Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thanks in advance for any help or advice, and sorry for the long post. I am trying to think out loud as much as solicit advice.
My year old carpet has decided to have a bizarre feeding strike. I have been keeping snakes for over a decade now and have never had an issue quite like this. He will aggressively capture his prey and then becomes distracted while trying to eat it, either forgetting which way it should go down or just leaving it in his coils. He has been getting weekly feedings (or possibly a bit more when he was younger, as I had to kick a mite infection that he came with) of dead rats. I do not think that he has eaten for well over a month now and am starting to worry. It has been like 5 attempts to get him to eat and he keeps leaving the prey item. He will try again when I move it around, or reheat it, but always with the same result. I think that the problem is that I upgraded his food to rat pups at the start of the fall (from pinks), but he had successfully eaten them 4 times with minimal complaints, so I am just not sure. Should I try and offer him pinks again or just keep being stubborn and letting him refuse to eat? It is highly doubtful that this is a housing induced change, as he has always been in the same cage, and our house is at a constant 78 or so (florida...ick). He has certainly lost some weight at this point, so this is his final week of protesting before I am force feeding (which I do not want to do because he is one of the most mild tempered pythons ever. Didnt even bite or meaningfully posture as a babe). Any ideas on how long is too long for him to go?

Snakes can go a long time with out eating. Force feeding is very stressful and traumatic to the snake and I would not even think of force feeding until six months or more have passed. Force feeding can cause damage or even be fatal.

At times most of my constrictors have refused meals and eventually started eating again. Try going back to the smaller food item. Are you feeding inside his cage? If not do so. Feed him at night and when he has struck/wrapped continued to jiggle the rat pup to really get the feeding response/constriction going. Then turn out all the cage and room lights and leave the room for an hour or two and he should eat. Hope this is helpful and good luck with him. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

Thanks!

What was the procedure and what did you use to eliminate the mite problem that he had?

Kelly

I took a rather basic approach. Move the cage into another room. Clean the area where it had previously been (with damp papertowels). Buy a small tupperware to use as a temporary cage. Take the snake out and gently remove any visible mites. Soak him with a spray bottle. This can be buckets of fun with a small jumpy python. Let him chill out in the tupperware for a few hours while I clean his cage.
Take everything out of the cage (use papertowels as a liner since mites show up nicely) and replace the hides/water bowl with alternates. Soak mite infested hides/decorations/whatever in a bucket with a touch of bleach overnight.
Put a flea collar (2$) inside of the cage and cover any ventilation with plastic wrap. Leave it outside in the hot sun for a few hours. When you think the contents have been adequately baked/poisoned, clean out the inside of the cage with wet and then dry papertowels. Reinsert liner/hides/water/snake.
Repeat the process a few times and hopefully the mite infestation will be broken. I did it 4 times but didnt see any mites after the third.

Flea collars typically are impregnated with the insecticide Fipronil, which has been shown to be highly toxic to reptiles, even in extremely small amounts. I would definitely not recommend using them. The most safe and effective procedure for mite eradication is to use a commercial permethrin aerosol spray such as PAM, Equate, etc. The first and obvious rule that should be strictly followed with the use of any of these chemicals is to not spray it directly on the reptile. This also applies to the substrate as well with small snakes. The substrate can absorb the spray and hold it for extending periods, slowly releasing it over time. Lab studies during the initial development phase of even PAM showed that it did cause the death of some very small reptiles when it came into direct contact with the body. Most survived but there were a few deaths recorded. With larger reptiles I feel it is fine to follow the directions for PAM with regards to spraying the interior of the cage and letting it dry, and keeping water bowls out for a day or so. With even large snakes however, when using the Equate or other lice sprays, I would always wipe up any interior residue before replacing the snakes or water bowls. However, with neonates and smaller snakes, when using PAM, Equate or any other type, I feel it is best to allow the product to stay in the cage for about an hour after spraying and then wipe the residual up with paper towels before putting the animal and substrate back in. This has proven safe and effective in eliminating mites on even very small neonate snakes. The other procedure that should be used concurrently to enhance the elimination process is to lightly spray the exterior of the cage weekly as well, and not wipe it off, and allow the residual to kill any mites moving from or into the cage. This completely eliminates any possibility of direct contact with the chemical for really small reptiles, and although it takes a little longer to get rid of all of the mites, it does so just as effectively and much more safely than with any other procedure.

Kelly