Hello all - my daughter’s female Bp hasn’t eaten in about 4 months. We transitioned her from live mice to FT within her first year (breeder had her on live food), and she’s been pretty picky ever since, but now we are getting worried as it seems she’s looking skinny. We’ve offered her FT rat (what she’s been eating) every couple of weeks over the past few months and she refuses. Even tried leaving it overnight in the cage with no luck.
I’m about to go get a live rat to feed her, but worried she’ll never go back to FT if I do this.
•What does the enclosure for your daughter’s BP look like? Do you have any photos you could share?
•Can you share a photo of the BP?
•What temps are in the enclosure of the BP?
•What is the BP’s current weight in grams?
•How large of a rat are you offering?
these questions are really important to figuring out why your BP may not be eating
At 4yrs old your BP should be offered meals every 10 days, not every couple of weeks. The meal you offer should be at 10% body weight of your BP, so if your BP say is 1600grams, you should be offering a 160gram rat (med. Rat).
While it isn’t always the case, if your BP was fed live all throughout its life before it got in your hands it most likely wont switch over to f/t without some great difficulty.
I have a female BP thats almost 5 y/o that ate f/t for me for the 1st year I had her and suddenly one day she gave up f/t cold turkey. She didn’t eat for 7 months after that until I buckled and gave her a live meal, she took it immediately.
Through all of my effort unfortunately she will not get back on f/t. She’s been eating live for 3 years.
I’ve experienced with cutting the rodent to increase the smell or try different kinds of prey. could be the enclosure or health/husbandry problems, idk just a though
Try offering a much smaller rodent such as a small live mouse. Sometimes bps switch themselves back to live for no good reason. Hopefully a live rodent will kick start a feeding response and then you can offer a ft to see if she will take it next feeding
Thanks and all good questions. Her enclosure is 2x2x4, and she weighed 1500 grams about 6 months ago. I feed her no larger than she is wide - medium rats now but maybe go back to small rads since she is not eating…
Not sure if this pics will upload but I’ll try. One is of her enclosure and the other is of her about a month ago, about 4’ long.
She is really love Bradly! I don’t think she looks thin at all. I have a 4 yr old female that has refused her live rat for a couple of months now. But she has a habit of doing that occasionally.
The set up looks nice but I think she needs a couple of snug hides one on hot end and one on cool end. Humidity 50 ton60%. Hot side 86 to 88 degrees with basking spot no hotter than 90 degrees. Some more clutter like fake greenery, cork bark etc……in addition to the hides. Bps want to feel secure, especially when they eat.
Btw 1500 grams is great so she has some wiggle room……
Props to y’all for setting it up so nicely
I would say maybe a few more snug hides and fake plant cover would do her good though. You could probably put some under the branches you have and that would work well.
On to the BP herself. She looks to be in really good condition to not be eating, she just may not be hungry.
Go ahead with offering her small rats every 10-14 days and see how she does. At her current body condition and weight she wont be bothered much to go a little while without eating.
That being said if you start noticing a drastic drop in weight or any behavior changes that warrant concern you should seek out a vet appointment to make sure there isn’t more going on.
Everyone offered some good tips already.
As Caron mentioned, good temps and some clutter can definitely help. Especially if she’s always been a shy gal
Cmsreptiles gave some good advice for the feeding schedules and such. I also agree that your noodle looks to be in a good body condition. Many keepers are so used to seeing overweight BPs or looking at females that are actively being bred so they’re bulked up a bit to cover the weight loss from egg laying that seeing a leaner snake can be worrying.
Another angle for the non-feeding that may be a new thing for you and your girl… She’s definitely at a breeding age and size now. This time of year is when a lot of BPs in the northern hemisphere are starting to ovulate or lay. Even without a male present, she may be ovulating.
If she was sitting on the cooler side of the enclosure and wrapped around or in her water bowl that is a sign she would be building follicles. If she looks like she ate a football or really big rat when she hasn’t is a sign she is ovulating. The swelling will only be a couple of days at most.
Most of the time they will reabsorb the follicles in this case. There is a pretty rare chance she can lay eggs or slugs (unfertilized ova).
It’s handy to know the signs just so you don’t panic if she does act a bit ‘off’ compared to usual. As mentioned above if she starts drastically loosing weight or has any other distressing symptoms then you’ll definitely need to consult a vet.
Thank you everyone for the excellent comments! She did have a hide that I recently removed and replaced with the bark cover because she outgrew the hide. Time to think of a way to make a larger hide as I cannot find anything commercially.
