Ami and Rube have lost their appetites

[Ami_and_Rube's_owner]

I have had Ami and Rube since Novemberj2008. They were born April 2007. They have always been vigorous feeders until just recently. I just moved them into a new cage because my cat mashed up the top of their old one and the bottom had become cracked. The new one gives them a lot more vertical space. Since moving them into the new vivarium about 6 weeks ago, Rube has eaten twice and Ami only once. I've checked the temperature and the warmest part of the cage is 78 - 80 F. Interestingly enough, even though I have separate hides, they seem to prefer being together in the one at the cooler part of the cage which is about 74 - 76 F. This problem started in early February so it couldn't be "spring fever" could it? Neither of them appear skinny, although Ami has lost some about 10% of his weight since his last feeding and just shed about a week ago. They are both pretty active. I did recently get them on extra-large mice which they seem quite capable of eating as the mice are not over 1.5 x their width and they haven't regurgitated anything they have eaten.

Any ideas? Am I worrying over nothing?

 

[Iguanagirl8662]

I have had Ami and Rube since Novemberj2008. They were born April 2007. They have always been vigorous feeders until just recently. I just moved them into a new cage because my cat mashed up the top of their old one and the bottom had become cracked. The new one gives them a lot more vertical space. Since moving them into the new vivarium about 6 weeks ago, Rube has eaten twice and Ami only once. I've checked the temperature and the warmest part of the cage is 78 - 80 F. Interestingly enough, even though I have separate hides, they seem to prefer being together in the one at the cooler part of the cage which is about 74 - 76 F. This problem started in early February so it couldn't be "spring fever" could it? Neither of them appear skinny, although Ami has lost some about 10% of his weight since his last feeding and just shed about a week ago. They are both pretty active. I did recently get them on extra-large mice which they seem quite capable of eating as the mice are not over 1.5 x their width and they haven't regurgitated anything they have eaten.

Any ideas? Am I worrying over nothing?

I would separate them, cohabbing is stressful for snakes because they are solitary animals. The move to the new tank may have also added more stress on them which may also add on to why they are not eating. I would also raise the temperature of the hot side to 86F. Make sure you use a digital thermometer with a probe not the dial thermometers they are not accurate.


Good luck I hope the start eating again.

 

[Ami_and_Rube's_owner]

Thanks, Iguanagirl! You were at least partly right.

I don't think cohabbing had much to do with it as they have been together for over a year with no problems. In fact, despite having the option to go into separate hides, they seem to prefer curling up together and have shown absolutely no aggression towards each other. I also don't think moving into the new cage would have been that upsetting for them. When I first brought them home from the pet store, which had to be a far more stressful move, they were both eating thawed frozen hoppers within a week of having moved to my apartment.

It does appear that they did need more heat. Once I raised the warm part of the cage to 83 F they both moved over there. However, I wasn't quite out of the woods yet. I was actually more worried about Ami, my lavender, because he hadn't eaten in about 6 weeks. Rube had consumed two mice two weeks ago and was turning blue, so I wasn't really expecting him to eat right now. When I tried to feed Ami after the temperature adjustment, he lunged at the mouse and gave it an enthusiastic hug and started to consume it and would get the first third of it down his throat and then abandon it. The next day, I tried a slightly smaller 32gm mouse with the same result. I had just recently put them on Rodent Pro Extra Large mice and thought I would try smaller rodents. So, I got a couple of frozen mice from the local pet shop and fed the smaller 16gm feeder to him this evening. He got that down just fine. Whew! What a relief!

I find it curious that he was having trouble with the big mice as he had eaten two when I first switched him over. Also Rube had eaten a couple and he is a bit smaller. Rube is about 500 gm. and Ami is 550 gm. Also, these extra large mice are not more than 1.5 time the width of either snake. In fact, they are probably just about the same width. So much for that rule of thumb. I guess it may be because he hasn't eaten in so long that the big ones were too much for him. So I guess I will try feeding him the smaller size for the next couple of weeks and then try the XLs again. I hope he starts eating them soon. I have about 200 of them in my fridge's freezer and only 2 snakes to feed them to! LOL!

 

[bitsy]

Adult males can on feeding strike this time of year as they're only interested in mating. This lasts from a couple of weeks to a few months.

Adult females can go off their food when they're going to lay eggs. They run out of room inside them. Sometimes they can be persuaded to take smaller food items instead of their normal ones.

Either scenario could apply to you. If you keep a male and female together, they will inevitably mate. You don't have to do any kind of preparation to achieve this, they'll just get on with the job.