I need a little help, and an opinion.

[Elliot]

Ok, so my male ribbon snake has been going on a hunger strike for the past 5 weeks. In this time he's only eaten one fuzzy. Today I fed him and my female live fish, but he wasn't interested at all, even when one was flopping around all over on top of him. I noticed a few minutes ago that he was laying on top of her and kind of had his tail wrapped around her's. Do you think he may be trying to mate with her and he's to distracted to eat? I'm not worried about him yet, but I just thought I'd see what you guys had to say about it.

[enigma200316]

it sounds very possible and its not uncommon for them to not eat until there done,however I'm not total experianced with this but it is my opinion.....Elliot

[Elliot]

Ok, I got a few pictures to see if it could help you out. Stanely isn't about to shed, but it looks like his eyes are blue in one of the pics.





They've been like this all evening, I got a closer look at them and it looked like his tail may have been twitching a little bit. (I'm not sure though)

[enigma200316]

I'd say after they are done try to feed him and only him say by using tweezers or by isolating him.....and see if he eats.....like I said it is possible they are,but the big thing is getting him eating.......

[Elliot]

The tweezers scare them (lol) but they'll usually eat out of my hand so I'll give that a try tomorrow.

[enigma200316]

The tweezers scare them (lol) but they'll usually eat out of my hand so I'll give that a try tomorrow.

well try that and if he doesn't eat give it a little while longer,but you'll have to start thinking about forcing,but only as last resort........

[Elliot]

It'll probably be a month before I even attempt to force feed him. He's definately not a young snake, so he'll be ok for now.

[Josh]

hopefully they are mating.

[GarterGuy]

Not sure what's up with your little guy, but I definitely think it'd be best to wait quite a bit longer before I'd think about force feeding. He may be just "in the mood" and not thinking about food at the moment. As long as his body weight looks good and all is well with him, I wouldn't worry too much.

Roy

[enigma200316]

yeah if he doesn't eat just wait a while longer and see what happens....