Maturity / feeding

[Julie-anne]

My housemate has a male coastal carpet about 1.5 - 2yrs old (not sure of hatch date). He stopped eating at the beginning of the year around Feb and has only fed once since then. We have tried varying his temps, feeding him at night, giving him privacy etc but he's still not interested.

I've heard that often males stop eating during the breeding seasons, could this be why he's fasting?... What months are the breeding season? (i'm in Oz) and at what age would he be sexually mature?

Also, at what point should we start worrying about his health? at the moment he's still active and doesn't seem to have any health probs.

[SNKMST]

Some Pythons will stop eating during the winter months June-August.

Just a few questions,

1. What are you offering the python rat/mice?
2. What temps is the enclosure currently at?
3. What has the snake been eating and how often for the first 1.5 or 2 years of its life?

[Julie-anne]

I can't give you exact answers as its not my python but this is as much as i know...

1. At the moment he is being fed f/t mice, which is what he has eaten since he was a hatchie (as he has grown the size of the mice have increased accordingly)
2. Not sure of the temps at the moment but i can check with my housemate. We tried varying the temps.
3. As a hatchie he was eating about once a week but by the end of last year i think he was being fed larger mice about once every 2 weeks.

Thanks for the help

[SNKMST]

Just check that the temps arent to hot or to cold for that matter, my Diamonds seem to thrive on a hot spot of about 28C.