Older Snake Dropping Weight...

[d_virginiana]

So, my old male Houdini has been doing his normal mating season routine this year. He's not eating as much as he normally would (not so little that it's worrisome, but still) and is being super active. Problem is, he's over 12 now, and this has caused a very noticeable drop in weight. He just shed off with no problems, and has been extra active lately, so I'm pretty confident that this weightloss is related to his yearly increase in activity and decrease in food intake and not an illness.
I wouldn't even be worried at all by this behavior if he wasn't so old. Even during winter you could notice his weight drop quickly if he skipped a feeding or two.

My question is, do you guys think giving him a playdate with my 2 year old female would help curb this behavior or make it worse? I'd supervise it and make sure no actual mating occurred, but I was wondering what you guys' opinions are. (She's been clean of parasites for months now, so that's not a worry)


I know old snakes often get to a point where they just don't keep their weight up well, but I think it's being made worse by his mating behavior.

[jwolfe152]

i don't have an answer for you but i really do hope its just his activity and nothing more

[guidofatherof5]

If it were me, I'd keep him away from females and see if you can get him back to pounding down the food.
The big concern would be if he were eating good but still losing weight.

[d_virginiana]

He hasn't had any contact with Harley or anything that she's touched, but I think he can tell that she's in the room. If he doesn't eat well this next feeding (tomorrow) I may grab a heat lamp and move him to a different room... Maybe that would cut down on the distraction.

[jwolfe152]

yea i bet being in the same room would be a distraction im sure snakes come from miles looking for females like any other wild animal does

[d_virginiana]

Well, he took one large silverside tonight, but that's nowhere near what he should be eating. After that first bite he realized the tank top was open and started trying to get out... Tomorrow morning I'm moving him to another room to see if that helps at all.

I may also try just essentially blending some pinkie and fish bits into mush and leaving them on a dish in his tank for a little while. That's how I got him to eat when he first lost his sight. Didn't get a lot of food that way, but when he happened to notice it he'd sometimes take a bite.

[d_virginiana]

Okay, so after one day of experimentation, I've figured out what I think might get him eating again. We don't have the equipment to just leave a heat lamp/pad on Houdini's cage 24/7 in another room. In addition to taking the equipment from one of my tropical reptiles that need the extra heat (the ambient temp in the reptile room is 80-82 daytime and 77-ish night) I don't have extra thermostats to take to another room and regulate it to keep him from frying. Plus, the only other room our dog can't get to is the bedroom, which gets way too chilly at night even with extra heat.

I CAN do it short-term though. So I'm thinking that I may take him to the other room first thing tomorrow morning. He eats best a little later at night, so that'll give him plenty of time to realize there are no females in the room hopefully. I'll post again tomorrow after I feed with an update...

Also, I moved his tank in there for a few hours the other day just to monitor temps. Since he can't see his surroundings change, it doesn't seem to stress him to move.

[EKS56]

You can lead a snake to the pinky but you can't make him eat.

[d_virginiana]

It seemed to work somewhat. He took a couple large silversides tonight and wasn't nearly as intent on escaping throughout the day today. I think I'm just going to start moving him on feeding days from now till the end of summer.

[jwolfe152]

if possible you might think about doing it a day before feeding so he has calmed down a little more and hopefully will be even more interested with the food