And while I am asking questions...

[morti]

What is your favorite trick to get a brand new baby boa to eat. There are a couple of mine that just won't do it!

Your Sick Uncle Morti.

[Erich_Gaertner]

Morti,
First of all be Patient ::)! You'll get the little ones to eat, sometimes it just takes a little time! Try varying the time of day that you feed. I found that twilight times, particularly at dusk  is a good time to entice an unwilling feeder. I believe boas (Neonates in particular) are much more comfortable at twilight times. Low light conditions are when my boas are most active. I even have an adult Albino het. for Snow female that will eat only at night! You also didn't mention whether you were feeding live or frozen/thawed. If you are feeding live, try putting the pinky/fuzzy in a small water bowl(without the H20 of course :)) overnight. This will keep the prey item contained and keep it from potentially stressing your neonates by bumping into them or worse! I hope this helps you out, it has worked for me! Good Luck! :)
Erich

[morti]

I am feeding frozen thawed. Out of the 19 babys, only 5 aren't eating right now, so I feel pretty good about that. Most have eaten twice already.

I know I just need more patience, but I feel like I have tried everything. :-) Brain the pinky, split the pinky, make the pinky do a rat dance with the forceps. The ones that are eating are doing so with no help from me... I just toss the rat in and it gets eaten.

Oh well, I'll get it right I'm sure. :-)

-Morti

[Erich_Gaertner]

Maybe after a couple more attempts feeding frozen/thawed with no results, you should try live. Try the water bowl trick overnight. In my experience, once a neonate is feeding regularly on live prey, it is pretty easy to switch them over to frozen/thawed. Especially if you do the switch shortly after they are eating regularly. Last year I acquired a trio of Kahl Strain Stripes that hadn't shed for the first time, let alone eaten! Two of the three ate aggresively the first time food was offered, but  not the "Stubborn Stripe!" She was having none of it! I tried everything you mentioned as well as varying the time of day she was fed. Still no results! Finally I was desperate to get her to eat, so I tried a live rat pinky. Again she refused to eat! I repeated this process 3 times with no results! On the fifth try SUCCESSS! She finally ate the live pinky! I fed her live two more times and offered her a frozen/thawed pinky for her fourth meal and she slammed it! I think once she recognized the scent as FOOD, it didn't matter whether the prey item was live or dead! A meal is a meal :)!
Erich  

[cb76]

hey at least most are eating!
i had a hogg from my bb line that would not eat! i bought him 4 days after birth, he hadt shed yet, and he refused food when offered. he actually did that for 3 months- i tried every thing (all at appropriate times of course)(no stres here) from feeding on branches, at night, brained, with artificial scenting, f/t, and live- all with rat pinks and mouse pinks- he finally went for a black mouse hopper! dont know why- maybe instinctivly he knew to eat black??

now hes cool. he eats what ever is tossed at him

[boafanatic]

All but one of my bci refuse to eat white rats!Why is this??? ???

[morti]

This is just a guess.

The Naturally occuring rats in Colombia are probably not white. Maybe there is some instinctive thing that dark fur=food.

My friends and I were also talking the other day... The adult boas from the southern parts of Mexico are the natural enemy of the Chiwawa... Kindof makes you feel all warm and gooey inside, huh?

-Morti

[Red]

[color=Red]That is funny my snake will not eat black and white hooded rats.. all the rest of the rats are fine just these ones...
ERIC aka...red

[dragons182]

As I read this post, I thought about my 1.5 yr old male boa. The last time he ate, it was a black rat. I keep offering him the white rats and he will not take them. I will experiment by trying to feed him a black rat tomorrow because it has been 32 days since he ate. You think that maybe he will eat if I feed him a black rat? I hope so.

I know from what Clay has told me alot of the babies will need a live pinky rat for their first feeding. I have had the same thing with some of my baby colubrids. They'll take only live the first feeding sometimes two, but then they take the thawed without problems after that.

[redtailboas]

Correct TC. I have found that I offer the f/t first, but if a newborn refuses it, I will offer a live newborn pinkie rat. Then the next feeding I am back to offering the f/t. 9 out of 10 will eat the f/t the second time around. Yes there are exceptions. But by and large this has worked well.