Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys,
Do mature male retics usually refuse food and go into "cooling" on there own? Ive heard that some will stop eating all together for the entire mating period. and others will snap out of it after 4 weeks when not put with a mate. My large male has been refusing his food for almost a month, but all other behaviors are present. Hes still active, still goes to the bathroom regularly. still drinks from his bowl. Is this pretty common this time of year?
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1.0 American Alligator
0.0.1 Yellow anaconda
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.1 Retic (normal/super tiger)

Many Indonesian pythons (actually most pythons and snakes in general)have seasonal variations in food availability according to rainy and dry seasons. I purposefully do not feed my males for about two to three months after they begin to refuse meals when there is a fertile female in the room (as soon as the girls stop feeding i put the boys on hold). I think of this time of the year as vacation from other than weekly cleaing and water duty with my adult animals of all species as long as the temp and humidity is appropriate based on tropical vs subtropical origin.

Winslow

thanks for your reply murdoch. I have a female in the same room (not cage) as my male but she is not even close to breeding size or age. Is it possible that he detects her some how and wants to mate? If so i wonder if i should move her to bring back his feeding. no use in having a snake refusing food if he dosent have a mate..... or maybe i should just give him another month or two. what do u think?
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1.0 American Alligator
0.0.1 Yellow anaconda
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.1 Retic (normal/super tiger)