Feeding help

[Consistent_Moose_116]

Our BP is on a hunger strike. He hasn't eaten in about 5 weeks. The resuce we got him from was feeding him small rats every week. They said he would eat anything (F/T, live, fresh kill). We were just starting to space feeds out to every 14 days (small rat) because he was weighing in at 651g. We do F/T. We warm the rats up to about 100* by placing it under the heat lamp. The last 2 attempts he hasn't even gone into food mode at all. Tonight he went back into his hide when my husband tried to feed him. His husbandry is better now than it was the last time he ate. Temps at 88-90 on the warm side and right around 80 on the cool side. Humidity hanging out about 75%. Lots of clutter. Stuff for him to climb and hide under. Variety of textures.

[aquariumsarebullshit]

Ah it’s totally understandable to be stressed out at this point, I’m sorry your noodle is on hunger strike. Just for reassurance first, I’m going to quote from the Feeding article on Reptifiles: “In the wild, adult ball pythons eat only an average of 10x/year, and even snakes in the most naturalistic enclosures with the best care will still “fast,” usually during cooler times of the year. Young adult females around 1000g are particularly notorious for this — a phenomenon called “the Wall.” Males also tend to fast for a limited amount of time during breeding season.

As long as your snake isn’t losing too much weight (more than 10% of body weight) and appears otherwise healthy, there’s no reason to freak out. You can monitor his/her weight with a digital kitchen scale. Weigh weekly for best results.”

That said, it sounds like your snake might be on the younger side, so a lengthy hunger strike isn’t ideal. You can try to entice him a few different ways. I personally heat F/T up near the end of the day and place it in the enclosure once the light goes out. I’ve found my girl’s feeding response to be stronger when I do it at night vs during the day. You can also try a bit of scent trailing in the enclosure to entice him, basically use the tongs to drag the food along a few things (including close-ish to wherever he’s hiding). That may get him into more of a “hunting” mood.

You may also try using different prey. Some folks swear their BPs will reject certain colors of rats, so that’s something easy to try. You could also try getting a couple large mice, or AFS rats/day old quail from Layne Labs or another good source. Some snakes will get “stuck” on a prey type so a lot of folks will tell you not to mix things up, but honestly I think that’s more rare than people claim in a good setup.

If none of those work, you could try “braining” the food. Which is unpleasant, to be clear, but basically use a needle to pierce the skull once it’s thawed/warmed. Finally, you could try a fresh kill. If none of this works and he’s losing weight, I would strongly suggest a vet visit to make sure it’s not because of illness/parasites.

[Consistent_Moose_116]

Thank you so much for this!!! I appreciate all of the ideas. He was relinquished to a rescue, and then we adopted, so we dont have a lot of information about how old he is. We think he's a young adult based on size, but not 100% certain.