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Whats the longest time a shed cycle could last?

M

MasonDixon

New member
Well the last couple of sheds that mason has had he refused to eat and now he has gone 3 weeks without eating. At first I thought that he was just going to shed as it has been a little over a month since his last one but its been 3 weeks now and he still hasnt shed or eaten anything. He has been very lively since he stopped eating and when I try feeding him he will go up to it give it a nudge and then ignore it. I have tried cutting the mice and have left him in the container overnight in a quiet spot with a mouse, still no dice. Does anyone know what is wrong with him or what I should do? I have been trying to feed him every 5 days or so and I have boosted the humidity in his tank and am currently letting him soak in some water....
 
How old is he?

I also have to ask... why are you upping the humidity? Unless your snake really is shedding, raised humidity IMO is not neccessary. I also believe that bathing is stressful for snakes, and if your snake is refusing food, you want to be minimising stress as much as possible. Personally I'd stop the baths and offer food once a week.
 
He is 6 months old, I have been upping the humidity because it kind of looks like he is getting ready to shed, but he has looked that way for the past 2 weeks so I dont know whats going on. He is a snow so its hard to tell exactly when he is shedding. He also is usually a really good feeder, the longest a mouse has lasted with him has been about 5 minutes...
 
If he's very lively, it's unlikely he is getting ready to shed.

Try making the mouse hot, like 101-103F or so, right before you put him in with it. Is the container you feed him in nice and small?

Nanci
 
yeah hes in a small container when i try to feed and i thaw the mice out in hot water so they are pretty warm when i try to feed. I'll try feeding again tonight and see what happens...
 
My guys really went crazy the first few times I slit the mice- you might want to try that, also.

Nanci
 
well hes in his feeding chamber right now but he is doing the same thing as usual, sniffs it then acts like he is afraid of it. He keeps trying to slither away from it. I put two slits on the back of the mouse also...this is really starting to stress me out.
 
Well he didnt take once again, I just dont understand how such a strong eater could just stop eating...I am going to run to the pet store later this week to buy some more mice, maybe I just got a bad batch or something...
 
My ball python did the same thing when we first got him such as going up to the mouse but then backing up. So we waited a few days and using boiling water to defrost the mouse and made it hot like Nanci said and he struck at it and had it down. Try getting the mouse warmer and putting it in the corns face as if the mouse was a predator. I sometimes have to do that with my corn when shes being a weirdo but after it taps her nose once she will strike and destroy the dead mouse. good luck
 
thanks for the replies, i will try getting the mouse even warmer next time...I am probably over worrying this but school is starting to pick up and I have been really stressed out lately....
 
MasonDixon said:
thanks for the replies, i will try getting the mouse even warmer next time...I am probably over worrying this but school is starting to pick up and I have been really stressed out lately....
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I hear that one! :) It's very hard not to stress about this stuff. Good luck!
 
Well I am glad to inform you that after one month of not feeding Mason has finally eaten today! He really gobbled that thing down too! Usually I put him in his feeding tub after I put the mouse in but this time I put him in first, then dropped a steaming hot mouse in, the second that mouse hit the ground it was in his mouth :grin01:
 
Good news, I have always been a fan of letting the snake settle in before adding snake-chow to the tank.
 
dave_jaclyn said:
Good news, I have always been a fan of letting the snake settle in before adding snake-chow to the tank.
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I agree with this. My "ritual" is to put all my feeding snakes in their respective feeding containers, THAN thaw all the food items, than I actually slit them in front of the feeding snakes. I especally like doing this because my snakes already associate their feeding bins with being fed, and so as soon as I start slitting the backs of the food items, they will usually start sniffing around, looking at me...they can smell the prey items, and they go into hunt mode.

One other thing..someone mentioned "tapping" their snake on the nose with the food to entice a strike. I highly recommend against this. Itcan scare your snake and actually make feeding MORE difficult, if the snake becomes "mouse shy". It happens more often with live prey and snakes that have been bitten, but if you are going to "rease feed", you should gently tap the mouse against the snake's body, somewhere away from the face. You don't want to scare your snake, stress it out, and possibly increase the amount of feeding problems.

Rocky Racoon, if this works for your snake, fine. I don't think it's dangerous with a dead mouse and I'm wasn't trying to tell you what to do. But this is just a warning to others, because most snakes will refuse food if you tap them on the face with it. Most of them don't like that, but all sakes are different. Your's aparrently likes it, so... :shrugs: :crazy02:
 
I'm so glad to hear that Mason finally ate again! Yay Mason! He's a hot mouse eater like Sir Killsalot. My snake won't eat his mouse unless I actually cook it...yeah, cook it. I have to put it in the microwave with lots of water and then heat it until it's reallllly ripe and disgusting. He will then proceed to squish it until its eyes pop out. I'm surprised he hasn't asked for dip to go with his happy meal. Jeez.

Congrats on getting Mason back on track :)
 
I had to reheat Inez's #2 pink on her last feed, and she was on it instantly. Some don't care, but for some, the temp really makes a difference.

NAnci
 
well unfortunately Mason is at it again, he shed last week and has now gone without food for 2.5 weeks. I am at a loss, I have tried ivory soap, slitting, heating, putting him in the feeding tub before and after the mouse. He went a month without eating before he ate last time and I am worried that he is going to make a habit out of only eating once a month. Could it be that I got mice from a bad batch or because the mice I am trying to feed now have a little bit of hair on them? I am going to try buying some individually packaged expensive mousicles to see if they entice him. Anyone have any ideas?
 
My normal female Calamity has been doing this for a while, but is still gaining weight slowly, so I only offer her food every 2 weeks or so. That way neither of us is stressed about it, because if I was trying weekly I'd be getting fed up with throwing mice away.
 
tyflier said:
One other thing..someone mentioned "tapping" their snake on the nose with the food to entice a strike. I highly recommend against this. Itcan scare your snake and actually make feeding MORE difficult, if the snake becomes "mouse shy". It happens more often with live prey and snakes that have been bitten, but if you are going to "rease feed", you should gently tap the mouse against the snake's body, somewhere away from the face. You don't want to scare your snake, stress it out, and possibly increase the amount of feeding problems.
Click to expand...

Wow, I never actually knew this. I do this with Dez a lot and he seems to only constrict when I do this. I think I am going to stop that Lol. Even though the mouse is dead, I don't want to start feeding problems. I'll just count myself lucky that nothing has happened so far than thinking he is ok with it. Thanks for the info.

MasonDixon, I hope that the little guy starts eating for you soon. You might want to wait a little longer between attempts because it can actually turn the snake off from eating. Once again, good luck and I wish you both the best!
 
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