Carpet won't eat- confused

[Will0W783]

I have an adult male carpet python named Voodoo of unknown breeding and origins. I got him at a reptile show about 5 months ago, and he was a ravenous eater for me. He'd eat anything I put in front of him, and I had him on f/t medium rats, one a week. I recently had a mite infestation, and did the Nix treatment on all my snakes. So they went three weeks without being fed during the treatment. I fed again last night. All the other snakes ate, but Voodoo seemed only interested in coming out of his cage. I left the f/t rat in with him for an hour, but he didn't so much as sniff at it. So I removed it. Tonight I brought him home a live rat, and again he showed no interest. I removed it as soon as it started chasing Voodoo's tail. So now I have a rat I don't know what to do with a carpet that seems to have forgotten how to eat? Any advice?

[Will0W783]

Ok, I am honestly the biggest sucker on earth. My fiance and I tried putting the rat back in with Voodoo tonight. Of course, the pet store couldn't have given me an ugly white rat with red albino eyes...NO, they had to give me a cute black one with little white feet and a white tip on his tail, and he had to start cleaning himself and sneezing and looking all cute. My fiance and I glared at each other and went "we own a rat now don't we?"
Dammitall, neither of us could bring ourselves to kill the thing and our other snakes are full to the brim....lol. So now we own a rat..named, you guessed it: Lucky.

I will keep Voodoo on f/t. He freaked out when I put the rat in and just kept trying to get away from it...I don't know that he'd ever been fed anything live from the way he was acting.....weird. Any advice welcome.

[Will0W783]

I tried feeding him a frozen/thawed rat again last night, and he hissed and moved away from it. It's now been 5 weeks, and I'm a bit concerned as to what would make him just suddenly start refusing food when he always ate great....anyone who has any ideas or suggestions, please chime in here.

[gonesnakee]

Give hum a real good look over & ensure he has no mites left.
Mites love Carpets & end to lodge themselves in their nostrils & heat sensing pits.
Keep a close eye out for them as a couple MAY have survived the mite treatments & could be why the snake now does not want to eat.
Also check all husbandry aspects specially temps. A snake that is too hot/cold will not usually eat. Mark

[Will0W783]

Thanks Mark, I will check all those things tonight. The temps haven't changed from the way he was always kept and he ate great before, but perhaps with the summer weather, he is too hot. I will check.

[gonesnakee]

There is also the possibilty that he wasn't fed much prior yoiu aquiring him & now he has "caught up" so to speak. That combined with the stress of parasites & the treatments could be why?
As long as he is not becoming thin or lethargic you have no issues.
He can go for months & months & months with no food, Mark

[Will0W783]

Really? How long can they go? I've heard of people's carpets not eating for 5 or 6 months, but I would think he'd lose a lot of weight in that time, and get weak...wouldn't he?

[gonesnakee]

I have a Carpet here now that has not eaten since late fall. Should start here again right away I hope LOL
As stated as long as its not becoming thin & lethargic its not an issue.
Most all specimens kept in captivity are overfed anyways.
Snakes in teh wild may only get a meal in every few months afterall, none of this weekly feeeding of all they will take, week in week out ;) Mark

[Aaron_S]

I rememeber reading about an experiment some zoo did. It was to see how long snakes could go without food. They used three rattlesnakes. Each one lasted over a year and I think the final one died at over 1000 days. I could be wrong, it has been some time since I read this but it was for a VERY long time.

[Will0W783]

Wow! I did check his temps yesterday and with the light on, it was 89 in the hot spot under the basking lamp and 80 in the cool end. In the night, the whole room dips down to 76. From what I understand, those are good temps for a carpet. I did not find any remaining mites and there were none in the water dish. He has not been soaking in it since the mite treatment, so I doubt it's mites that are the problem. I am going to check him out really good tonight and try to get him to open his mouth so I can make sure he doesn't have anything like mouth rot going on in there, but I don't think he would. He did poop since his last meal, so I'm assuming he's not impacted or anything like that. I'll try him again this weekend with an f/t rat, and if he doesn't take it, I'll leave him alone until the next weekend.

[Will0W783]

Update on Voodoo, I checked him out well last night. I felt along his length and checked my records and he took a huge poop after his last meal so no impaction. I also got his mouth open and checked it out carefully and it's clear- no mouth rot or infection. So there isn't any overt problem, other than that he just doesn't want to eat. I will try him again this Sunday and then wait two more weeks before offering again. I'm not too worried anymore; I've talked to some people who've had carpets go 6+ months without eating with no problems.

[siz]

Good luck with the stubborn fella, Kimberly!

[Will0W783]

Thanks, siz. He's a real goober. He's probably my favorite of my snakes, just due to his silly personality and great temper. He'll come around hopefully.

[Sairys]

Well a few days ago my jcp had a perfect shed, so I decided to try to feed him again, I downsized from a large rat to a medium (I tried this in the past), and he took it. He didn't have an amazing feeding response, but he was still looking for more. The only thing I can think of is earlier that day my husband and I were handling him, letting him coil up in a blanket and calm down.

He went without food for almost 8 months will no ill effects, so don't get worried. Good luck with your guy :).

[gonesnakee]

Sometimes all it takes to get a stronger feeding response is too heat the prey up another 10- 15 degrees F as well ;) Mark

[Will0W783]

I'll try that. I'm also arguing with my fiance about the room temps. It is only hitting 80-84 in the basking spot because he has the lights scheduled to go on for about 4 hours and off for 3 then back on for 5 then off for the night. I think this is not hot enough. When the lights are on, it will go up a bit more, maybe 85 or so, but then they go off and it cools down. Because of the on-off cycle, it doesn't have time to warm up to a higher basking temp before the lights go off again. Is this too cold?

[gonesnakee]

Any lights I have on timers for Carpets etc. go on for usually 12 hours & then off for 12 hours. I don't get why someone would want them on then off then on then off ???
In the summer when its too hot I just turn them off usually.
I'd say yes its on the cool side as a basking spot should be 90-95F & should be provided for 8-12 hours a day depending on the season etc. Mark

[Will0W783]

Ok. He changed them to turn off and then on again because it was getting too hot in the room- like 90 degrees ambient temperature in the room and getting over 105 in some basking spots, but now it is only hitting 80 ambient in the room and not getting hot enough in all the cages. I will try to change the light schedule tonight.

[gonesnakee]

I also use lower wattage bulbs based on the season as well or sometimes none if its really hot. What may have a 75W in the middel of winter for 12 hours may only have a 25W in the summer for only 8 hrs etc. etc. Mark

[Will0W783]

Ok. We decreased wattage in a lot of the bulbs. But I know it needs to be hotter in there. We also just got a woma hatchling and I know he needs it hotter too. My ETB and GTP don't need it hotter, but I can change their bulbs or put them on a separate timer. This wasn't a problem until recently.

[Will0W783]

Well Voodoo had an odd diarrhea Sunday night so I scheduled a vet appointment. I took him to Dr. Terry McGrath who came highly recommended as one of the best reptile vets on the east coast. I was greatly impressed by him. Turns out poor Voodoo does have a respiratory infection (bronchitis) and that would explain the inappetance and heavy breathing. I guess I missed it when I looked at his mouth two weeks ago, or it might not have set in. Anyway, he is on .25mL Amikacin every 3 days, hot water soaks and therapeutic heat. He is one of my favorite snakes, so I really hope he recovers quickly. :(

[DAGG96]

i'm getting a new snake, a ball python and its my 1st snake. i have a few questions, whats the different between rats and mice when it comes to feeding? and whats the best thing about ball pythons??:)

[gonesnakee]

Hopefully he will heal up quick then, Mark

[sassamagoo]

Bummer. Hope he gets better soon!

[Will0W783]

Figured I should give an update-sorry I forgot about this thread. Voodoo recovered in 2 weeks of antibiotic treatment, and in another two weeks, he began to eat again. He is now devouring food like it's nothing again, and his mouth is completely clear. He's taken 4 meals now since recovering. I bumped him up to large f/t rats instead of mediums, and he seems to be of good weight again.

[BP_okay]

Did you ever figure out the origin of the respiratory infection? I am so glad he's a healthy now :)

[Will0W783]

I think it's a safe bet it came from the stress of having had a mite infestation.