7yo stimsons refusing to eat. Lethargic.

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EddieM

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Our 7yo stimsons use to feed really well every 9 days. He’s been refusing food in the last two weeks and has become lethargic. Still easy to handle, not snappy. His eyes are sometimes milky but then back to normal. He shed once since we got him, but we were away and by all accounts he was still feeding. Because we didn’t see him shed, not sure if his change of behaviour is related.

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Sounds like this is your first snake and you're just unfamiliar with the normal realities of them.

The eye is clear and bright and that rules out any of the potential issues which 'sometimes cloudy eyes' could relate to. If you give timeframes it'll be easier to say, but normally they'll have cloudy eyes for a few days during the 10 days or so before they slough. The eyes will clear up before the actual slough.

Actual lethargy is a critical sign something is urgently wrong, but I'm guessing you just mean your snake isn't particularly active. That's normal, he's an adult python. They naturally spend days, weeks, sometimes even months sitting hidden away doing literally nothing. If he seems to be weak and have trouble moving then by all means panic in an irrational frenzy, but if you just mean he isn't doing much, don't worry, he's just doing what he is supposed to.

An adult male python not eating for a couple of weeks is normal. I would usually only feed an adult male python about 5-20 times per year. I had one adult male Antaresia in perfect health not want to eat for over a year, which included two breeding seasons, and he fathered babies in both. He stopped feeding around this time of year (perfectly normal), bred that winter, didn't want to feed the following spring or summer, bred again the next winter, and then late in the following spring he decided he wanted to eat again. Snakes don't eat very much, and pythons don't eat much even by snake standards, and males don't eat as much as females.

You haven't given much information at all but it sounds like everything is completely normal :) Snakes are unusual creatures, sometimes people expect them to be normal, and when they're not it freaks them out :)
 
Thanks He shed mid January for the first time. Every day I pop my head in he would come out of hiding just to look. When we take him out to handle him, he s usually quite active until he finds a spot under my shirt and sleeps there. Lately, same routine but he doesn’t come out to check us out, he just stays and hide. I can touch him a bit: no response, and he’s definitely wanting to hide if I lift up his hiding shell. He will almost bury himself into his coil and not move.
Maybe past the excitement of a new environment, we got him in December, or just pre-shedding. It’s sudden lack of curiousiry and exploring which is visibly different. Otherwise, you’re right, he looks healthy, still pooping a feed he had about 12 days ago. Just cleaned his enclosure while his resting on the grass (cairns). And yes just a change in behaviour which I thought was weird. But it is our first snake, so I guess, it’s a learning curve. His skin is soft, his bluish tint has gone, back to his camo colour.

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So he went cloudy and then cleared up? That means he's about to slough. He definitely just wants to stay hidden during this time until he sheds his skin, and playing with him, putting him in the garden, etc, will just piss him off. He might tolerate it, but he definitely doesn't want it. Naturally, snakes don't hunt during a shed cycle, they generally don't go out and explore, it is the most vulnerable time for them, so they just either sit hidden away, or sit hidden away, come out to warm up if it's safe, and then go back to being hidden away when they're warm. After they shed their skin they'll resume normal activity. In the second picture it does look like he's coming up for a slough.
 
Thanks heaps! It makes sense. We’ll let him be and you’re right, he looks so much more confortable in his enclosure’s hidding spor
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So he went cloudy and then cleared up? That means he's about to slough. He definitely just wants to stay hidden during this time until he sheds his skin, and playing with him, putting him in the garden, etc, will just piss him off. He might tolerate it, but he definitely doesn't want it. Naturally, snakes don't hunt during a shed cycle, they generally don't go out and explore, it is the most vulnerable time for them, so they just either sit hidden away, or sit hidden away, come out to warm up if it's safe, and then go back to being hidden away when they're warm. After they shed their skin they'll resume normal activity. In the second picture it does look like he's coming up for a slough.
You were right he shed last night
 
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