feeding wild caught boas?

[bytheshore1]

from time to time, i aquire a few wild caught adult boas, rainbows and guyanas mostly. i hardly ever see one that eats right off the bat. i am patient and try different tacticts. mice, rats, live, fresh killed. sometimes they eat and sometimes they dont. does anybody have any good advice other than stop buying wc. i know that the reason they are cheaper is they are also trouble. i dont want a war about captivebred versus wc, just some good advice. when should i consider forcefeeding? are there any tricks i can try? anything else? well, i hope this does not start a debate. there is enough of that going on already. thanks, tim

 

[robin d.]

if you are buying the WC adults you might first off if you can get a fecal sample done to see if part of your problem is a parasite load. secondly keep them in an area not much traveled by and keep it dark (lots of hides) warm and a bit moist.... as another food alternative you might try baby chicks or perhaps gerbils... i have noticced most wc will not eat a white colored rodent but will eat a grey bown or black one (weird)... other than that just use alot of patience.... forcefeeding should be a last ditch effort if all else fails and the animal is losing drastic amounts of weight and basically withering away. force feeding causes so much stress on the animal that if done too early it can compromise an already weakened immune system from all that it has gone through prior to you recieving it.
hope this helps i am no expert but this was work for me in the past