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Help! 10 yr old snake stopped eating for the first time

B

Bthuynh

New member
Hey guys!

My 10 year old snake started refusing to eat about 2 months ago, and this is the very first time in his life.

He had a healthy shed about a month ago
He drinks water regularly
Seems more active now

Also, he has a scar on his nose from pushing against the enclosure too hard.. which I noticed 2 weeks ago!

**whenever I try to feed him he seems really interested in the mouse, and even pushes his nose against it really hard? But doesn’t open his mouth.. and seems to push the ground beneath the mouse as well.

Has anyone encountered this behavior before? I have another male that sometimes goes 4 months without eating during breeding season which is normal. But this snake has always been such an easy eater! So it seems he has lost a lot of weight and I’m just worried since it is out of character.

Thank you!
 
The behavior sounds like typical breeding season behavior, but the fact that he's lost a lot of weight is worrying. Have you tried making the mouse more appetizing, either with braining it or heating it up extra hot? I would also try putting him in a container with the mouse (if you're not already doing that) instead of feeding him in his enclosure.
 
hypnoctopus said:
The behavior sounds like typical breeding season behavior, but the fact that he's lost a lot of weight is worrying. Have you tried making the mouse more appetizing, either with braining it or heating it up extra hot? I would also try putting him in a container with the mouse (if you're not already doing that) instead of feeding him in his enclosure.
Click to expand...

I thought so too, but it’s just worrying since he’s never gone off feeding in the last 10 years..

I have not tried braining it yet, and I’m not too familiar with how to heat it up? But I am getting desperate and will have to give it a shot next week.

Could the scar on his nose be bothering him enough to stop eating as well? He also has a few tiny scale injuries on the largest part of his body from rubbing against a rock I have in his enclosure (I’ve removed it now, but I initially put it there to help him shed.) And I’ve been applying polysporin to the scars for the last 2 weeks. Regardless of the scars, he stopped eating even before he injured himself. I’ve also heard of people trying to feed their injured snakes smaller mice while they are healing?

Thanks!
 
Try fuzzy sized live mice if you can get them. Adult snakes find them VERY hard to resist. Might kickstart the feed response.
 
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