Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I have what most people believe to be a red-eyed leusistic Texas Rat. I bought it a little over 2 years ago because it was being mistreated. Covered in mites, it had a reaction to Prevent-a-Mite and almost died. After 2 visits to the vet it started to liven up. His head also had scale damage and his tail was chopped off at some time. Anyway, that was 2 years ago. Since then he has been eating 1 adult mouse every week. I have always assumed that this snake is an older snake because it barely ever shed. Once every 6 months or so it would shed.

Now, this year brought on something new. First, he started refusing food in January. He refused for 3 weeks. He then started to eat in Feb. In the beginning of March he started to refuse again and I noticed he was bluish and goling into shed.

So, on 3/13/3 he shed and I also noticed something interesting. He lifted his tail up against the glass of his cage and I noticed something pinkish coming from his anal plate, I then watched as 2 pearlish streams of fluid ran down the side of the cage. Ah, this led me to believe that he is a male.

Now, on 3/193/03, 3/24, 3/31, 4/07, 4/14 he ate.

On 4/21 he started to refuse again.

On 4/24 he shed again. I never realized this until he was actually shedding. I never expected him to shed within a month of the last shed. He NEVER shed this quickly after another.

On 5/05 he ate one mouse. And now he has refused every week since then.

Could he be dying from old age on me? His head is almost healed back to normal and his tail in over 2 years has slowly started to come to a point again and heal. I am not sure what is going on with this snake but I do know that a Rat Snake should be eating at this time of year. I have left the mice in his cage until the next morning (I feed frozen/thawed) and he still won't eat. Sometimes he'll lay all over the mice.

Any help or opinions as to what is going on would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Greg Hake

His strength seems to be fine, I had him out just last week and he is still lifting straight up to the ceiling and a good 3ft or more of him is in the air.

He is appr. 4 feet long.

I do not have scales to weigh him but he doesn't visually look any skinnier than he ever has.

His temps are 80-85 on the warm side and 70 on the cool. I have a basking light for heat and at times I will turn on his undertank heater if needed but at this time of year it isn't needed.

I have him in my finished basement. This means that he doesn't get much natural day light, but hopefully the ZooMed bulbs are providing the UV that they claim they do. Lights are on for 13 ours right now and I may increase that to 14. I try to make it the same as the sunrise and sunset.

Thanks

I wonder if his lack of sheds for so long was hard recovery from before conditions? Otherwise his eating pattern is following a sorta normal spring male thing. If you are truly worried you could try a live rat fuzzy or so. NOT something with eyes open that would bite him but something big enough to be worth it. See if he goes for that. Or you could try a fresh killed and see how he does. I think there is something to the supposition that in the spring some snakes look for smaller prey as that is what they would normally find. Don't know. I would try not to panic. Get a scale if you can, for no other reason than to settle your mind that he isn't losing weight.
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Sonya

Thanks for the reply. I will try something smaller. When he started recoverying from his first initial illness 2 years ago, I gave him 2 live pinky rats. Maybe I will give that a try again.

Thanks again,

Greg
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Gregory S. Hake