Coastal Not So Keen to Eat

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markannab

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Hi

I wonder if I could get some advice. I have a 7.5 foot coastal that's about 3.5 years old. In the past, she'd eat reasonably aggressively (strike, coil, little hesitation). However, over the last couple of months, it can be a real trial to get her to eat, even though she is feeding most weeks.

As I have always done, I defrost her rat at room temperature over a few hours. Then, a little while before feeding, I move the the rat into the sun to give it warmth. We have always fed her out on the lawn. Now, we'll spend half an hour delicately presenting the rat to her (dangling it in front of her; laying it on the lawn in front of her, etc). But she shows absolutely no interest.

Often, she will eventually take it in a very lazy, half-interested manner. Then we give the rat a bit of a tug to get her to coil. Yesterday, she wouldn't eat.

Is it likely she's just going through a "stage"? Or am I doing something wrong in the defrosting/heating area?

Thanks,
Mark.
 
I'm sure someone more experienced will come along and provide a definitive answer but at that size and age a weekly feed may well be too often depending on size of food, and she may just not be hungry.
 
That may well be the case. The only thing that makes me think it may not be so is that she's still growing quite rapidly at about 2.5mm a day! But it's always a possibility.
 
3.5 yrs old?... Monthly large feeds r adequate
 
Update: On the feed directly following me starting this thread, she refused to eat. We're now up to six weeks since her feed. I've read enough on here to know not to worry about it. But, it's still unnerving! She's lost a tiny bit of bulk but her behaviour remains the same as always: In her tall enclosure crawls up and down regularly, drinks every day and is friendly and active. I offered her a juicy mouse the other day which was refused. This Saturday, I'll step up the temptation a bit more by following advice about braining or maybe the dipping of it in chicken stock. :)
 
I would try defrosting the rat in warm/ hot tap water water , rather then leaving it out to defrost then putting it in the sun .
 
UPDATE: We're now up to 6.5 months since Mrs Roper ate. In this time, she's stopped growing (I assume that's related to not eating) and has just shed for the first time in a long time. She's lost very little condition and her behaviour has remained fine in every way (friendly, active, drinking). I was hoping that after her shed, she's kick back in to eating but she hasn't. We've tried her on rats and mice. We've heated them in hot water and in the sun. I've even wacked the mouse/rat over a brick to get the juices going, but she's totally not interested. I'm guessing that she may have started eating but now we're heading into winter. Her enclosure has a hot end of 32° with a significantly cooler other end.
 
I myself have a female coastal who is 3 yrs old she used to strike her food but 6 months ago she stopped and would not eat not even mice her favorite food, long story short i now have to put her in a tub 2 days prior to feeding so as I'm not handling her on feed day,now i have to throw 6 mice one at a time in her tub as she won't eat rats anymore,so maybe that might work for you fingers crossed I know it can be frustrating as I bought her as a pair and now my males almost half her size bigger than she is so good luck
 
It is frustrating. She was growing at a rate of a foot every four months. Assuming she would have kept growing if she'd kept on eating, she'd now be around nine feet - the length I'd always dreamed of her reaching. But I figure that, aside from health/environment issues, a snake won't starve itself to death. In time, it'll go back to eating . . . won't it? :)
 
with my coastal even though she is very young I always thaw the rat it hot water to ensure it is heated right through. but make the water s hot as you can handle but let it cool a bit before feeding. and also a way to get them strike (this usually works for me but ll snakes are different) is you hold the rat near their heat pits (those pit things on the side or under the jaw) then pull the rat back. this sort of triggers their reaction. give it a go! but it all depends on the snake!
 
dont stress mate my snake hasnt eaten in 5 months
 
UPDATE: Since taking the fresh quail, she's still refused rats. I finally located a fantastically priced seller of quail but decided to try her once again on a rat. Before doing so, I rubbed liquid chicken stock into it's fur, then rubbed it dry. She took it! The quail was small; the rat is likely 240g. So this is her first big feed.

Incidentally, the chicken stock wasn't any old product. My wife sourced it for me. She said most stock had additives like onion and garlic! (Surely there's nothing worse than a snake with garlic breath!). She managed to find one that is basically vegetable-based - no animal product. I didn't know whether that would fool a snake into thinking it was a bird. Seemingly, it did.
 
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