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18 month old snake, winter feeding problems....HELP!

B

B_ELLIS

New member
Our corn hatched July 09. Fed it using the Munsen Plan (found on this site) ever since. The snake is now 380 gms and a few inches short of 4 feet. Since October 2010 it is being fed an adult mouse every 9 days. The snake has always been fed outside of its tank in a Rubbermaid bin. It has always struck at its food and wrapped its body around it prior to eating. It has also always pooped prior to its next feeding … until recently.

Live up in Canada and the house gets to 65F at night from late fall to early spring. There is an UTH located beneath its main hide (~85F in this cave) in its 55 gallon tank. For the last 5 feedings the snake has not struck at the mouse so I have laid it on the bottom of the bin for the snake to eat at its leisure. Most of the time it does just that. As for pooping lately, it either poops in the feeding tank or days after it has eaten its next meal. Is all this change in behavior normal for an 18 month old snake? Could this be an affect due to the cooler nights now that it is nearing adult size? Do I need to be worried? This is our first snake and during last winter, when it was ~6 months old, this did not occur.

HELP!!!!
 
My guess is the lack of feeding response is temperature related. See if you can get your hands on a temperature gun. Get accurate temps throughout the viv. I'd continue offering food in the cage (admittedly, I'm no fan of feeding outside), and get an additional heat source if needed. A corn close to 400 grams can skip a few meals without worry.
 
In the area well away for the heater, temps can drop to 60-65F during the night.

If the difference of feeding is different due to temp, I don't understand why it did not occur last Winter when the snake was ~6 months old????

Don't know where I can get a temp gun.

Worried!
 
I'd say it was normal for a growing snake. They can change behaviours as they mature and some of mine have changed their approach to eating as they've become more mature. The pooping habits can change as well. Some of mine have never struck at a mouse in their lives. It's not an issue - as long as that mouse goes down the hatch any-old-how, the battle's been won!

The outside temperature shouldn't be affecting the temperature produced by your UTH - if you have it set to 85 degrees and you're confident that the thermometer is accurate, then that's the heat it should always be (unless your stat or UTH are malfunctioning). It just might have to stay on for longer at a time if the ambient temp in the room is slightly lower.

As long as he's eating and digesting, I don't think there's a problem. Complete refusal to eat would be a different matter.
 
I'm going to guess the UTH isn't on a thermostat. As for temp guns, try reptilebasics.com. UTH's heat output is correlated by wattage. The temperature is affected by ambient room temp.
 
It sounds like your snake is very well-fed! I wonder if cutting him back to a feeding every 14 days might help. Some snakes just aren't that hungry in the winter. Try not to worry too much; he can go months without eating (as long as he is in good health) and be just fine.
 
It'll probably be much higher than 85 on the floor then. If you can afford a temp gun, that would give you a better idea of what's going on.
 
I have using miniature two stick thermometers to keep track of tank temps. One in the warm end of the tank and the other in the cooler end. Bought an Exo Terra digital thermometer with probe last night . Last measured the temp in the cave during the initial tanks set up (over a year ago) with a stick thermometer. Will insert the new temp probe in the cave tonight to find out the current temp in there. Maybe it is a lot cooler than I thought. Temp in the tank outside of the cave, at ground level, is 72F according to the new thermometer. Stayed that temp throughout the night.

Cheers,

Bill
 
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