Hi there. I have a female cape house snake that is not quite 2 years old. I have had her since november and she has only eaten a few times since then. She has only dropped from 160 grams to 153, so not too concerned yet but I had always heard they are reliable eaters. Need some sanity check on my setup. 2x1x1 pvs. LED lights on a time and a radiant heat panel set to 80. Humidity stays around 60%. Aspen substrate. She is a fun snake to hold and is not showing signs of any health issues. Any advice would be great. Thanks!
She looks pretty hefty. The thickness of her neck and the scale spread are signs of being overweight. She may be trying to self regulate. I would consider cutting back the size of her meals for a bit or see if she’ll keep on a 14 day schedule until she’s a better weight.
The other thing to consider is she is breeding age. If she had been housed with a male before you got her, she could be developing eggs.
Gonna tag @inspirationexotics to see what she thinks on her as well
Yeah, her body condition looks quite well-fed, and eating a few times since November isn’t all that bad in terms of feeding frequency. My 2.5yo male rejects about every second meal, and so only eats twice a month. Although in general females are better eaters than males so it’s worth looking at your husbandry just in case.
The enclosure is cute (if a bit small for a full-grown female, so in the future when she hits full growth it might be worth sizing up). Does she have a hot spot or is the hottest area only 80? Because that’s a bit low for the warm side for proper digestion. Does she have a proper thermal gradient (i.e. hot side and cool side of the enclosure)? It could be she’s eating less frequently because the temp’s a bit low for ideal digestion. You could also experiment with tossing some more clutter in there, just in case it’s stress.
She looks pretty healthy to me - losing only 7-8g over a 4 month period is really not bad at all.
How are you offering food to her? Do you only offer on tongs, or do you leave it in overnight? Some of my capes are loathe to take off of tongs but if I leave it overnight next to a hide it’s gone every time. If you don’t have a humidity box for her, I would add one. I also agree with the suggestions of adding more clutter and upping her hot spot a bit (if it’s really only 80).
I agree with @armiyana and @kabre in that she does look a bit hefty. What size mouse are you feeding? I believe that feeding her twice a month (every two weeks) is sufficient for her size and age.
I also agree that her enclosure size is a bit small. It looks like a very nice set up but another foot longer would be better imho.
Btw she looks like a very pretty housie! Best of luck to the both of you! ![]()
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Thanks everyone! I do not think she had ever been paired up with a male. The person told me they had her on hopper mice but I already moved her down to fuzzies. The top of the hide on the left is under the RHP and gets to a surface temp of about 90, with ambient on that side being about 80. She does spend a lot of time burrowing in the substrate. I do have a deeper enclosure to move her to soon. I think it is 24x16x16 inches. I plan to then use this smaller enclosure for a male at some point. With as rarely as she eats I had not even considered her being overweight. I will look more into that. Thanks for the reassurance!
Also, I leave the mouse on a jar lid in the enclosure overnight

