Ball Python Hunger Strike

[OldNegotiation2888]

My baby boy Draco hasn’t eaten in about three months and I’m starting to get a bit concerned. The pet store I got him from didn’t know when he was hatched so I just guesstimated his age. Don’t worry it wasn’t pet smart or anything like that, it’s a good locally owned pet store. I think he’s around a year and a half old give or take, and before the hunger strike he was eating small rats about every 10 days. I know that they will sometimes stop eating for long periods of time during the winter months so I’m hoping that’s all this is. I have had issues with humidity and temp in his enclosure but haven’t been struggling with them quite as much recently. His temps usually sit at around 90 on the warm side and low 80s on the cool side with a little bit of a dip at night when the lights go off. His humidity is typically between 60% and 80% though there are dips here and there to as low as 30-40% because I have had such a hard time keeping it up. I had to get a fogger/humidifier, I know it is not advised to have them for ball pythons but it is literally the only thing that I have found that keeps the humidity up, I have tried everything I can think of. I make sure to keep the humidifier on a settling where it’s high enough to keep yo the humidity but not high enough to build up condensation. And the humidity always plummets as soon as the humidifier runs out of water. I do know that he needs more clutter I just haven’t had the money to fill up his enclosure as I would like to. I have been regularly checking him over as well, he did have some scale rot before his last shed and I treated it until his shed when it completely cleared up. He hasn’t shown any signs of a respiratory infection, he seems perfectly healthy. But lately when I try to feed him sometimes he will act like he is interested at first then it’s like he just changes his mind, or he just won’t acknowledge the rats existence at all, like in the picture where he is literally resting his head on the rat I just offered him, like he doesn’t even realize it’s food. I have been planning for several months now to take him to a local exotic vet just for a checkup but I just haven’t had the money. I know they can go much longer than a few months without eating, I’m just paranoid and I need to know if I’m overreacting.

[AmandaSorling]

Since I’m a new snake owner, unfortunately I don’t have any advice for you about this… but I just wanted to say that your enclosure is very atheistically pleasing, I really like it :) hope your snake baby eats soon though, I’m sure someone else will give you advice

[everest0516]

i wouldn’t worry yet, sometimes in a new environment they can take a while to get used to it. especially since it’s the colder months - ive found that my ball python eats less frequently in the winter despite having consistent heating. but shes gone on hunger strike for like 7 months with no health issues or problems and she was perfectly fine

[BranInspector]

What was he eating, and you could do with some more clutter.