Breeding season and eating

[smittyd16]

I have a 2-3 year old diamond x jungle female. During summer she was a total dumpster snake, eating 3 medium rats 1-2 times a week sometimes. However when November hit she completely stopped eating and has only had 1 rat since the first of November.

Everyone ive talked to has said its because of breeding season. She has grown 6 inches since Nov. so I'm not real worried.

Does anyone have suggestions/comments/ tips on how to get her feeding again or a time frame for carpet breeding season ending?

Thanks in advance for anything you can give me! :)

[millertime89]

Shaun should pop in here in a bit. He stops feeding his carpets (I wanna say all the diamonds in particular) during the winter to mimic their natural habitat best.

[shaunyboy]

in winter i only offer 3 to 5 feeds to my carpets (the carpets i'm NOT cooling/brumating

my diamonds only get fed 6 months of the year

diamonds last feed 1st september.....give 1 month to clear gut then.....cooling cycle....heat back up from 1st febuary.....next feed last week in febuary

re your feeding
imo,3 medium rats once or twice per week is way too much food mate

i tend to feed " large " meals less often,i find i get better results that way,rather than if i fed small meals more often

imo,carpets imo should be lean and muscular

if yours is eating up to 6 medium rats some weeks,imo you would be better giving her 1 jumbo rat every 2 to 3 weeks

re breeding season
theres not much you can do about them going off food due to breeding season.you just have to wait it out for them to start feeding again

breeding season can be anything from october through to april

have you got any pictures of your carpet ?

cheers shaun

[Lankyrob]

Is there any reason why you were offering food so often?? If it is because the snake "looks" hungry then there is no need at all.

My Carpet takes an XL rat and almost as soon as he sucks the tail in and realigns his jaw he will go back into hunting mode - it doesnt mean he SHOULD get more food tho, in the wild they weill have times of gluttony and times of fast, where in captivity they get fed much more regularly.

[smittyd16]

Thanks for the advice!!

She definitely never took 6 rats in a week! Don't get me wrong! Haha
But if she should be eating 1 jumbo then that's definitely what I will do!

I just want her to be healthy! Also, ive read and heard that carpets have no real humidity requirements. Is that true or untrue? I keep her humidity around 50% average. Here in Arizona its tough to keep humidity up. And what are the temp ranges day and night for them? I know diamonds live in some really cold weather for reptiles!

Thanks so much for bearing with me! I just want the facts so I can better take care of the animals! :)

[smittyd16]

Also I'll get pictures up of her ASAP guys!

[marvelfreak]

I have a big female jungle that goes from November to late March ever year and won't eat a thing. For humidity 50% just fine for Carpets. When you see them in shed then just mist their cage once a day and they should shed just fine.

[smittyd16]

here's some pictures of mine and mine girlfriend's carpet that she took

[smittyd16]

more pictures that my girlfriend took of our carpet python

[red ink]

Nice snakes mate