My pet hasn't eaten in 3 months.

[monkeykoder]

Darned snake does this every freaking year. What a waste buying a rat every few weeks to see if he/she/it is interested yet. You'd think once breeding season was over they would be over it and get back to the chowing down on those darned things. I don't like having to freeze all those pre-killed rats and retrying in a couple of weeks can't the darned snake just eat?

 

[LaFoto]

Thankfully, so far our two have never gone through a stage of the kind. We sometimes defrost one mouse too many, and have to bury that one outside in the garden then, but other than that, save of times when they show the first signs of shedding until the old skin is gone, they have always eaten well. There is no "breeding season" for them, though, since they are both male (brothers, in fact).

 

[doenoe]

hehehe, i had that with my ball python too. Didnt eat for 7 months. But a rat doesnt cost that much, so i didnt care that i had too defrost a rat every week too see if it would eat. Why dont you like too freeze your rats?

 

[LaFoto]

Normally, my daughter feeds her snakes herself, and I have little to nothing to do with it (only am I asked around to take a photo of the process every now and again), but this time they were still in the process of shedding when she had to leave for training camp, they shed while she was gone ( see_here ), and then I had to feed them. Whoa.

But it went ok and they both ate their respective two mice. ( see_here,_too :mrgreen: )

 

[salexander867]

I used to breed reptiles and have successfully raised over 30 species of snakes. This is not unusual behavor for any snake. Many times it is caused by stress (especially if it is a python or boa) or a change in climate.
The best approach is to leave it alone for a while (don't try to force it to eat) and try again later.

 

[spiffybeth]

when i read the title i thought it was a euphemism for sex because i couldnt think of an animal that could live without food for 3 months.....but snakes can.

:blulsh2:

 

[monkeykoder]

I used to breed reptiles and have successfully raised over 30 species of snakes. This is not unusual behavor for any snake. Many times it is caused by stress (especially if it is a python or boa) or a change in climate.
The best approach is to leave it alone for a while (don't try to force it to eat) and try again later.

Yeah the darned thing does this every year right around breeding season. Pretty soon he/she/it will be chomping down on rats as fast as I'm willing to give them it is just frustrating wasting the money for now. Right now I'm just offering food about once every 2-3 weeks.

As for the sexual euphemism I would have posted a number approximately 12 times that large...

 

[Harmony]

Hmmmmmm. It might have something to do with brumation and wintertime.

Thankfully if one of our snakes doesn't want to eat, we just give it's food to another. Or the tegu. Or the savannah monitor. Sometimes having WAY too many reptiles is a great thing. :mrgreen: The only bad part about having so many snakes is that a couple of them don't eat f/t, and so we have to feed fresh killed... which is... disturbing. Thankfully I don't do the killing. Ugh.

 

[doenoe]

im really happy my snake goes for f/t. When i bought her they told me she ate live hoppers. But thankfully i had no problem getting her to eat f/t. Had a little more trouble getting her to eat rats instead of mice. But after three times that worked too. Just rubbed a mouse over the rat and voila. Glad she eats like a champ now

 

[monkeykoder]

Hmmmmmm. It might have something to do with brumation and wintertime.

Thankfully if one of our snakes doesn't want to eat, we just give it's food to another. Or the tegu. Or the savannah monitor. Sometimes having WAY too many reptiles is a great thing. :mrgreen: The only bad part about having so many snakes is that a couple of them don't eat f/t, and so we have to feed fresh killed... which is... disturbing. Thankfully I don't do the killing. Ugh.

When I'm feeding pre-killed I buy them the day I feed and have the pet store do it for me I can't seem to do it without causing too much pain.

 

[Kawi_T]

I've had a pet ball python for 15 years now. I've also gone through this before. In my case it turned out to be the aquarium set up I was using at the time. It was too dry. I was having bad shedding problems that turned into a 4-5 month fast. Nowadays I make sure the temp is good and the humidity is high. Also, now that my snake is older I feed less than when she was younger. I think she gets about 16-18 rats a year. I used to feed about 24 rats a year. Back in those days she was much pickier about her rat. Of course she loves to eat in the warm months and eats less in winter.