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Old 10-22-2019, 12:22 AM   #1
Miscelatore
Question sand boa wont eat :/

so I got Wyrm, the male Saharan sand boa, from a reptile expo on August 25th, 2019

At the time of posting this, it's almost been two months and he hasn't eaten at all.

He pooped when I first got him, about 8/27, so he had eaten before.

I've tried:
leaving him in a deli cup with a f/t (both brained and not)
leaving him in a deli cup with substrate with both live and f/t (brained and not)
leaving live in his enclosure for a few hours
leaving f/t in his enclosure for a few hours (brained and not)
pestering him with f/t on tongs in a separate enclosure (brained and not, substrate and not)
leaving him with live for almost an hour in a smaller enclosure
tong feeding live

Next to try:
Live in a smaller enclosure w/o substrate
Leaving him cold for a week then increase heat

I wouldn't be too concerned as I've heard male sand boas don't eat much, and he was doing fine weight wise until this week. He went from 48g when I got him to 50g on 9/13 and then back to 48g 9/26 and stayed steady until recently when he's losing weight and is now at 46g.
Once the vet is open I'll see about scheduling an appointment, maybe an assist/tube feed.
I've contacted the breeder to see how they fed him. He was described as eating both f/t and live, but preferring live. Dunno when they'll respond.
I don't have access to mouse pinkies, but he's been offered rat and hamster pinkies.

tank is ~2ft x 16inch x 16inch plastic tub with about 3 inches of aspen shaving substrate. has hides, fake plants, light wood, etc. warm side is around 98F and cool side goes to around 85F. uses a basking light for 15 hours a day and a uth (set to about 90 via thermostat) 24/7

He's about 1ft 5 inches, estimate. Around a year old.

I've heard their breeding season is around this time, but there's a lot of different information of if they keep eating or if they don't.

any advice/other methods would be helpful, thank you!