First time posting.
Bought a year old Mojave Spotnose mid August 2025 and I can’t get her to eat. We bought her expecting her to be the size of our palm (based on photo) and she ended up being 2x bigger than that. We recently upgraded her terrarium which is now 48”x24” 24”. We have a heat mat on a thermostat. I recently added a heat projector to help with ambient air temp. Humidity has been kept 60-80. She has 2 of the same hides. We have stopped taking her out over the last 2 weeks to try and decrease her stress. We have tried mice and 2 different sized rats. I have tried feeding her at night, during the day, lights off, lights on. I’ve tried dipping the head of the rats in chicken stock, vanilla, I’ve brained the rat, I’ve always heated the rat with a hair dryer. Used forceps as well as just placed it on a container lid and left it overnight. I’ve even tried covering her terrarium with a blanket overnight to make her feel more secure.
She won’t eat! Please someone help! She looks healthy still. She’s not in shed. Although she hasn’t shed since we’ve had her.
The only thing I can think of is the temperature. I’ve had a really hard time getting the temp of the terrarium to be consistently 88-95 degrees.
Any suggestions?
First off … Is this the ambient temperature? Only the basking/hot spot should be around 90 at most. If the overall temp in the hot side is 95 and the ‘cool side’ is 88, this could lead to prolonged issues from the heat like dehydration which can keep a snake from eating.
As for the rest… Has the snake eaten at all since you received her? Right now the snake is going to be more stressed by you trying to get them to eat. Ideally you don’t want to handle a snake for the first 2 weeks or longer if they aren’t eating. So stopping handling her is a small step in the right direction.
How is the snake’s behavior in the enclosure? Does she strike at things? Is she constantly cruising the enclosure like pacing back and forth? Sometimes immediately putting a ball python into a large enclosure is actually a huge source of stress.
What is the snake doing when you’re offering her food?
Was she purchased from a breeder? Have you contacted them and asked how the snake was housed and fed before? The easiest way to get them to eat is typically to recreate how they were kept and then slowly changing once they are established and eating regularly.
Have you tried feeding live some snakes just wont eat frozen thawed
Unless I’m misunderstanding the timeline, you got her in mid August so… a month and a half ago? That’s a lot of things to have tried in just a month and a half. I wouldn’t be offering meals any more frequently than once a week, any more than that and it will just cause more stress. I’d just give her a couple weeks off from offering altogether.
Secondly, agree with armiyana. Your basking temp should be around 88-89, but the rest of the enclosure should be low 80s. If you’re trying to keep the air temp of the terrarium to 88-95 degrees that is definitely way too hot.
Cold side is reading around 75. But the warm side is usually only around 85. I know this needs to be warmer. I’m trying.
No Becca has not eaten since we’ve had her. And I’ve tried reaching out to the breeder and he hasn’t been much help but I can try again.
During the day she is in her warm hide. Towards the evening and throughout the night (and sometimes in the morning) she will come out and explore lots! She loves climbing all over. She has only been in the bigger terrarium for 4 days now. The other one was definitely too small.
When I attempt to feed her she usually just freezes. When I use vanilla on the rat she looked to closest to striking but has never striked at anything. I typically hold the thawed and warmed (with hair dryer) rat with the forceps about 5” away from her. She typically just stops, sometimes she slowly moves towards the rat, but will eventually retract and hide somewhere else.
She was eating frozen from the breeder so I don’t want to go backwards.
We have only tried once a week since we’ve had her. Always on sundays.
I’m just trying to keep the warm side warm enough. The cold side is typically in the 70s.
The warm side at 85 is perfect. The only spot that should be 88 is the hot spot for basking and belly heat, not the air temp.
As far as the first cage being too small, that may not be the case. A lot of people want to just put their BP in a large enclosure immediately. But that’s a quick way to stress them out.
Ideally you want them to be snug and cozy when you first get them and eventually size up the enclosure when they are steadily eating.
BPs tend to like the food brought to their hides like a Rodent door dash. They’re ambush hunters by nature, so if you are only attempting to feed when they’re roaming that’s not always the best way to get started. Once they are eating regularly and are familiar with you they might roam to the front and surf the window, but try only offering when they are in the hide.
They may also be used to only eating live. If you haven’t already tried it’s worth a shot.
If they still don’t eat after at least a week of hands off and no feeding attempts, you may need to try a temporary plastic bin set up with a heat mat on a thermostat. The smaller size may be the key to jumpstarting the appetite and eventually getting her ready to move back into the bigger enclosure
Thank you for the information!
We will wait another 2 weeks before feeding and will continue with not holding her. If she still doesn’t then we will try a smaller tub.
What is the best way to do the tub? How do you secure it? Do I use substrate or just paper. Is it a clear tub? How small are we talking for a 2’ BP?