Childrens Python feeding question

[jessec]

Hi all, first post here but I've been reading the site for about 3 months.

I have a Children's Python, about 1 year and 2 months, maybe a little less, and I had a question about his feeding.

He used to eat every week, except for maybe the one or two weeks when coming on to shed, and was pretty ravenous about it too, but in the past 5 weeks he has only eaten twice. He ate on the first week, then didn't the next, nor the one after that and then he shed, the week after that he ate, but now this week he did not eat again (to visualise it goes 10010 ). So my question is, is this normal?

The the staff at the shop that I purchased him from all seem to have differing opinions, and I don't know who to trust as they also do fish and other reptiles, so I thought I'd come to you guys and gals who clearly know snakes.

Thanks in advance, I'm trying not to be worried but I care for my little guy.

 

[KierenTavener12]

Perfectly fine. Think about pythons in the wild young or old, they rarely eat ever 7 days.

My bredlis mum didn't eat for over 3 months.

Have you changed there food recently. Some can become attached to certain types of food. Are your temps in range?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jessec]

Alright that is good to know thank you

And no he has always been on mice, he's on fuzzies now which he has been on for about 8 weeks or so?

Temperatures seem fine, I generally have the external thermostat sitting inside the middle of the enclosure, it gets to about 29-30 degrees, then the inbuilt thermostat turns off, it drops to about 26.5 after about 10 minutes and then comes back on. Testing on either side of the enclosure it reads fine over the day. Nobody else I know has reptiles so I don't know if they temperature dropoff thing is normal however...

 

[alichamp]

Hi. I don't have a snake but have a bluey and have also been reading the site for a few months. For temps aim for a hot spot up one end of the enclosure (not the middle) of 32-34 celcius so move your thermostat to the hot spot. The temps in the rest of the enclosure probably won't matter this time of year as long as you provide a temp gradient so the animal can thermoregulate. The temps you have may explain why it doesn't eat so much ...?

 

[jessec]

I've taken your advice and whilst I'm out at work today I've moved the thermo to the hot end of the enclosure, and my thermo shows you the max hot and the max cold temperature over the day so I'll have a look when I get home He seems to thermoregulate fairly happily though, he has one hot water bowl and one cool water bowl, one hot and one cold hide, so I will find him all over the enclosure. Recently he has taken to sleeping on top of his hot hide after the most recent shed, so I'm monitoring new behaviours also.

I am sure all will be fine, I think he is just mellowing out as he gets to the adult stage as I don't think he has even tried to bite me in the last 2 months.

 

[ViperReptiles]

I own two Antaresia's, a Spotted and a Stimsons. Both of which went off of food at about a year old and now they both eat every week again. Just don't offer food all the time, it'll cost you a lot of money if you keep having to throw out mice

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[ronhalling]

If your temps are fine then skipping a few meals is no problem at all, sometimes it can take longer than usual for them to digest their last meal and won't accept another until they have defecated, don't be concerned at this time of the year until it has not eaten for a couple of months, then maybe a vet visit might be warranted if your husbandry is all ok. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling