I need help with my Male Anerythristic boa

[Tyler]

He seems to have a little problem with eating see he takes a long while to eat like an 30mins or an hour after killing the rat to start eating it I think this may be a problem but the real problem is the fact that he doesnt seem to be getting fatter. Ive been thinking about giving him two rats instead of one but I tried this with my female and she eats fast but I gave her two rats and she killed one didn't eat it then she decided to kill the other one and she didnt let go of the body of the dead rat and she couldnt constrict the live one and the rat put up a big fight and bit her on the nose so thats why I have a problem with my male eating two because im afraid he'll do the samething and the female is much fatter and more aggresive and even she had a problem so does anybody have any ideas?

[sclark]

Re:I need help with my Male Anerythristic boa

Hello Tyler,

Welcome to the forums..

OK. Lets address the first issue. Stop feeding live to your boa. If that one rat who bit the boas nose had another inch of space, it could have been a deadly bite. If you don't want to mess with frozen rats, just fresh kill them. Thats what I do. You will be suprised how fast boas switch to fresh killed and it also makes them calmer over time. Do yourself a favor, switch to fresh killed next feeding.. Feeding live can also be part of the problem for the next area I will go over. Fresh mice and rats sometimes have worms. It is possible to transfer the worms while it is feeding.

OK, if your boa is thin or not putting on weight correctly, two things come to mind. First time you boa poops, collect it and bring it to a vet that will do a fecal smear for you to rule out worms, or Parasites. Its easy to treat them, just need to do as soon as possible. Another possible is that you are feeding prey to small. Best way to judge proper size is to lay the rat out long and compair the thickness of the rat to how thick your snake is. The rats should be just bigger then your boa.

I have taken in many snakes as rescues that have been bit by rats or mice. Some will refuse to eat after that. No fun trying to get them back on a feed after they get the fear of being bit..

Hope this helps some.. Good luck, and keep us posted..

Steve

[ClayEnglish]

Re:I need help with my Male Anerythristic boa

Also in relation to your comment that your boa takes a looooong time to actually eat the food item.

This is a widely variable behavior.

I have boas that grab the thawed rat by the head and start swallowing. No constriction, no delay. Just eating.

Then I have other boas that grab the thawed rat, constrict it and continue this for 15 minutes or so. Then when they finally let go, then smell around for another 15 minutes before they eat.

No problems here, just individuality.

The other point is that if there is no health problems with the boa, as Steve has already covered, then simply increasing the size or frequency of the prey item, will help with the weight gain.

Once fed you should see a slight bulge where you can definately identify the location of the food item.

[Gun Lover]

Re:I need help with my Male Anerythristic boa

[quote author=Tyler link=board=3;threadid=2506;start=msg16051#msg16051 date=1055811956]
He seems to have a little problem with eating see he takes a long while to eat like an 30mins or an hour after killing the rat to start eating it I think this may be a problem but the real problem is the fact that he doesnt seem to be getting fatter. Ive been thinking about giving him two rats instead of one but I tried this with my female and she eats fast but I gave her two rats and she killed one didn't eat it then she decided to kill the other one and she didnt let go of the body of the dead rat and she couldnt constrict the live one and the rat put up a big fight and bit her on the nose so thats why I have a problem with my male eating two because im afraid he'll do the samething and the female is much fatter and more aggresive and even she had a problem so does anybody have any ideas?
[/quote]well the best bet is to feed f/t instead of live prey and this will help the aggresiveness in your snakes. if you get time please read the careguide live vs pre-killed feeding, and check out the pics on snakes that feed on live prey.its really heart breaking to see those pics. and would hate to see anyones snakes look like that.also i noticed you stated your female is aggresive .if you switched to f/t prey your snakes will be less aggresive and live a happier life.plus you will be happy from not getting tagged unless its provoked.something else to consider is that live prey may carry parastes, and worms.which an transfer to your snake.which could cuase $$$$$ in vet bills.but if its the problem of getting f/t you can kill the prey and freeze them and thaw em before feeding your snakes. just trying to pass on info from 1 snake lover to the next.