Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had this 4 year old python for almost a year now. I purchased her at a reptile convention last Summer. The guy I purchased her from, informed me that she eats f/t rats.........not mice, from good food switching techniques. She was such a nice feeder until last late November. She hasn't ate a thing since??? I have bought both live mice and rats for the past 3 weeks to no avail. I ended up feeding the rats/mice to an Indian python and my other carpets. I even dipped the f/t rats in chicken soup with no luck. I sprayed her cage and tried feeding. I "poked" at her to uncoil and face prey, and no feeding; just lunges at the prey that looked more like defense then feeding behavior????
Is there any other methods anyone can offer? I have her in a nice sized Vision cage with newspaper for a substrate. She coils into a ball and never realy moves around like she use to when I first got her. The strange thing is, she is still very strong and can still strangle me to suffication despite her not feeding ( she is around 5 feet long). She went finished a long, 2-3 month shed about 2 weeks ago and I had hopes she would begin feeding again..............A similar thing happened to my Jungle carpet. The carpet didn't eat for 3 months, shed its skin and went back to its normal aggressive feeding habits??? Anyways, as you can see, I'm out of ideas. Any others would be appreciated.........Thank you!

I had a problem with a hatchling I got from a breeder, the snake would not take anything for 2 months. Then I got an email from a guy and he said to get a cup of the hottest water I could get and dip the thawed prey in it and tap the snake with it. Well after a couple taps it workek and he eats like a pig now. I dont know if it will help with an adult snake but it is worth a try. good Luck. (not boiling water just the hottest you can get from the tap)

Whats your heat temps in the cage?

Have you checked her for a RI? Have you checked her for mouth rot? Does her mouth seem more slimy or anything like that?

Has she shared her cage with a male recently?

Darci
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Takes all kinds to make a World...

Darci,

I would have to take an exact check of the temp. and get back to you. She is in the snake room of the farm/zoo I work at. The room stays a nice 80-85 during the day and drops around 70 at night. She has an incandescent(spot bulb) on her Vision cage.
She did have very minor mouth rub months ago from rubing against the front of her old cage. I had her in a large slide rack system with my other carpets; the rack holds large sterilite tubs. Our vet is lead researcher at Tufts Univ. that specializes exclusively on exotics. He looked at her and said that everything was fine and she healed completely well. However, soon after is when she stopped feeding.
She has not been in a cage with any males, nor any snakes. All my snakes are kept singly. Any ideas???

Well, her temps wouldn't be too low if the room temps are that warm. And if you have had her checked out then she's probably not suffering from mouth rot or a respitory infection.

My thoughts are she might be in 'breeding' mode, or something else might be triggering her to fast. The breeding season starts in October-November and goes till April-May, sometimes longer depending. So maybe wait the month out and then offer her food again.

Darci
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Takes all kinds to make a World...