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Web_Himself

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Hi guys got a male diamond he'd be about 5 years old. He has for some reason gone off the bite, shows no interest in rats, nothing has changed with his enclosure or heating. The other snake that's in there with him is fine. It would of been 5 weeks at least since his last meal and this is a snake ive never had a drama with before in his life. Ive been trying to think of the slightest change to the environment but ive got nothing. My little mate is starting to worry me.
 
This time of the year, adult male Diamonds are usually looking for females rather than food.
 
i dont know why you would want to feed a diamond python in winter ????
i stop feeding mine in april .... and dont offer them food again untill late september . They dont loose any condition at all - its what happens in the wild .
But if i am breeding them i wont offer them food until after mating ( which is right now until november ) .
I have 40 ys experience .
 
As the other members suggest, this is just a normal hormonal phase - adult male Carpets/Diamonds usually go off their food for at least a couple of months at this time of the year.

Jamie
 
Nothing else needs saying more than what [MENTION=27470]hulloosenator[/MENTION] and [MENTION=1341]Allan[/MENTION] and [MENTION=41820]pythoninfinite[/MENTION] has said. Or actually maybe one more suggestion, read, read and then read some more. But asking experts here is certainly one great part of your education
 
Hi Web, I have a Woma, she's did exactly the same thing, she refused food for 5 weeks, even then only seemed remotely interested. She will only eat Quail now. Same as your situation, nothing has changed, I keep her temps constant throughout the year. I'm hearing you, they mess with our minds and make us worry something terrible. In the end I put it down to my girl hitting sexual maturity, makes you wonder even if you keep the temps constant do they have senses that tell them it's winter.....
 
^ yes they know what time of year it is, regardless of temps they notice things like daylight hours and I've seen experienced members talk about them detecting change in barometric pressure.
 
thanks everyone for getting back to me, it all makes sense now. At what age do they normally get sexually active? Ive had this pair together for about 3 years I guess and end of last year was the 1st time I had dramas with a snake not eating, but that was because the female had a gut full of eggs which was an experience :) So I need to get them separated pronto haha.
 
Also with keeping diamonds, out of all our pythons they should be kept with the shortest heating period and never heat at night unless your cage gets below 4degrees in winter. As mentioned, the daylight hours are shorter in winter and the ambient temps especially at night are low, so its more so the temps at night that make them go off their food. That is good, and healthy for them.
 
Also with keeping diamonds, out of all our pythons they should be kept with the shortest heating period and never heat at night unless your cage gets below 4degrees in winter. As mentioned, the daylight hours are shorter in winter and the ambient temps especially at night are low, so its more so the temps at night that make them go off their food. That is good, and healthy for them.

Not sure 4 degrees is a safe cut off point. In the wild pythons can escape the cold by going underground etc. I would be thinking more like 14 degrees. Im just throwing that number out there, maybe diamonds can go lower but 4 degrees sounds dangerously cold to me. Just my two bob. Cheers!

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Hi guys got a male diamond he'd be about 5 years old. He has for some reason gone off the bite, shows no interest in rats, nothing has changed with his enclosure or heating. The other snake that's in there with him is fine. It would of been 5 weeks at least since his last meal and this is a snake ive never had a drama with before in his life. Ive been trying to think of the slightest change to the environment but ive got nothing. My little mate is starting to worry me.

Like everyone has said its normal. If he won't feed in the warmer months check for mouth infection which can result from poor hygiene, not cleaning their poo out etc so they're breathing crap air all the time. I cringe when i see photos of peoples animals with an enclosure full of crap. Not suggesting that's your problem just something to be aware of. Don't stress mate, one of my pythons didn't eat for 8 months and she's all good. Cheers.
 
Not sure 4 degrees is a safe cut off point. In the wild pythons can escape the cold by going underground etc. I would be thinking more like 14 degrees. Im just throwing that number out there, maybe diamonds can go lower but 4 degrees sounds dangerously cold to me. Just my two bob. Cheers!

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Hi mate, I understand what your saying, yes 4 degrees is cold...damn cold. Would probably kill most subspecies of morelia, apart from diamonds, and maybe Bredli and Metcalfi.
I've been studying wild diamonds for many years now and all my keeping and breeding skills comes from these studies. As a reptile relocator here on the central coast I see many, many diamonds. I have personally observed and recorded the body temperature of a wild diamond at 4 degrees.
I say 4 degrees here, not meaning for it to be a cut off point, but more just because this is the very lowest I have ever recorded body temps. They may survive even lower! But not much.
I understand it will sound far fetched to many people, but this snake was perfectly healthy and very robust young male of about 4 years old, 1.6m long. He was in a position that received early morning sunlight and was lying on mulch on the ground protected from the wind. For the area he was in, 4 degrees in the morning is not a common theme in winter, temps will drop here regularly though to between 5 and 10. Using a thermo gun I recorded his exterior exposed skin temp, internally he would have been warmer, especially around the vital organs. I personally believe that this would be very very close to their lower parameters of what they can handle, and only viable as long as they get their temps back up to at least the mid to late teens soon after.
There is some very good info on diamonds in that book called "The complete Carpet Python", I remember reading that section and thinking at the time how well the author (cant remember name)mostly... got it right. I read and hear a lot of stuff on here and other sites and books, about diamonds, that I don't agree with, like the woman who reckoned diamonds are a weaker subspecies then all other morelia, or that they are more difficult to keep then others........ but this is plain wrong, they thrive in the right conditions, and I have mountains of evidence that they are just as solid as anything else, it is basically keeper error or lack of understanding of their natural environment that is their demise in captivity.
For example, a diamond will hunt and feed at 18-20 degrees, they can metabolise and digest slower and in cooler temps and remain healthy, I quite often find males at this time of year right now coming out with the warmer weather that have rock solid lumps of old urates in their gut still from the last feed of rat they took after following the rats into the roofs of houses where they end up spending winter when it gets to cold to be mobile. They can have two or three of these lumps in them and they just crap it out nce they start moving around again.
I have also witnessed wild male diamonds fighting over a female!
 
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Cool mate! Good to see someone who knows what they are taking about. I knew diamonds run cooler but that's amazing. Cheers!
 
Yeh I clean their enclosure as soon as I see **** in there. I know this is way off topic but Ive still got some babies that wont eat bloody pinkies. Will take lizards but only way to get them to eat pinkys is to force feed them which I don't like doing.
 
If you're using pinky rats then try mice or vice versa. You can scent the pinky with a frozen lizard. Leave the lizard in a zip lock bag in the freezer and get it out at feed time, put the warm pinky in the bag, rub it all around and then take it out and offer it to the little tacker. Should work a treat after a while. If that doesn't work you can also hold the lizard behind the pinky when its offered so there's more scent. You can put the lizard back in the freezer for next time also. Try offering an unscented pinky before and after every scented feed. I hope you're not catching and killing lizards from the wild. I accidently squashed a big gecko in the back door and thought well he's buggered now i might as well use it now. The good thing with using the frozen lizard is you only need one. Force feeding is pretty rough and not much fun for both parties. Good luck mate!
 
thanks muzza ill go get some rats today see if it works. Never thought of freezing a lizard to get the scent I was just grabbing them from the garden and rubbing the pinkies on them. Yeh im not a fan of force feeding but its better than the alternative I guess.
 
Yeh I clean their enclosure as soon as I see **** in there. I know this is way off topic but Ive still got some babies that wont eat bloody pinkies. Will take lizards but only way to get them to eat pinkys is to force feed them which I don't like doing.

Starting Carpets & Diamonds on pink mice is guaranteed to cause some problems with non-feeders. Hatchy Cs & Ds are able to eat large fuzzy or small weaner mice from the time they start feeding, and most will show a definite preference for a meal with some fur and of reasonable size. You might still get a few stragglers, but I have always had vastly more success starting them on larger, furred meals. Drop the mouse into hottish (tap) water to thaw, and offer as soon as it's fully thawed and still warm, usually about 5 minutes. You'll be surprised just what they can get down their throats. I never bother with pink mice, except for GTP babies, which are a lot smaller.

Jamie
 
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