A few seasonal mating/non-feeding questions

[Dukarato]

Hi everyone,

I am new to owning corns and have found such amazing information on this site. Unfortunately I have not come across the answers to a couple questions that have had me a little concerned over the past few weeks while my male (Sunshine - a lovely albino motley) has been refusing his thawed mouse (for the past month and a half).

Just to set the stage, I have a male and a female, in separate vivs across the room from one an other. Each viv is set up pretty much the same with numerous hides, plentiful water, UTH warmside & cool side running the temps advised for optimal conditions (as prescribed on numerous threads on these forums). Since they both arrived, (18 months ago for Sunshine, 16 Months for Moonlight - female Anerytheristic) I feed them in separate containers once a week. As of approximately 3 months ago I had moved them both up to small adults since they both crossed over the 300 gram point and were both super healthy eaters.

After doing research on this site I have pretty much chalked up Sunshines non-eating to the fact that he is very focused on wanting to breed, he has been super active in his viv, more so than any time I can recall in the past. Is there an age that this behavior usually begins at? Initially I was thinking that 18 months was too young to start exhibiting, but I think that notion was based on my non-experience of ever owning corns before. At what point do they start taking an interest in food again? The last time Sunshine ate was 02/23/2014. How long can they sustain themselves without eating for? I have been keeping tabs on his weight, and over this time frame he has lost about 20 grams (dropping from 330g to 310g). And last but not least, my female has been eating, however the past few weeks it has taken some time to wiggle the thawed mouse around a bit before she really took an interest. Do females usually exhibit this non-feeding behavior during mating season to the extent males do?

Thank you for taking the time to read this :spinner:

Jaime

[Shiari]

It's really going to depend on the male. Only a few of my males exhibit the breeding hunger strike, and even those don't do it every year. None of them are off feed this year, for example. And some males are more than ready to breed at 18 months, and others won't do anything until they're 3 years.

The female may be slower about eating partly because a mouse once a week is more than she requires (you can actually potentially make her fat on that schedule), or because she's making infertile eggs, or something in the temps aren't right, or any number of things. I would first try dropping her to an every 10 to 14 day schedule.

[TyeW]

My male went off feed this year when I started breeding him, so I guess it's entirely possible that your male is wanting to breed at this time of year. I agree with Shiari for the female, once every week is too often. I feed my females every 10 days and my males every 10 or 15 depending on their size. All my adults eat f/t jumbo mice around 30g each.

[Nanci]

I've had a couple females skip meals during breeding season. More males. I haven't had much of that the past few years, but this year, Jasper, who is 6 I guess, and never bred, started refusing for the first time ever. He's missed three meals, and he eats every three weeks. Today now four more males refused. Get a weight on your male. He can safely lose about 20-25% of his body weight. Usually during a springtime hunger strike, the males will lose very little weight. I know it's frustrating! It drove me MAD the first year. The longest I've seen it last is about three months. You might want to start skipping every other feeding, to save mice, until he starts up again. I just feed the extras to my kingsnakes, since my collection is old and stable and disease-free. Some people freak out about re-feeding, especially if it involves a newer snake.

[Nanci]

The 330-310 weight loss _could_ be just the size of a big poop...

I agree- I'd try the female on a 10 day schedule, and see if that helps. Once they are at 400 grams, I move to 14 days, and then 21 days when they are in the 500-550 range. Maybe a little earlier with males.

[Dukarato]

Thank you for the responses!

[smigon]

I've had a couple females skip meals during breeding season. More males. I haven't had much of that the past few years, but this year, Jasper, who is 6 I guess, and never bred, started refusing for the first time ever. He's missed three meals, and he eats every three weeks. Today now four more males refused. Get a weight on your male. He can safely lose about 20-25% of his body weight. Usually during a springtime hunger strike, the males will lose very little weight. I know it's frustrating! It drove me MAD the first year. The longest I've seen it last is about three months. You might want to start skipping every other feeding, to save mice, until he starts up again. I just feed the extras to my kingsnakes, since my collection is old and stable and disease-free. Some people freak out about re-feeding, especially if it involves a newer snake.

I TOTALLY agree with everything Nanci said, I am so very glad I keep meticulous records of their weights and feeds, I know who skipped a meal, if one ate the refused meal of another and if they are blue, etc.

I am fairly new to the corn world, and not a breeder, but this is the first spring I have 6 corns, and they are all bonkers. From what I am reading on the forum a lot of corns are a little amped up from other springtimes, I wonder if it has to do with the really harsh winters most people had.