Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had two male JCPs housed together for almost two years now. The bigger of the two is just over 4 ft and has not eaten for 3 weeks now. The smaller one still eats like clockwork just like the bigger one used to. Does anyone have any ideas and/or suggestions as to why he would not eat lately?

I am no expert by any means but I have a male corn snake that wouldn't eat for like a month. Most of my replies were "probably wants a mate". He also crused his tank for a way out 24/7. It's been a few weeks now and he is back to normal eating and shedding like snakes do.
I'm replying becasue I have a JCP but mine is housed by herself since she is my only one. I was thinking the one that doesn't want to eat may want a mate or start to hybernate? All snakes are different just like people. You could try to seperate them.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Hopefull you'll get another answer then my thoughts. Good luck.

together. I prefer as much as possible to keep all of my animals in separate enclosures for husbandry issues (feeding problems, dominant animal stresses the less dominant, health issues etc..). In addition, as carpet python males are of breeding age (2 years is about right) they may start to battle each other and this could be the reason for the eating problem. The more dominant animal may be stressing out the less dominant. It is not always a size issue that will determine who is more dominant, sometimes it is about attitude. I would definately try to separate them. Finally, with the cooler weather starting to come in most parts of the country the males will go into breeding mode and may stop eating for a while. Sooooo (Sorry for the long post), I would separate the two males, I would make sure the temp's in the enclosure are warm enough to allow proper digestion of any food, and then I would offer prey items. Even if you plan NOT to breed the animals you still may want to cycle them to get them to go back onto a regular feeding regime. I would wait until late October/early November to cool them down for a few weeks (4-6). I do not feed my animals for at least a few weeks (2-4) prior to cooling to let all food to be passed through their system. I would allow the night time lows to go into the lower 70's (72-74) for maybe 12 hours per day, and bring the day time high's into the low 80's (80-84). After this cooling period I would bring them back to normal temperatures and offer them food again. I have found that if my carpets go off feed in the fall and I don't plan on breeding them this cycling usually gets them back on a feeding schedule again. Good luck and keep us posted.