snakes still not eating!

[Shano92]

hey all,

i have two snakes that are not eating a coastal carpet and a spotted python, they stopped eating just before winter but didnt worry too much. now its been a while, and starting to worry a bit, even knowing how long they can go without eating. they both have sufficent heating, ive tried chicken blood over there food but still nothing. now im not sure what to do..... any help would be very appretiated.

Cheers Shane

 

[MatE]

How old are they?

 

[Shano92]

the coastal is around 18 months, but didnt do this last winter. and the spottie is around 2 an a half but has never been a very good eater compared to my other snakes.

 

[dtulip10]

sounds like winter shut down. give em little while longer and keep offerring food that he ate earlier in the year

 

[Shano92]

thats what i thought, but started worry that they still arent eating after so long.

 

[Shano92]

anyone else have any sugestions

 

[jasontini]

..are they in shed..? my coastal is 21mths old n his last feed is back in june...
Still not eating yet as currently he's in shed..

 

[snake_boy]

i had a feeding problem once. tried absoloutly everything. Finially i decided to try live mice and it worked. now she is a great feeder. eats anything now

 

[Shano92]

no, there defenetly not in shed. yeah im nearly at the stage of trying live food. Was it very hard to get it back onto defrosted food?

 

[Shano92]

just tried them on a freshly killed mouse, but still no luck.

 

[MrBredli]

There's no need to offer live, freshly killed, scented, brained or anything like that. If they've eaten frozen thawed previously then they will continue to do so when they're ready.

Give them a few more weeks, keep an eye out for a 'Spring slough' as that is usually a good indicator that they are ready to start feeding again. In the meantime, don't panic, don't bother trying to feed them every couple of days as you'll just waste the mice. Try them every 2 weeks for the next six weeks and if they're not eating by the end of October then you might need to start worrying.

 

[Shano92]

ok alright, that makes sense. thanks for that MrBredli. hopefuly it goes to plan.

Cheers Shane,

 

[Chris1]

have u tried chasing them with their food item gently knocking them in the head with it?

i found that once they strike and coil, if i throw a sheet of newspaper over them for privacy they wont be to distracted to eat.

 

[Ramsayi]

They are not feeding because of low temps.All you will succeed in doing by trying to force/tease/offer diff food items etc is stress them.They know whats best for them moreso than people do.

 

[Hsut77]

Did you cool them over winter?

 

[Renagade]

I'm with Ramsayi, up your temps. one of my snakes wasnt eating until the weather warmed up, also i swapped out one of his heat sources with a higher wattage to kick start the hunger. it worked.

 

[Shano92]

ok ill try putting the temps up a bit, no i havnt been cooling them they both have basking globes in their enclosure. and yeah ive tried gently tapping the food on there heads it use to work for the spottie as he has never been a very good feeder but it doesnt seem to be working at all. so ill trie upping the temps abit see if that will help.

Cheers Shane