5 Month Food Strike

[phenyx]

Hello, I haven't been around in a while but I'm dealing with a 5 month food strike and I'm not sure how to get my snake eating again.

Nagini, my BP, was last feeding regularly and enthusiastically until late last November/early December. But then suddenly she just stopped. Her temps and humidity did not change and they're all still in appropriate ranges: Warm spot 90ish with a UTC (on thermostat), ambient ranging from 74 on the cooler side to about 80is. Humidity 60-70%.

She's right around 950 grams and, when she was feeding, she was taking a small medium rat anywhere from 70-89 grams every 3 weeks.

But for all of 2020 so far, nothing. I've tried white rats, black rats, natural colored rats and she's just not interested. The Zombie Rat Puppet Show seems to just scare her so I've tried drop feeding instead and she won't touch them either. She's never been a drop feeder before so I'm not surprised she won't do it now.

Since she started her food strike I've been offering her food once a month. Would it make a difference if I stretched that out even longer?

The rats I'm currently feeding are from a frozen batch I purchased in March 2019. Could the length of time they've been in the freezer be a factor? I've placed a new order for her usual small meds.

Would smaller rats be a better choice to get her eating again? I'm not sure what she needs after so long a fast. My order includes some smaller rats as well as her small meds.


I know BPs are notoriously picky and that longer food strikes happen, but I'm getting tired of wasting rats.