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winter months not eating?

Fozzy8810

Fozzy8810

New member
I'm kinda worried on whether or not i should be concerned about my Opal's eating habit. Since December 20th he hasn't eaten anything. I tried to feed him Dec. 29th, and again Jan 4th but he still refused to eat.

I was planning on doing the monthly cleaning of his tank on the 29th during his feeding but he didn't eat. He has not been very active for the past week or two and i wasn't sure if this behavior along with his eating habit was due to the winter or what. Should I have a concern? Thank you in advance!
 
my tank is 4 ft long. so i use 2 UTHs ( side by side covering half the tank) and a ceramic lamp over teh cool end. The temp is the surface on the cool side is 78(day) and 72(night) the warm end is 88(day) 82(night). The ceramic lamp doesn't emit light, and it's actually fairly warm since my 6mo kitten will jump on the top of the tank to steal his heat.

The weather in MD has changed A LOT. sometimes it'll be 30 one week and 50 or 60 the next. Because my room is the coldest bedroom I have a plug in heater that heats up the room pretty sufficiently.
 
Should be ok as long as you don't see a drop in body weight. Snakes can go for long periods. Could just be the fella is doing what nature asks and brumating.
 
Would a Corn go into brumation if temps were regularly hitting the mid-high 80s though? I always thought it was an environment-led behaviour rather than an automatic natural response. If temps are good and food is available, there's no imperative to brumate.

Having this discussion on another thread, so it doesn't seem like you're alone!
 
It may be stress of some sort. My ball python hasn't eaten since November, we moved in the first week of December and he hasn't acted like himself. Is the kitten pestering the snake much? Reptiles stress out over the slightest things, like Mother in Laws :).
 
Hey Everybody!!!

Thanks for all of the input. Well it's really really strange but the kitten and him get a long. I never let the kitten near him when he is out of his tank. But they will sorta meet at the top of the tank and then she'll start purring ???o.o. But she has done this for the past couple of months, and he would eat then. Actually I'm not sure if this could be a contributing factor to the temps, but I got him a new hide that is made out of some glass or ceramic or porcelain breakable material ( from petsmart) I'm thinking that his new hid eon the cool side blocks more heat than the wooden one on his warm side.
 
Cats and snakes don't "Get a long" You're snake is curious but it's probably stressed out more than anything.

I hope you figure it out I have snakes that go off feed around this time of year and it's not an issue. With it being so ung you'll just have to see how it plans out.
 
If the snake isn't shying away from the cat then I wouldn't worry about it. I used to have a cat and a viv on the floor. The snake and the cat used to follow each other up and down the glass. They just seemed interested rather than spooked (although I'm sure the cat would have loved to "play" if given half a chance!).

If a Corn is scared, then it will go and hide, rattle its tail or freeze and play dead. If it stays near the kitten without doing any of that and flicks its tongue ("sniffing") then I'd say you can probably discount the cat as a source of stress.
 
Maybe too hot? Do you know the temps of your UTH's? You have to get a prob thermometer sitting right in the middle of the UTH on top of the glass to know it's temp. I guess you could use a temp gun too but you would have to clear away all the bedding to get to the glass for a good read. I know snakes will stop eating if they are too cold and if they are too hot. Do you have anything to regulate the temps like a dimmer? Because those UTH's can get very hot and so can heat lamps if not controlled.

Now if you check out all these things and they aren't the problem then maybe it could be due to winter but it could also be stress or worse and illness. All three of my snakes have been kept at the same temps year round but during the winter they seem less active and sleep a lot more. But they always eat when I wake them up for a meal. The only snake that has been picky with winter feeding is the kingsnake. But he never misses more than one meal. So it could be a winter thing but I don't know since none of my snake fully go off feed they just seem more lazy and more picky during winter months.
 
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