Ok so I'm wondering if this is a really stupid noob question but I'm going to ask anyway because I'm getting really desperate...
I can't get my ball python Pudge to eat. Go Figure. We finally got him eating
f/t rats in March (the 19th) and he was very picky about them for a little while. He only wanted small white rats even though he needed to be on mediums. That was fine until he quit eating. About mid May he decided he didnt want the smalls anymore either. We decided to try leaving a small in his feeding tub in with him overnight May 25th and due to my (now ex) boyfriend leaving the lid off the cage with the tub in it, he got out. We found him a month later, and he hasn't eaten since.
He refused food a week after being found. Has refused food since then. He is now losing signifigant weight. He has the same cage, heat source, hides etc. as he has always had. The primary difference in his life right now is that before his great escape he was handled 2-3x weekly for 15-30 minutes at a time. Since the escape I have handled him minimally to reduce stress since he was not eating.
He "hunts" in his cage like he is hungry, but you present a rat and he gets timid and acts scared of it. He balled up last week for the first time since I've had him (almost 2 years) while I was offering him a ft small rat. He will not pay attention to one left overnight or set on the floor of the cage. He has refused ft mice as well.
Now, if you reach in his cage for something (with or without a rat) he tries to climb up on your arm and crawl on you. Not away from you, just on you - around your arm or shoulders or whatever. He fights to be put back down and just wants to keep crawling on you.
My question - Is it possible that he is not wanting to eat because we have not been handling him very much? He was a rescue and used to be very picky about eating - you had to stand right there with him or he would not eat or even look at the rat (this was when fed live). If you walked by his cage and you had not handled him for a few days, he would come out of his hide and strain up to the top of the cage like he wanted to come out of it.
I have been offering every two weeks to minimize stress. I am about ready to offer him a live rat (yes, everybody who knows me is gasping at this point) because he has lost a lot of weight and I'm really worried about him.
I would really REALLY like to not have to give him a live rat, though I am almost positive that would get a feeding response from him. Does anybody think that the handling could be part of his problem? If its not completely ridiculous, I could try handling him every day or other day for a couple weeks and try feeding again. What do yall think?
I'm going nuts!
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