boa not wanting to eat?

[redtailedmel]

my little boy rusty has always eaten when i fed him and the last too feedings i have offeren him food and left it over night he hasnt even touched it the next morning and it has been 3 weeks since he ate. im getting kinda worried about him. am i being paranoid? should i call the vet? not usre what to do here. my other baby eats like a PIGGY!! thanks.

[WeLsH]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

Hmm...

Make sure his temps are correct, and if you don't already, feed him in a small enclosed box. If thats not it, it could be many other things. Hope someone else has some advice cause I am not really sure what it could be.

[ClayEnglish]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

Mel,

May want to try a mouse, to see if it triggers a feeding response. You could always back it up with a thawed rat if it works.

Does everything else appear to be okay with him?

[redtailedmel]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

yeah hes real active and everything i still have him in his feed box inside his cage, with the rat in there. just talked to the vet he said if hes ok dont worry about it but i am!! dusty ate yesterday and woofed it down as soon as i wiggled it? i thought about getting the mouse for him , ill go do that today. the rat is still in his box i turned off all the tvs and lights so it would be darker for him. i gave it to him at 11 last night. his cage stays at 85 on one end with a 90-94 degree hot spot up top and the other end stays at 80 with about an 85 degree hot spot. and the humidity is 60% so everything cage wise is ok. just weird to me that he would not eat he never does this!! he hasnt lost weight or anything. im stumped to be honest.

[sclark]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

Hey redtailedmel,

So many possibilitys could cause a snake to go off feed.. The temps could be to low or two high, the snake may be stressed from some type of move. I know my one boa Midnight went off feed for almost three weeks. I figured out the problem was her location of her new cage. I had it on a unit over the TV. Seemed the extra vibrations was causing her stress.. Two days after I relocated her tank she whomped a large rat for me. Some things to check is take a look into her mouth and see if there is any swelling redness or any pusey or anything odd. Snakes will sometimes go off a feed if they have a problem with their mouth or have the start of RI. Have you noticed any wheesing or popping or any small amounts of discharge from her mouth or nose? The prey she has refused, is it from a different source, is it a different size, different color then normal or is it different like going from a mouse to a rat? Also give your snake a close look over and make sure it doesn't have mites. If you have been feeding frozen thawed, try feeding fresh killed. Like Clay suggested, you could try a mouse to see if it has a feeding responce.

Here is something to try. Give you snake a nice soak, about 45 mins in a luck cool bath in its feed container. Right after its bath, dry out the feed tank and dab dry the snake, put the snake in the feed tank and dangle a fresh killed rat of the correct size just away from the snakes mouth, see if you get a feeding responce. If no interest happens, bump the rat into the boas mouth to annoy him to try and get the boa to strike out and take the rat. I have had great sucess with that for hard eaters..

If I can think of anything else, I will add it..

Good luck, let us know how things go.. Hope this helped..

Steve

[Red]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

Yup bumping there nose with it seems to work great that is what I have done with great succsess...
I just bump the nose... even when I don't get a strike I just leave it in there... Seems to get the sent on them and they always eat for me that way....
Eric aka....Red

[sclark]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

Hey redtailedmel,

Thought of one other possible.. I know I had a few different boas in the past stop eating and were very active because they were constipated. Good soaks do wonders with that..

Steve

[redtailedmel]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

thanks guys clay suggested the live mouse, well i went and got one well i got a smaller rat than i normally feed and i dropped it in and wham like a champ it was dead and gone guess he got bored with the f/t one hehehehehe i took a few feeding pics of him lol doing it it was kinda funny then he looked at me like hey mom where the rest of my dinner so i took the ft and stuck it in there and he woofed it too. hehe

[redtailedmel]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

oh i forgot to mention i hadnt moved his cage or anything but i was out of town for a week and had a sitter i think he might have been mad cuz mom left him hey ya never know but his mouth is fine and hes not wheezing or anything i keep a good check on them they come out to play every day unless feeding or shedding. thanks guys!!!

[sclark]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

Hey redtailedmel,

Glad the boa ate.. I am very against live feeding, but sometimes you have no choice.. Glad no problems came with the live feeding..

Steve

[redtailedmel]

Re:boa not wanting to eat?

oh yeah me too after seeing those gruesome pics!!!! i watch very carefully when i have to do that!!!!