Not Eating

[christi_mic]

I have a month-old Colombian boa and cannot get him (?) to eat. I've only had him for a week, and the pet shop said that he ate OK last week. For some reason he now doesn't seem interested in supper. I'm starting to get a little concerned as this has been going on for a couple of days. Any suggestions?

[christi_mic]

Never mind. I guess I was just getting impatient with the little guy.  s1.gif

[Doug]

Hi,
And welcome, I would review the care sheets ,Important topics are heat and humidty, feeding cycles and food types.
 I would also like to suggest you get a few 3/5 cards and track things like feeding, poo's , sheds and such.
  This will be real useful to prevent overfeeding and premature feeding problems.
   I use abreviations
  example 1sr 8/09/02
  this is one small rat and date
                  po 08/09/02  or sd 08/09/02
       poo date and shed date.
 I can usally keep about 6 mos on one card, if i write small
  ... Good luck   They are sweet animals :D

    doug
MR C. English's care sheets cwm15.gif
http://www.redtailboas.com/carelinks/carelinks.html
my babies  shame less plug to share photo's  :-[  hehe s9.gif http://photo.redtailboa.org/my-pets
 

[christi_mic]

Thanks for the most excellent advice, Doug and for the pics!!!! b27.gif

Your babies are georgeous...I'm jealous that I haven't taken pics of mine yet. Guess I gotta get snappin'. ;D

[Red]

I use those spiral note books.. One large one will last a large boa it's hole life... "I think" cwm13.gif I have not had a snake die yet... They are cheep.. I go to the back to school sale's to get stuff like that.... And they are easy to keep... Just another thought...
Eric aka...Red

[christi_mic]

OK. Now I'm still having trouble getting him to eat, but it's not due to impatience, I swear. cwm25.gif
He just finished shedding the other day and hadn't eaten in 11 days, so he's got to be hungry, right? Well, I read the Boa Care Guide as recommended and thought I'd try him on a pinkie or fuzzy rat (previously had been given fuzzy mice by the shop and I had kept that up). Well, he didn't even take any notice of it. I kept it with him for a couple of days and no go. Any suggestions? Or do I need to stick with the mice now? Does it even matter? ???
Please help....
Chris

[Doug]

hi,
 My Guyana wouldn't eat until i found the right humidty and temp for that species, they willnot eat unless they feel well. Something may be slightly off in your cage  s19.gifit may seem ok but its just enough to throw them off feeding. Thats whi I reccomended reviewing care sheet for temp humidity and such. If your using a glass tank its extremly tricky getting the ambients in the entire cage to 82 with a warmer side of 90, s3.gif if your using heat that dries the air and the humidty drop below say  55% they may go off feeding. s35.gif
The only way i could acheive what I percieved as the desired temp was to use undertank heat that covered about 60% of the cage put the hide over the uth  and I throw a towel over the top of the cage, ps i needed a thermostat to prevent over heating the cage I set the thermostat to around 84 it cycled the uth off periodically to prevent over heating of the floor directly,, the'll get plenty of air through that towel and I would then moisten the newspaper over the uth, with a cup of water this shot the humidty up and my baby guyana was a pig in no time.( uth should be on the outside bottom of the cage)
I have two forties critters tied in to one thermostat with uth's for heat below my larger boa cage.
http://photo.redtailboa.org/albums/my-pets/Guyana_Palace.thumb.jpg
  Healthy snakes will not feed properly unless they are at the correct ambients and have adequate humidty..
 I took air temps on a forty critter  it was 95 on the warm side and 72 on the cool.. If the snake moves to the cool they will be to cold and may become sick.Once they cool down they kind of shut down and become very lathargic. so I use two  thermometers at floor level  on the back wall of the cage and one on the cool side.back wall at the floor.
   Always put your water dish on the cool.
If you put that baby in a warm humid cage she'ld feed in a week on her own...
PS if snakes get to cool on the cold side of the cage it may cause a resp infection or digestion problems leading to regurge.
 good luck,, there are numeroous option for heating cage heat tape, overhead heat mats all kinds that donot create extreme temp gradient if tied into a thermostat.note one thermostat can handle about 4 mats if the watage is reasonable
note big apple has really resonable prices on heat and thermostat's and ship to door My last order took two days
ground.
click on the shortcut thingy below>>>
http://www.bigappleherp.com/bigappleherp.storefront/
http://www.bigappleherp.com/images/big/4.jpg
http://www.bigappleherp.com/images/big/1127.jpg
http://www.bigappleherp.com/images/big/12.jpg
Yea you will need to spend a few bucks,, but them warm snakes are real easy to keep, since I finally set my cages to be extremly stable heat and humidty no feeding problems no resp infections..I spent some bucks on buying injections for a sick ball python that wasn't at the right temps he had a wheeze and was gasping a bit the owner returned it to the pet store and didnt' want the problems,,, 6 doses of batril injections and he's as clear as a bell..

      Good luck
  doug
 

[Darrin_Brasher]

Thats some good info posted by doug . I would buy a small hopper and try it . The movement is a good attractant for the snake .Fuzzies dont move very much . I had problems with a clutch a while back and threw in hoppers and everyone ate the same day just dont get an animal too large or you'll likely end up with another problem ,regurgitation .