Reptile & Amphibian Forums

while i was typing a reply to another topic,i was watching one of my snakes.one of my chondos will absolutly,never eat during the day,or when anyone is watching him,forget about me holding the mouse.i have to place the mouse on his feeding platform,turn off the lights,and move away from the cage and watch from a distance.its weird because youd assume he is skitish and scared but hes actually the most calm and handleable of all my snakes.anyway,for the past 3 days he has been acting really weird.i introduce his food,back away and watch him from my computer.he shows a lot of interest in the food,goes for it right away but all he does is tap it with his nose from all directions while smelling it.hell do this for a couple min,go back to his perch and a few min later,hell do it all over again.it seems that he really wants it but never actually tries to eat it.hes only checking it out and will do it all night if i dont remove the food eventually.hes done this for 3 nights in a row.no real question here,not worried just thought it was interesting and wondering if anyone else has a chondro that does this often?none of my chondros has ever done this before including him untill these past three days.

You know mine will do that same thing just before their getting ready to shed

hmmmm... that is weird... i wonder if it is possable he has an inflamed tooth???
you might try opening his mough and check for and swelling...

i have never had this happen before, but heck they are Chondros, so who knows...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

Is it possible it's just a male going off food periodically? He's certainly old enough.
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1~Green tree python~Tempest
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

naw,its not the same one i have been writing about meg,its another one of mine thats exactly a year old.as far as going off feed,mine that have done that show no interest in food,this guy couldnt show anymore interest.he actually nudges it with his nose and moves it around.seems like hes playing with it.he is due for a shed but the mouth problem deserves some thought too,i didnt think about that,but i havnt notived anything.ill take a better look in the morning.based on what i have watched,it seems that he would play with it all night while taking a couple min breaks inbetween.like i said this has gone on for three nights now.last night it went on for almost 2 hours before i just pulled it out.5 min playing with it,back to the top perch for 5 min and then comes back and plays with it for 5 min.over and over if i dont stop him.it begins as soon as i put the food in.he makes a straight run right at it and begins nudging it as if trying to wake it up.it really is funny to watch.i have never seen a chondro act like this before.some of my snakes have maybe nudged once and decided they didnt want to eat but this guy is like obsessing over it and is nudging and inspecting it from every angle.i raised this one from a neonate and he always was a good eater.i believe he was born last july.its kinda funny to watch.it seems like id assume one would act if i changed food source and he is unable to determine if it is food.the problem is,its an african pygmy mouse and i have been feeding some stage of this mouse his whole live.he knows what it is.could it be giving off a strange smell?like an unusual smell?i breed my own so i dont understand how it could be different from what he ate last week.

Well, if it doesn't seem to be a problem with his mouth, then maybe you should just wait and try feeding him again next week. At least with corns, if you offer too often, a lot of times they'll just not eat. If you wait a week or two, it sometimes stimulates their appetite. Either that, or a vet trip.....
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1~Green tree python~Tempest
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

They can do some strange things. This guy is spoiled lol He will only eat fresh killed mice(Rats stink lol)they have to be washed and to top it off the whiskers have to be trimmed off as they tickle!! If he wasn't such a calm, great looking boy I'd have to kick him to the curb lol. He will often nudge his food before eating or refusing and set an all time record last month for holding his food in his coils before eating of 2 hours and 7 mins. Ah he is a cool snake and knows he's my favorite. Randy

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I don't care if the glass is half full or half empty !
I just want the full glass I paid for !

yea im not considering any medical problems or vet visits just yet,and yea i agree that if hes not interested that you should wait a few days but it was just so strange,out of curiosity i had to see if he would keep doing it.ravansgait,thats funny about your snake coiling for hours before eating.one of mine went through a weird stage that lasted a month where he wouldnt even coil at all believe it or not.he would coil to kill it,then right away hang straight down from the perch and use his teeth to slowly get the mouse down.he was struggling to get a hold of it but wouldnt use his coils to hold it at all.its kinda hard to explain but his whole body was hanging straight upsidedown,he was holding on by the tip of his tail and would just inhale the mouse without using his body at all.

ya... if he is showing intrest in it then you should be fine... i would only be worried if he bites down and quickly lets go...

maybe you should out a few toys in their since he likes to play and tell him he is not allowed to play with his food... lol

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

That behavior reminds me of when I used to feed my finicky ball pythons years ago. It drove me mad!

never owned one but i remember years ago when i first got into reptiles,they had such a crazy reputation for never eating and a lot starved to death,at least was the reputation i heard.im assuming due to wild caughts not acclimating or whatever.anyway,like i said i never got into them but i have seen another recent explosion in their popularity,im wondering if they ever solved the eating problems or are they,even as captive bred, still very hard to get eating.kinda off topic but i have recently been wondering about that.

i cant speak for all ball pythons but i can tell you what my experience is i back when i first started with reptiles got a wildcaught ball python the snake was docile but would stay in a ball as long as humans were near her and didnt want to eat anything half the time but what i have noticed nowadays with more and more people breeding captive breds and me now owning 3 captive breds that the feeding response is really good infact 2 out of my 3 eat frozen/thawed but some captive breds are still a pain in the butt to get to eat and thats they way my number 3 ball python is he has a great feeding response but i just cant get him to take a frozen/thawed

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kevin
1.1 redtails
0.1 green anacondas
1.1 yellow anacondas
1.1 brazilian rainbow boas
1.1 solomon islands ground boas
1.1 kenyan sand boas
1.1 dumerils boas
1.1 amazon tree boas
1.1 riverside rosy boas
1.1 burmese pythons
1.1 reticulated pythons
1.1 african rock pythons
1.1 blood pythons
0.1 childrens pythons
1.2 ball pythons
1.1 rough scaled sand boas
1.1 calabar burrowing pythons
0.1 biak green tree python
1.0 timor monitor
1.1 bearded dragons
0.1 savannah monitor
1.0 short haired fox terrier
0.1 beautiful woman
and more to come

in my experience with the 35 bp's i have each bp is different just like any other species of snake. I think the majority of feeding problems now-a-days either revolves around wild caught animals or snakes just not eating/growing fast enough for the person wanting to make a quick buck in this business. Everyone wants their males to breed at 8 months and females to breed before they are 2 yrs. I'd say at least 80% of all males need to be at least 1.5yrs and 90% of females 2.5yrs. Of course someone breeds a 1200gm 1.5 yr old female and a 6 month old 400 gm male and the new commers think all should breed at those ages and weights, it just don't work that way normally. I myself had 5 04 females that were on there way to breeding at less than 2 yrs but guess what, they knew they were eating too much and now only one has continued to grow and eat on a weekly basis. If my females get to breeding size in 2.5 yrs than I think they are growing at a great pace. If they haven't hit breeding size in 3.5 yrs they are sold or just kept as pets. BTW the longest fast i've had is from a captive born female that was 2300gm in Nov 2001, she didn't eat until Mar 2003 at a weight of 1950 gm. In 16 months without eating she only lost 350 gm. Of course I didn't breed her in 2001 or 2002, but in 2003 she produced 9 perfect eggs. Ok that was long and in the wrong forum but I didn't bring the topic up, lol. and oh yeah, I want a chondro sooooooo bad, Josh Hutto

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2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, gulf coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(gulf coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (gulf coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!