Adult male weight loss, stopped eating

Wondering if anyone else had this issue. 6 months ago I started to use this male for breading. Since he started he has stopped eating. At the same time, he was just over 1000g. Now he is at 874g. He was pared every other week during a 6 week time frame. Since he was not eating, I pulled him. But he still has not started to eat. Last paring was 1/16. He never missed a meal prior to this. Am I just “lucky” hitting 2 possible 3 issues at once? (1 Stopped because of breading, 2 stopped because of the 1000g wall, and possibly 3 just being a normal ball). Hope everyone is having a wonderful breading season. Thanks in advanced.

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I personally think it is a combination of 1 and 3.

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Thanks for you thought. I am going to try going back to mice. I have changed different substrate, Temps, humidity, added a hide (in a rack using a 40 bin), and changed to a gray bin, different size rats live & f/t, even skipped a couple feeding.

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Are you sure he wasn’t maybe a bit overweight and took a break from food while breeding. I only have a couple of males over 1000 grams most of my adult males are in the 700 to 900 gram range.

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He was a big guy when I received him. Never really thought he looked overweight… But since you mentioned it, I just looked back at a picture and you may be correct. Not sure how I did not notice it before.

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In my experiences if you don’t feed as frequently your males will run under 1000 grams. You will probably have far less fasting and “walls” from all your snakes as well.I also feel like I have better results breeding wise keeping males lean and muscular and not overweight.

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Thanks for the advice. I have been reading the post you have done of feedings, and you have convinced me to change what I do. Like not going by recommended feeding size for feeders, and not as often. Both I have already implemented… All other in my collection are good for their size. I still can not figure out how I missed his size. I think just because he was that way when I received him. Thanks for all the information.

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No problem always happy to help.

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And here’s me with my 1565 male… :woman_facepalming:t2::joy:
That was last weigh in a couple weeks ago, he’s been on a bloody diet too! So how he put on is beyond me :grin:

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You would be surprised after cutting feedings it still can take a LONG time for the weight to come off. I still have have snakes I think are overweight lol.

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It’s been months I swear… Like if I’m feeding smaller and less where is the weight coming from :sweat_smile:

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That’s like with Kai he only eats a medium rat every month to six weeks, and he is still growing at a decent rate lol :joy:. I have to weigh him but he weighed 4.8 pounds a little bit ago.

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:scream: That is the size of my biggest girl. Guess this male was not to bad then. :joy:

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Oh sorry you’re newer to the forum, Kai is a BI (boa constrictor).

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OK. I was trying to picture it. Not up on poa size but, i like them but not in a position to start owning.

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I think its just the females that have a 1000g wall or something near that weight ( probably a early practice ovulation/breeding fast).
All my males stopped feeding after the first few months of matings. They have still stopped to date probably because the femalales still demand regular mating. I am confident once the females hormones change things will get back to normal for my males. They were all good weight before the breeding cycle so are fine for a good while not feeding.
Washing the males in the early stages after breeding did get the scent off and encourage them to eat a bit I believe. But all my females are well into the late stages of ovulation now so my snake room stinks of fermiones.

I’d just like to point out that there are plenty of large males out there who are not overweight, especially when you look at individuals that are 10+ years old. A 4 year old male is technically an adult and very capable of breeding, but he’s probably not as big as he will be once he gets significantly older. Almost all of my business partner’s 10-20 year old males are over 2000g, most people just don’t keep males long enough to see them get that big. Here is a male we sold from the collection that weighs 4160g.

I don’t remember exactly how old this guy was, but I would guess that he was at least 15 years old, and from large parents.

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We’re these feed weekly there entire life?

That guy is heavy and not lean and muscular imo

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None of the Ball Pythons were fed weekly as adults. They are fed every 2-3 weeks at most and fast for several months out of the year. I don’t really feel that any adult boid needs to be fed weekly.

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I agree!

They could still get overweight if the prey items are big.

I recently sold my two oldest males one was born in 2008 the other in 2012 both were around 1000 grams but both weighed WAY more before I cut my feeding back.

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