Red-sided feeding
I have 0.2 infernalis. I picked them up from a pet store 1.5 years ago. I picked both individuals up several months apart. The one I got earlier, was a much better feeder, the second one has always been pickier, but has eaten with decent frequency. Both were fed twice a week, and I would estimate both would eat 80% of the times they were offered food. When they were teeny little pieces of spaghetti, both went off feed for a few weeks. At the time their cage had a lot of darkling beetles (superworms). I believe their scent was messing with the snakes, and removing them fixed the issue.
Both have stopped feeding in the last 3-4 weeks. I was primarily feeding fuzzies by leaving them on a dish, and both snakes would take them. They have also eaten tilapia, guppies, chicken hearts and gizzards.
I decided to redo their enclosure right around the time they went off feed, and I know this is likely a stressor. First I increased heat from 86 to 94 for he basking spot. I had this for a few days, before noticing a shift in their basking behavior so I redid it back to 86. I tripled the amount of stacked bark they have, and greatly increased the hides as well as adding a linear UV light. They have had this setup for 3 weeks.
The cage is bioactive with a robust population of isopods and springtails. The isopods will attempt to eat the uneaten rodents if they are left too long. I have some snake plants and pothos in the cage, as well as fake foliage.
The warm side is currently low 80s with 3 hot basking spots raining from mid to high 80s. The cool side gets down to around 76 during the day. Lights/basking spots are on for 12 hours, and off for twelve. The snakes do receive some ambient room light from outside, and the seasons are beginning to shift so that may be a factor as well.
I am currently trying to feed fuzzies on the end of a skewer to simulate movement for one feeding, then just plating for the next feeding. Both methods have worked previously, not so much now.
The snakes are in a high traffic area. I have not really handled them since rearranging the cage and hey have gone off of feed. They are feeling lots of vibrations from the foot traffic..
What am I missing? The snakes are approximately 75 and 55 grams, small for their age.I am used to working with colubrids but these two are beginning to fret me. My next step is to relocate the cage to a low traffic area. I want to use this as a last ditch effort, because it will cause another cage reset.