Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male ball python that I've had for a couple years. He is almost 3 years old, give or take and this is the third winter that I've had with him since I got him. He's always been a constant eater, eating from once a week and as he grew it, it became once every two weeks - never missed a meal.

But now he hasn't eaten for 60 days and I'm unsure when I should give in and take him to the vet to see if tehre is something stuck or otherwise? I've tried numerous sizes, sexes, colors of rats since I know that Balls are picky eaters - he will eat only live. I've even got a small rat and kept it in a small container with mouse shavings so it smelled like a mouse. He still wouldn't eat it. He is now starting to become thin and unsure whatelse to do. I've tried everything I use to do when I've fed him and he just doesn't seem interested. Cleaned his tank, keep the humidity up and fixed his heat lamp so its perfect in there. Not sure what else it could be. If anyone has any other information it'd be helpful. Thank you.

Assuming that you have ruled out any type of health issue, it is not uncommon for mature male Ball pythons to stop feeding over the winter months in anticipation of the breeding season in late winter / early spring. If not intending to bred this snake, you may be able to interfere with this winter fast by increasing the daily photoperiod artificially with fluorescent lighting to around 14 or 15 hours of light per day. Also, it would be important to maintain the substrate temps in at least the mid-80's. Even though you are heating your house, there is always a drop in the interior background temperature during cold weather that snakes will notice physiologically and respond to. Try this a few weeks to see if the appetite picks up again. There are obviously other reasons why pythons go off-feed, but this would be the most common reason for male ball pythons this time of year.

Kelly

I stopped using fluorescent heat lamps for it would dry up his tank way too fast and actually created fires - even the smallest one. I have a ceramic heat lamp and works really well and no problems. Not sure if I should cover the tank a bit to keep the heat in there or not.

And I wouldn't say he is a full grown male just yet. He is less then 3 years old and even though he is 32 inches long, he still looks like a young male - a teenager. This is his third year with me, but when I got him, I believe he was 2/3 months old. If he is fully mature and old enough to bred, I'd have to look into it for I do want to breed him since he has a mutant gene.