Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I'm new here, seeking advice. We've had the western ribbon snake for about 6 months and he has always been a voracious eater, 3-5 fish a day. But suddenly he has stopped eating and hasn't eaten for almost two weeks. I think he is full-grown (almost 3 ft long) and he has shed 3 times in the 6 months we've had him. Most recently a week ago. After previous sheds he was ravenous and ate lots of fish, this time nothing. The weather has been very hot, do ribbons slow down in summer heat? I have seen some references to a vitamin deficiency that could result from exclusive fish diet. What are the symptoms? Could this be his problem? And if so, what to do about it? He was never interested in anything but fish, should I try again with worms or crickets?

Unlike other Garters, Ribbon Snakes are not known to eat worms. I believe if he has stopped eating fish it is because of some other reason than diet. I have never seen a case of the thiamine deficiency but I understand it manifests in neurological type symptoms and not simply loss of apetite. Your snake might be responding to some type of emvironmental change. It may have some pathological reason. Snakes fed on whole fish sometimes get internal parasites. Some snakes stop eating as fall aproaches due to an internal instinct. I have never kept a Western Ribbon but I do have an Eastern Ribbon among my Thamnophis collection. My Ribbon sometimes stops eating for several weeks at a time and then starts up again. I feed my Ribbon frozen/thawed pinkies scented with fish once a week.

Try to evaluate his environment for any changes you may not have recognised before and keep offering food on a regular basis. If he has stopped eating you can offer food once a week or so instead of daily.

Randy

We jsut gave our Western Ribbon snake up for adoption but he did something very similar. We feed him F/T pinkies and for a few weeks he did not eat. I was worried he was sick and separated him from the other snakes. About a week later he ate some fish and then a pinkie without any hesitation. He seemed perfectly fine otherwise and was acting normally the whole time. I suspect your guy will start to eat soon.
Joanna

Snake hadn't eaten in more than three weeks, finally ate two fish today. I put a small dish of water just outside his hidey-hole and put a fish in it. An hour later the fish was gone so I put another one in it, and soon that one was gone too. Several days ago, I took Snake to a vet to see if maybe it was sick or had parasites or something, but the vet said the snake appeared to be healthy. The Dr did tell me about the dangers of single-species diet but there is not much to be done about it, there is not much variety that is readily available. Said they have the same problem at the Zoo with all fish-eating critters. Anyway, I wonder is there a way to "gut-load" the fish before feeding them to the snake? Super vitamin-fortified fish food?