Woma has no feeding response

[Jilajaku]

Hi all. I'm a long time reader of this site, but have only recently joined. I'm a fan of the woma, and have had one for just over 2 years now. As I see often in the posts, you can't just stop at one snake, and neither have I!

My problem at the moment is that my 34mth old male woma last ate 25th Dec., and now just avoids food. (The last meal was a thawed medium rat).
He is quite active most evenings at the front of the vivarium, and maybe twice a week he is let out and handled. He is very well behaved & has never struck / bitten.

He refused his small rat (thawed out in hot tap water) this evening, but I'm currently thawing out another small rat. This time I'm keeping it in the ziplock bag to see if that may be his problem.

Thanks. Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[Renagade]

try him with a quail, what are your temps like? has anything environmental changed inside or outside the enclosure?

 

[crikey]

try not to run wter on it as this will get rid of the smell of the rat i used to run mine under hot wter and than mine stoped feeding so now i just put them in a tub and put a 25w light on them and that will take about half an hour to thaw out fully than feed it to them see if this works if not get a smaller rat so a fuzzy rat and give that to him and work your way back to his normal size food as he should most deffantly tae a smaller rat just dont run it un water just lt it thaw to room temp

 

[Jilajaku]

Thanks for the info. The temps are about 27-30C. There hasn't been any environmental changes - the other 3 are feeding well. They were all fed similarly - rats, & 2 adult mice I thought he may try instead ... he refused. All fed on the rodents thawed in water. All feed from the same source. Cheers..

 

[Aslan]

Are you sure it's a Woma!?

Time frame is out of ordinary for a Woma but is not so long that you should be overly concerned. I don't know what your setup is like but I often find that heading back to basics can get snakes started again. A simple tub, nice and warm with a lot of hides.

 

[Jilajaku]

Yes, Aslan, it IS a woma. Unfortunately, he has not been an aggressive feeder since I've had him (Nov.,09). At his best, he gets close & "vacuums" the food in - he has never struck at it. The others .. well, typical woma appetite, but only one has the "keep outta my way" attitude when feeding.

Tried him with small thawed rat (in ziplock bag). No dice. Will look for quail / day old chick tomorrow.

 

[pythons73]

That is so hard to beleive,ALL my Aspidities smell the food a mile away and by the time i open there cage,they are ready.The female BHP which is around 5-6ft literally launches out of the enclosure.The male Woma has settled down a little,however he LOVES his food.You dont often hear a Woma or BHP yearling+ having feedin issues.Just try a quail-=chicken see how you go,maybe up the temperature to 32-34c.

 

[Bryce]

Up those temps, in summer my sit in 34-35c irrespective of feeding or not (in summer that is). 27-30 is a bit low for a woma.

 

[Jilajaku]

Thanks pythons73 & Bryce. I'll get the temps up to 34c and see if things improve.

 

[tigger66]

Extra Info

The male woma shares the enclosure with a slightly older and larger female- could he be stressing out? When he is active he is pressing his head right into the small gap between the glass and the enclosure and when you open it he just about launches himself out. We have also noticed some "marks" on him. Just to avoid any confusion Jilajaku is my partner and had forgot to add this info.