Rough Scaled Sand Boas Question

Hi, we have recently purchased 2 rough scaled sand boas been told they are 1 M 1 F.
we think the larger of the 2 is F however we have had them 3 weeks and they larger one has not eaten, it has also just shed. But when you put food near it she ignores it. we were told to keep anoying it until it strikes but it wont. The smaller one has eaten a pinkie and the week before took 2 pinks. We are not sure of their age we know they are 07's but they seems quite small.
I am used to corns.
the smalelr of the 2 will strike if it can even smell food or if you go near and its not in the mood. But the larger one if you pick it up and try to hold it and put food near its mouth you can see the vent openeing and the last 2 times we haev picked it up and tried to put food close to its mouth it has actually opened vent and poo'd. We were told that they were not good eaters and the fact that one is larger than the other means it must have eaten at some point.
Obviously dont want to stress this poor little thing out but it needs to eat. I have tried the usual tricks like braining and leaving it in a dark place for a while but as yet no joy. As these are so small not sure how long they can go without food.

Temps must be ok as the other one has not missed a feed and in the UK we are just coming into spring.
Any ideas or help will be received gratefully

from the sounds of it, yours are much smaller than mine. However i had the same problem upon acquiring my sand boas (eryx conicus). Mine went for 4 mos without eating. I eventually added more substrate for security and raised the temp on the hot side to 90+ degrees. This went on for another couple weeks then they both shed. I was also offering small prey, then switched to slightly larger prey. Now they are both eating vigorously on a weekly basis. Also, i moved them to smaller cages, and left the live prey in the cage with them when they finally decided to eat. I changed a lot of variables, it could be any combination of them, or jsut one factor, but either way this is what worked for me. Hopefully it will help you.

Cheers

Thanks for your reply.

Here in the UK we dont feed live - its illegal and frowned upon.

They are in a small faunarium at the moment but will check the temps as i said the bigger ones has shed and the fact that he is bigger he must have eaten at some point. Problem is i dont know how they were treated before we got them, so it coudl jsut be a number of things, But thanks for your help and advise i will check the temps and maybe add another inch or so of substrate - im surrently using aspen. I was sold them and told that neither woudl eat but the younger one wow! he seems to lvoe his food.

4 months seems an awful long time for tiny little snakes. If my corns went for food in that time i would not worry. But now you have said that i know he can go without eating for a little longer.
many thanks

again, mine are much larger, my female is over 250 grams. The female can eat full grown mice and the male eats hoppers/fuzzies. Sometimes live prey is a must with picky species unless you want to force feed. Neither of my sand boas has EVER taken f/t f/k prey, even with all the tricks.

Good luck.

Thanks.

well even if i wanted to feed live there is nowhere to get live from as pet shops would not sell you baby mice- they would only sell full grown ones.
plus if anyoen thought you wre feeding live here they would contact the RSPCA - who think they are animal police but know nothing about reptiles.

so i will just have to try and see how it goes. I am going to leave it a couple more weeks then try the rats tails if it still dont feed just to get him back to feeling food down his throat again.
many thanks
Lin







RSPCA - Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals