fasted from December until March. We had been feeding him jumbo rats until the fast. We tried a rabbit since he has gotten his appetite back but he showed no interest...Guess we will keep trying. I'll have to get more rats...

Nice, my Boa went off feeding, i didnt really pay attention to what month,but finally about a month ago he took 1 f/t medium rat, then wouldnt do anything for another 3 weeks and finally ate again a big ol rat, i know what ya mean, it makes you feel very good when they start eating...btw mine went off feeding for alll winter, i didnt worry but i wanted him to eat badly, now im waiting for this shed to be done with and ill feed him again

>>My 11 footer has ended his annual winter fast. But this year, he fasted longer than usual. I've had this snake for about three and a half years, and every fall he shuts down his feeding mode. Never had a RI, never been aggressive. He just simply refuses food for a few months. It usually lasts from October/November to March. But this year, he didn't eat from September until this past Saturday. We moved in October, and he got an entirely new environment. He went from an eight foot Neodesha cage to a python condo -- 12 feet long, 8 feet high, 3 feet wide. New substrate, new heating, the whole bit. I think that may have initiated his fast a little earlier as well. But he shed normally through the winter. I can't remember if he shed from September to December (I want to think he shed once, but I can't remember), but he did shed in January and again in March. Took me a few weeks to find a rabbit (long story but I've got a steady supply again), but I located one this weekend and he gobbled it up immediately. Can't tell you how happy that made me. He looks good with that lump in his belly.
>>
>>Anybody else have snakes that fast during the cooler months? Murray is a garbage gut for 6-8 months of the year, eating everything I can give him. But that changes when the temperature dips. Interesting behavior.
>>
>>RP
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Believe in yourself and your abilities and you can accomplish anything.

I would love to post a photo of Murray and his home. The cage is far and away more interesting than Murray -- he's just a plain jane 11 foot, 60 pound Burmese. But he's incredibly tame and a wonderful representative of the reptile community. I do presentations with him for work, and last week, I did nine presentations over two days for over 500 middle schoolers. He let every one of them come by and pet him when each presentation ended. And this was after a six month fast. He's a pretty cool snake. Anyways, I don't know how to post photos on this message board. Maybe I can email them to you or someone else, and they can get posted that way.

RP

It's relatively easy. At the top of any kingsnake page there is a cluster of page links from "classifieds" to "Forum boards", etc. Go to the one that says "Photo Gallery" and then to "Upload Photos". Once you are in there you will click on "Browse" and find the picture files in your own computer files. The rest should be fairly self explanatory. Good luck.

And by the way,.. there are a LOT of folks here, including myself, that actually prefer a normal old run of the mill burmese. To them and me they are the furthest thing from ordinary. I'm going to get some just for pet purposes once my breeding projects are all running smoothly and the main weight of the building of my business is out of the way.

>>I would love to post a photo of Murray and his home. The cage is far and away more interesting than Murray -- he's just a plain jane 11 foot, 60 pound Burmese. But he's incredibly tame and a wonderful representative of the reptile community. I do presentations with him for work, and last week, I did nine presentations over two days for over 500 middle schoolers. He let every one of them come by and pet him when each presentation ended. And this was after a six month fast. He's a pretty cool snake. Anyways, I don't know how to post photos on this message board. Maybe I can email them to you or someone else, and they can get posted that way.
>>
>>RP
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Believe in yourself and your abilities and you can accomplish anything.

I'll take some photos this afternoon and try to have them posted later today. As far as my preferences for Burmese go, I prefer normals and albinos. I don't care much for the other morphs out there. I wouldn't turn one down if the price was right, but I don't think I'd pay market price for one. I'm the same way with reticulated pythons. I much prefer the normals and the albinos to the others. Normal Burmese and normal retics are among the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen. Some of these high dollar morphs are, well, just plain unattractive to me.

RP