Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a 7 foot male, approximately 3-4 years old. i'm pretty sure its a male. he had sperm plugs in one of his sheds a while back.

he has refused food since september. so i stoped offering it to him. he has been very restless wanting out so i'm figuring he is looking for a mate.

i talked with someone who suggested cooling him at night for a while then warming him back up to see if that would intise him to eat again. so i turned off his red night time light. i have an UTH on his 80 gallon tank. a basking light for day time heat. that gets into the 80's but the night time temp gets to what ever our room temp is since i turned off his red heat light. sometimes as low as 70 degrees. is that to low for night? will he get a resp infection eventually? he is in good health and usually eats great for me. f/t jumbo rat. but he is looking a little thin now. i just want him to eat again. when he does eat again will he still take to rats or will i have to start him on mice? i sure hope i won't have to do that.

this is a photo of him before he went on a hunger strike. he looks a little thinner now then in the photo. also i do let him out once in a while when he is constantly rubbing his face on the screen lid. he is spending alot of his time on his branches or under his heat light.

thanks for any replies.

anyway you can increase the temperature under the basking light to about 90 degrees? I like to give mine a basking temp a little higher than what you are providing. If he's spending most of his time up high close to that light, that makes me think it's not warm enough. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.
Kirk

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1.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.1 Ball Python
1.1 Corn Snake
0.1 Gray band Kingsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
0.1 Pueblan Milksnake
1.0 Bullsnake
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback (Hondo)
0.1 Spouse (WC)
3.5 hatchling ball pythons

Many male carpets and other pythons refuse food during the winter. Their minds are on "other things". My IJ carpet is still feeding...my JCP is not. My coastal is not. My Woma is not. My olives....one yes, one no. BH is not. Timors is. Younger animals are not affected. When will they start back? Jan-March. Won't hurt them to not feed for that time period.

All times periods are estimates. Your mileage may vary
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1.1 Blackheaded pythons
1.1 Woma (Juvie female)
2.1 Aussie Olives
1.1 Timors
1.0 Angolan Juvie
1.1 Savu
1.1 Juvie Bloods
1.1 Juvie Balls
1.1 IJ Carpets
1.1 Coastal Carpets
1.2 Macklotts
1.1 Papuan Olives
1.0 Jungle Carpet
2.2 Scrubs (on breeding loan)
0.1 Jungle/Diamond cross
0.1 child, CB
0.1 wife, WC

I go with a basking lamp AND an under tank heater w/ a rheostat for control, at one end of the cage and nothing at the other end. At night the basking lamp goes off by a timer. It’s cooler at night but they have some heat because the under tank heater. I sometimes cover most of the top at night to retain more heat. Works for me until my new enclosure is done.

Try to increase the daylight hours to more like summer, which might help. Also make sure the snake has a healthy mouth, the pet shop lost a snake because of that.

Good luck!

i do have an UTH and a basking light on one side of the tank. light is on timer. i turned off my night time red light like someone suggested but i want to turn it back on. i just need to get one that doesn't keep me awake at night.
also i have almost the whole screen top covered. only spots not covered is the warm side where the lights set. i have a 75 wt basking light but i'm going to get a 100 wt. he didn't need the 100 wt in the summer. then when it burned out all i had was the 75. i'm hoping that will intise him to eat again if i warm his tank a bit. i don't know about looking in his mouth. i wouldn't think he has anything in there. he was eating f/t.