anxiety re anorexic snakes

[mikey_mike]

Just wanted to make the observation as a relatively new snake owner that my Darwin Carpet is seriously messing with my head at the moment. He won't feed. I know this is normal over winter, but its still stressing me.

He's eaten once in the last 3 months. I live in Darwin for gods sake. Its not that cold. I went for a swim the other day. He's a wimp. I've even installed heating in his enclosure & am keeping the warm end at a toasty 30 degrees (as distinct from the chilly 20 - 26) minimum ambient temperature. My Spotted is powering through as many rats as I can deliver (without heating).

I even have a life complete with messed up stuff & real human relationships but the only thing that's bugging me is a snake who's behaving TOTALLY NORMALLY.

Judging by all the "my snake wont eat..." posts I'm not alone. I may just have stumbled on some universal truth re human nature, but all I care about is when a dead rat is going to travel down my pythons throat. I'm going to go & drink beer & have another go. This must be a common experience. Any tips other than more beer?

 

[Snowman]

Why do people even bother during winter? Even in the top end they tend to brumate over winter.

 

[phatty]

sounds like you need to come this weekend have some very knowledgeable people coming

 

[thals]

You'll find most snakes, particularly adult males, will go off their food come winter time and breeding season and many keepers tend to stress over this relatively normal behaviour. Quite a few of my pythons will go off feeding around April and won't start up again until Spring hits. They've done so over many of the years I've kept them with no ill side effects. It's natural behaviour, even in captivity. So unless the snake is severely emaciated or ill I wouldn't be worrying so much. He'll start feeding again once he's ready, and hungry! Also, maintaining a good basking spot at 33-34C will help in encouraging his appetite.