My male ball python won’t eat. He has been breeding for over a month now and has gone off food. Should I be worried? How long will he go off ? I know it is common with breeding.
His feeding response as of now is : oh that smells familiar let me take a closer look. Hmmmmm still can’t tell maybe if I lick it. Hmmmm nope don’t want it backs away.
How many times have you paired him to females and how much does he weigh? How long have you let him stay undisturbed after breeding, and is he still in an area where he can smell the females? It really depends on the individual animal and how much stress they have been put under. Some go off food for a month, some 2 months, and I have even heard of them going for a year off food.
Let’s see I’ve paired them 3 times all locks, he weighed around 600 grams, it’s usually been a week off then offer food, maybe he is still in an area. He is in my bedroom and she is pretty much I little ways down the hallway
Hes in full on breeding mode most males go off food during breeding you could try offering smaller meals
Some males will stop eating when they are being paired over the years I have tried a few things to prevent that and based in my experience keeping males in a tighter/smaller than usual tubs V18 or 12 quarts will do the trick during breeding season.
Whether the male needs to be pulled out of rotation will be a personal call based on how many females he is paired to and how often, weight loss (mainly overall appearance etc)
At that size it is definitely a male that need to be monitored while breeding.
At this point Im done pairing him. But how do I get him out of breeding mode and eating again?
From what I am aware, you just have to wait.
That’s the million dollar question.
Like I said there are many things that can be attempted
Downsizing
Changing substrate type
Changing temperatures (depending on where you have them)
Car ride
And most importantly patience, I don’t recommend changing prey type unless really necessary and if prepared to feed a new prey type from than on.