Low level of activity?

[Jupiter]

Hello, so a while back I posted about Sir Blinky (my 2 year old male) not eating and being super active, and with yalls help we decided that it was spring time blues that were causing it. Sir Blinky went from about the beginning of march or so to the beginning of May and only ate 2-3 times. But he snapped out of it and has been eating good for the last month or so. I have 2 concerns that i hope some more experienced keepers will be able to help with (this is my only snake, and first reptile ive ever owned):

First is he's shedding a LOT... like once per month for the last 3 months... even though he hasnt eaten a lot? He is a growing snake, and has just recently (before he went on his food strike) been bumped up to adult mice. Is that normal? Before when he was on smaller 'adult' mice he was sheeding once every 6 weeks or so, but now its every 3-5. Every shed is good, full sheds.

So he went through yet another shed and finished up 2 days ago. Normally after he sheds he goes back to his normal activity where he is out all night and sometimes in the daytime a little bit as well. But this time for some reason hes not being active.. At all. He shed and went back into his warm hide and has stayed there for 3 days. You can tell when hes been out at night by the little trails he leaves behind, but there is 0 signs hes been out since shedding, and now its time to feed him but idk if i want to with him acting funny.

So is it normal for a snake to stay in a hide for days at a time suddenly? I think maybe the spring time breeding season for our local rat snakes is just ending and maybe hes acting normal again, but where ive become so used to him being hyper-active that it just seems weird? :shrugs:

Thanks for any replies, CS community, idk what i would do without yall

 

[albertagirl]

Some of my two year olds still shed roughly once per month. Even the one who seems to be finished growing. Also, sometimes they are more active and sometimes they are not active at all. It seems to come and go. I think if it's feeding day I would take him out, look him over, and if all looks good then feed as normal and continue to observe. If eating and pooping and shedding continues to go well and your snake looks healthy, and your temperatures look good, then there are probably no issues here.

 

[Karl_Mcknight]

They shed as "they need to."

It's a misconception that they shed due to growth. That is only one reason for shedding. They also shed as a way to repair damaged skin, and they can also shed due to disease or parasites.

This is not to say your snake is sick. But a growing snake will shed a lot.

I've had my snake now just over a year (he's currently about 16 months old) and he has shed about 8 times since I've got him.

As long as there is no noticeable change in looks or behavior, don't worry about it. It's perfectly normal.

 

[axis1]

Hi there Jupiter!

How ya been?

I don't actually know what true "normal" is for a growing snake, but after being active for a couple months, it is entirely possible that he is just transitioning to another stage of life as he matures, another phase of less activity due to the seasons, or even both.

You say he is 2 years old and that is around or about when corns typically enter into young adulthood and possibly become more sedentary, especially during the daylight hours. All 4 of my sneaky ones (3 adults and 1 yearling) hide during the day, for the most part, unless they are actively seeking food. This is just a part of their nature and besides for the part of the year that comprises their mating or breeding season, I believe that this is what you might call their "normal" behavior.

There are always animals that contradict normalcy and will go against the grain, so to speak, relative to fellow-members of their species'. However, if your snake is eating on a regular basis and doing everything else pretty much on time, I wouldn't think anything is actually wrong, even with it shedding monthly. While all snakes continue to grow their entire lives, the first 2-3 years is when they do the most of it and unless they are sick or injured, in which case shedding sometimes is a valid response, I wouldn't be overly concerned with what you have reported. I would just double-check the temperature variance to ensure that you aren't unintentionally triggering a seasonal response in terms of your snake's activity level, as well as its hormones which actually control how often your snake sheds.

Just my opinion in response to the info you presented. Hope it helps until someone with a higher level of expertise chimes in!

 

[axis1]

Oops!!

. . . Hope it helps until someone with a higher level of expertise chimes in!

Sorry there Karl & Albertagirl! Didn't see your posts till I had already sent mine!

 

[Jupiter]

Thanks for all the responses! I hope I'm just over thinking things again and y'all are right and that this is just totally normal behavior. Unfortunately right now I only have 1 permanent thermometer (the one you set the temp with the thermostat), I had a nice one on the cool end that measured the temps/humidity on that end with a probe going under the warm hide as well, just so I had double checked temps on the warm side. I say I HAD because about a week ago Sir Blinky decided he would wrap his tail around the cord and drag it into his water bowl [emoji108]. So as of now the only temp I'm getting is the one under the warm hide, I also have a temp gun that I can spot check with and everything seems fine, but I cannot wait to get another like I had. I just got him out and everything seemed totally fine, he acted normal, looked normal/felt normal. When I put him back in his viv he wondered around, going into his cool hide and then got a big drink of water before returning to his warm hide. I took him outside and snapped a couple really quick pics:

I'm gonna feed him a little later in the evening. Lately I've been thinking I would like something a little fancier for his viv other than paper towel tubes (not that there's anything non fancy about those bad boys, I've been using them since day 1 [emoji16]). I'm probably gonna go post in the appropriate place asking for advice on some changes. If any of you would like to try and help, be sure to keep your eye out for that post later today.

Thanks for the help, and be sure to just ask if you have any questions about conditions/have any advice.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[albertagirl]

Sorry there Karl & Albertagirl! Didn't see your posts till I had already sent mine!

Haha axis1, no worries. I still consider myself a newbie... or maybe a novice. Certainly not an expert! I try to be helpful... and keep my fingers crossed that the true experts will catch my errors and correct me if I'm wrong.