Hibernation

[jojack56]

My snake may be in hibernation, not sure but he's been off feed for 3 weeks, i'm keeping a closer eye on heat and humidity in the tank and seeing if maybe that's whats wrong. he has lost 8 grams since the last weigh in which was a week ago, how much weight is ok for a snake to lose if in hibernation?
(to give more accurate numbers he was 1069 Grams and is now 1061)

[sattva]

Your snake may be going into brumation, a type of hibernation... What kind of snake do you have? age? and your temps and humidity? 3 weeks is not a long time for a snake to go without food...

[bigsnakegirl785]

What species is it? I don't know of any python species that hibernate or brumate off the top of my head....snakes like ball pythons do, however, go off of feed for the breeding season when it cools down, but they don't brumate.

I would worry once they lose more than 20% of their weight. 9 grams is easily the weight of a single urate if it's passed any recently.

[jojack56]

He's a ball python i'm not sure on exact age but roughly 9 months old, and i've been trying to keep the temp mid to high 80's on the hot side and mid 70's to low 80's on the cool and the humidity stays around 70% for the most part. some times drops as low as 50% because i go to work and school but with my attempts at keeping the humidity higher its stuck above 60% even when i come back from work and school, also i know 3 weeks isn't long but i was more worried about the weight as its my first time keeping a snake. I know ball pythons are know to go a couple months off feed.

[bigsnakegirl785]

He's a ball python i'm not sure on exact age but roughly 9 months old, and i've been trying to keep the temp mid to high 80's on the hot side and mid 70's to low 80's on the cool and the humidity stays around 70% for the most part. some times drops as low as 50% because i go to work and school but with my attempts at keeping the humidity higher its stuck above 60% even when i come back from work and school, also i know 3 weeks isn't long but i was more worried about the weight as its my first time keeping a snake. I know ball pythons are know to go a couple months off feed.

I would try bumping the temps. Keep the ambients 80-85F and make sure it has a hot spot of at least 90F. With the weather getting cool any ambients below 80F could trigger a fasting state. If that doesn't work, you'll just have to ride it out.

Usually you want to offer food every 1-2 weeks until they take it, but I personally don't offer until my bp comes out of his hide at the hint of food. Wastes a lot less rats and he usually eats the first time I offer. If they don't know when food is coming they'll be more likely to eat, and the snake isn't going to wait until it's starving to eat.

I've had my bp go as long as 8-9 months without losing 10% of his weight, and I've also had him go 3 months and lose 13%. You want to make sure he's empty when you're weighing him, otherwise you'll think he's losing more weight than he really is. If he defecated or laid urates between the two weights in your OP, I'd start the count from 1,061 grams.

As far as humidity, what sort of set up do you have him in?

[Andy_G]

Yup, as BSG said your temps are a bit too cool Jojack. Warm/correct temps will trigger hunger responses. 82-84 ambient with a 92 hot spot works great for ball pythons. The humidity doesn't sound like too big of a problem but 60% at all times would be ideal.

[Albert Clark]

The temps definitely need to boosted to a 90- 93 degree hot spot. Ambient temp of 76- 80 degrees is fine. As soon as the temps are stabilized switch to 100% cypress mulch as your substrate also.

[jossh27]

3 respected keepers, 3 replies, and 3 different ambient temps advised. :)

[Andy_G]

All will work and are just a couple of degrees different. That's the beauty of forgiving species and different husbandry techniques/opinions. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

3 respected keepers, 3 replies, and 3 different ambient temps advised. :)

Mine and Andy's are pretty much the same, just Albert's temps go a little lower. I like to give a range, as Andy said different people do it differently, and Andy's temps fell right into the range I quoted (82-84F falls within 80-85F, and I said at least 90F he said 92F). So not as much of a difference if you think about it.

[jossh27]

I was just playin'. It shows that there's no exact temperature to keep them at- A little cooler tenors won't hurt

[Albert Clark]

I was just playin'. It shows that there's no exact temperature to keep them at- A little cooler tenors won't hurt There you go... A range. Brian Gundy of For Goodness Snakes also has a range but says as long as ambient doesn't go below 75F. And especially not for a extended period of time.

[jojack56]

alright i'll try bumping the temp up a bit more. the tank though is just your standard sliding glass door tank i guess it was supposed to be for turtles but it works regardless. he does seem to stay on the cool side a lot of the time, although he wonders onto the hot side from time to time. as where my other bp is on the hot side all the time i find it interesting. we'll see if increasing the heat in the tank works though. Thank you guys for all the help though i really appreciate it and sorry for not replying quicker then now.