scylla refusing food..

[viktoria333]

Hey, i haven't been on the forum for a good while, after having my hatchlings now, at 2 and a half years old they were both doing fine until a few weeks ago..:uhoh:Medusa is doing great, still eating, both snakes are around 4 ft long long now, and seem to be active and doing well..I am however, rather worried about Scylla, she has refused the last two meals i have offered her...they are on frozen/thawed weaner rats, bout 12 weeks old for a meal size, which is fine for them, they are being fed every 1/2 weeks and have thrived well.Scylla has refused her 2 latest meals and i'm getting worried.Nothing has changed about her viv, nothing as moved, her care is the same as always.. Now is it possible Scylla is in fact a male rather than a female, as she was sold to me?
And is it true that males do not often eat during the winter months, and that snakes will start to become semi adult and mate at about 2 years of age?Scylla is acting normally, and quite active, drinking and so forth, not showing any signs of illness at all, but has not eaten now for about a month..Scylla has always been slightly bigger and wider than Medusa if this helps>they were both sold to me as females...When do i start worrying bout her lack of feeding?

 

[Corny Noob]

Well if you have no guarentee that Scylla is indeed a female then I would from the signs think that an otherwise perfectly healthy snake is refusing due to male instincts.
They can go months off feed and still be perfectly healthy and sometimes barely lose any weight so I wouldn't think it would be time to worry just yet.

 

[Susielea]

Are they being housed together? If so and they turn out to be male + female then yes, they can and will mate given the opportunity. This would be a bad thing if the female is not big/mature enough, as she may have trouble laying her eggs.

If they are housed together then this could be stress factor which may be causing the feeding refusals.

If they are not housed together, then Scylla could very well be a male, but the only way to find out for certain is to have her/him sexed by someone experienced at probing.

If Scylla turns out to be male then it is quite normal for males to go off their feed at this time of year as the only thing on their minds is lurve!

So my suggestion would be, to find someone local to you who would be willing to probe your snakes, someone with good experience, maybe even a rep vet. Then you'll be in a better position to determine if the behaviour is normal or not.

Another thing, have you tried offering her an appropriately sized mouse instead of the weaner rats, as the change can sometimes stimulate their appetite? If not it might be worth a try.

Don't forget to come back and keep us posted.

Good luck and best wishes,

 

[viktoria333]

Scylla has never before refused a feed...and also i got them both out to compare tails, both seem the same thickness from cloaca, but, Scylla's is about 1 cm longer than Medusa's...The viv temps haven't been messed with, but my heating does go off at night so the ambient room temps go down, i guess taking the viv temp with it. the other viv is the same temp as they are both set on the same therm..yet Medusa is eating like a starved horse, in fact they both jump out thier boxes and constrict f/t so i find this non eating rather strange..he/ she hasn't lost weight or condition, if anything they are both a little on the heavy side, so if this is a winter starving period, when should i start worrying about Scylla refusing meals?:uhoh: