Floof
Juvie Member
Ashley-- Ball pythons don't brumate.. IIRC, some breeders will drop the temperatures by a couple degrees at the start of winter to help induce breeding activity (though I may be mixing up boa constrictors and BPs here--been awhile since I read anything about breeding practices for either), but that's the closest they get.
A ball python going off feed in winter is often doing so because that's generally the start of "breeding season" for them. (Incidentally, the same is true for Woma pythons--my big male gave me a scare this last winter when he decided he was going to go off feed for 2 months, starting just a few weeks after I got him. I even took him to the vet to make sure nothing was wrong.. Just to have him start eating again a week later. Little snot! =P)
But, yeah, like Ashley said, he's probably not going to go off feed in the winter unless you purposely put him into brumation (meaning, temperatures kept in the 50s with no warm spot for a couple months). He's not old enough to worry about him going off feed for breeding season, either, which would come in springtime (and, again, not all of them do--many, if not most, male colubrids will happily keep eating through breeding season whether you give him a female or not).
A ball python going off feed in winter is often doing so because that's generally the start of "breeding season" for them. (Incidentally, the same is true for Woma pythons--my big male gave me a scare this last winter when he decided he was going to go off feed for 2 months, starting just a few weeks after I got him. I even took him to the vet to make sure nothing was wrong.. Just to have him start eating again a week later. Little snot! =P)
But, yeah, like Ashley said, he's probably not going to go off feed in the winter unless you purposely put him into brumation (meaning, temperatures kept in the 50s with no warm spot for a couple months). He's not old enough to worry about him going off feed for breeding season, either, which would come in springtime (and, again, not all of them do--many, if not most, male colubrids will happily keep eating through breeding season whether you give him a female or not).