Snake not eating.

[butterpopcorn]

HI I've got a 3 year old female spotted python, who's never until now been a fussy eater. She went into brumation over winter, then ate 1 rat. Then went into shed and afterwards ate 1 rat. She hasn't eaten for over 2 months previously once a week -10 days. She is trying to get out of her cage, as in banging on the lock etc. Could this be something to do with wanting to breed? Do you think we should force feed her? Thanks

 

[Diprotodon01]

HI I've got a 3 year old female spotted python, who's never until now been a fussy eater. She went into brumation over winter, then ate 1 rat. Then went into shed and afterwards ate 1 rat. She hasn't eaten for over 2 months previously once a week -10 days. She is trying to get out of her cage, as in banging on the lock etc. Could this be something to do with wanting to breed? Do you think we should force feed her? Thanks

No need to force feed mate certainly not yet what are your temps doing
if the snakes weight is satisfactory
then just wait till she comes around
you may find you have a male and he’s gone off food and wanting to Rome and find a female

 

[Sdaji]

HI I've got a 3 year old female spotted python, who's never until now been a fussy eater. She went into brumation over winter, then ate 1 rat. Then went into shed and afterwards ate 1 rat. She hasn't eaten for over 2 months previously once a week -10 days. She is trying to get out of her cage, as in banging on the lock etc. Could this be something to do with wanting to breed? Do you think we should force feed her? Thanks

I once had an adult Spotted Python go over two years without feeding. He was a fantastic feeder as a hatchling, never missed a feed until he was about 10 years old, then didn't feed for over two years, stayed in perfect health and fathered clutches during the years he wasn't eating, then one day decided he wanted to start eating again and never went off feed until he died at around 20 years of age. He did lose some weight during those years of not eating, but not to a concerning extent and it didn't ever occur to me that I might want to force feed him.

Snakes aren't mammals, they don't eat every day. Just like you might not feel like lunch today for any of a large number of reasons, your snake may not want to eat for a month or few.

Having said that, frantically trying to escape in autumn is unusual and something of a concern. It's unlikely to be searching for a mate or egg laying site at this time of year (unless she's gravid which doesn't seem likely), so I'd check for anything which may be off - temperature is always the most obvious thing to check with reptiles but it could be smells, vibrations, parasites/ants/etc, or all sorts of other possibilities. Autumn is generally not a time of year reptiles are particularly active so a sudden frantic effort to escape is worth investigating.