Not eating

[marylyn101]

:confused: My King snake seems to be really finicky about food lately. she used to have a large appetite but know she seems scared of the mouse. she smells it and then goes right over it like it's nothing. anyone know why?:(

[fr0glet]

Are you feeding live? Often a little incident that you may not have even noticed will make a snake afraid of food.

Snakes often go off feed this time of year, especially if they're sexually mature or have been brumated. Some call it "spring fever" - looking for love and got nothing but mating on the brain!

Keep offering weekly. Try different colored mice, amazingly enough it makes a difference. Feed pre-killed or frozen-thawed. Leave the rodent in the feeding container with her overnight.

[marylyn101]

they are prekilled :(
she is reallt scaring me

[marisa]

It's that time of year for kings. Especially males. Yours is female for sure?

Quite a few go off food around this time of year in hopes of breeding. My California King has eaten two mice in three months.

As long as she is not losing all her weight, things will be alright. And she will most likely start eating again really soon.

Marisa

[Simon R. Sansom]

Hi,
Marisa's right; don't panic yet. It's that time of year.

Simon

[marylyn101]

thank you all so much

[Ace]

they are prekilled

Sometimes if you do feed prekilled, putting a live fuzzy (something that can't hurt her) in before giving her the prekilled can trigger a feeding response.

[jwsporty]

I am having the same problem with my Striped Albino Cal King..she (he) decided to stop eating about 3 weeks ago as well as my Corn. I was told to rub the F/T on an F/T Gerbil (for the scent). I personally tried the live fuzzy trick on both of them and neither worked. Feed day is Sunday..let you know how it works out.

[marisa]

Eh. I don't see why the gerbil would work any better. Ball Pythons are natural gerbil (gerbil type animal) eaters, corns and kings usually go nutty for lizard scenting, if anything.

But I would do neither. Honestly. They will most likely do this *every* year from now on. For the males, they want a lady! This is more important than wasting time hunting for food in their eyes. And for lady snakes, well sometimes they are really males and if they are girls...again its the time of year. *shrug*

I wouldn't do any scenting because of the fact its most likely "that time of year" you could get yourself in a position where the snake will eat the scented item, but refuse non-scented items from here on out. But if the snakes are losing large amounts of weight then maybe something else is up and scenting might help ya, but I would go lizard for the best results.

Just some thoughts. :) Good luck guys!

Marisa

[jwsporty]

Hey Marisa,

I will take take advise...I still have to thaw the grebil for one of the Ball Pythons and I am sure it is the male. He's a great one to handle, just a stubborn kid who doesn't want to eat.. If he fails this feeding on Sunday, that will mark one month. At least I know that he is drinking, seen that many times.

[Burmies]

its just not interested in it. Try waiting for a week and then try again.

Burmies

[marylyn101]

k

[Andy_G]

Don't forget that they don't usually eat ocne a week in the wild :). She'll start eating again soon, i'm sure of it.

[reverendsterlin]

be carefull introducing a gerbil to a regular mouse eater, there have been cases that were a major pain getting back on mice even with a single gerbil feeding( a greyband I used to have for one)

[sunset]

Don't stress too much, my hognose went off feed for 4 months, and I just kept offering, then one day he ate. Just like that, he just decided it was time.

[ArtCat]

I wouldn't worry about it. I've had snakes quit for as little as a month and at the most four months. Depends on the time of year. My Scarlet King quit for a month then began feeding. One of my baby Hogs quit for four months and began feeding a few weeks after I brought her out of cooling. One of my Sinaloan Milks quit for 2 1/2 months and just began feeding again.