Food strike?

Hi I have 2 male balls my yb spider and a banana mimosa? Well both have gone on hunger strikes and I was wondering if it’s normal my yb spider who is I believe around 3-4 I’m not sure tbh last ate November 7th and he was my biggest eater never missed a meal and my bm who is 2 last ate November 14th is this okay for them to go that long

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It’s not uncommon for males for go off food during the winter/breeding season. If they’re adults, I personally don’t worry about it unless there’s signs of illness or they’re losing a significant amount of weight (more than 10% of their body weight)

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As a heads up as well, because they both have wobble genes. When they do decide food is good again they may have a more pronounced head wobble. It should settle back to how they normally are after the excitement of mealtime does down after the strike.

But any severe wobble or corkscrewing symptoms should definitely be a concern. And like Hilary mentioned, excessive weight loss or signs of illness are all things where a vet should get involved.

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They’re my first males so I didn’t know this! Thank you so much I love both my boys but I was worried and Facebook groups had me in a panic :sweat_smile: they aren’t losing weight still super active and drinking so that makes me feel better this is normal

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My yb spider has worse wobble than my bm who barely has one so thank you for this heads up as well

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I was browsing posts and found this one. I don’t if this is still an issue. However, I went through something very similar and maybe it can help. I have 4 ball pythons, and every one of them are strong eaters. I was getting their food from a very reputable company and everything was fine for a while. All of a sudden all four just stopped eating. I checked temps, humidity, vet visits, everything i could think of. For over 5 months they refused to eat. They would show interest, strike position, swift tongue flicks, but refuse the food. After 3 months I thought maybe something went wrong with my storage freezer, so threw away and replaced it all. I noticed upon the new shipment small things like frost bite on ears or limbs. Feces in the bags, I know that it happens, but not so much that it’s matted into the fur throughout the whole bag. Found out they were outsourcing from over seas to manage demand. I switched companies that guarantee no over seas outsourcing. The first offering they smashed and have not refused to eat since. That has been almost a year now.

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