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? regarding feeding a newly purchased boa

S

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Just got her yesterday, she's about 15-inches long and doing fine from the shipping. Great looking snake. She was raised on FT fuzzies. I tried to feed her a live medium fuzzy yesterday, she killed it but did not eat it. Tried again with a smaller one, this time by dangling in front of her, she strikes, but does not take hold, and eventaully begins to care less. According to seller, she ate 10-days ago. Is this normal, the not eating right away? The Hogg I bought a couple months ago mowed the mice I put in front of him, I just assumed this was typical. Any suggestions?
 
Whoops, pressed submit too quickly. Good sign that she took the feeder though. She might just not be comfy enough in her new surroundings to want to eat yet. At least you know she does have a feeding response.
 
Listen to Lauren, she is absolutely correct.
Shipping is very stressful and you should always give shipped animals a few days to settle in before handling or feeding.
 
Also, some snakes are "shy" about eating. Once she takes the food, don't make sudden movements and be careful about jarring the enclosure. Sometimes just putting the top on is enough to make them let go of the prey item (but if you walk away with it open, don't go too far, lol). If she lets go of the prey due to happenings around her, try offering food just before lights out - once she grabs it, kill the lights and leave the room.
 
Okay, great advice, thanks. I'll leave her alone to settle in and go back to concentrating on the Hogg for a few days. She's a Cay Caulker by the way, and really a beautiful snake.

Have a good one.
 
I also agree with the method of leaving her alone. I have a albino boa and the way I feed is, that I put a thawed rat in a tupperware container, I then take my little boa and put her the tupperware also and close the lid. I then leave her alone in the room for a couple of hours, I sometimes put a towel over the container, so she doesn't see anything to distract her, and when I return the rat is all gone, and then I put her back into her enclosure.

Lawrence
 
Figures - my Caulkers are the only boas I have that drop their food when I move, or otherwise disturb them. Unfortunately, they won't go back and pick it up again, either...but they will snatch it right off the tongs when I offer it again.

Your initial post makes it sound as if you sometimes present food by dangling it from your fingers...if you haven't already done so, get yourself a long pair of tweezers or feeding tongs (hemostats).
 
Can you explain how you feed your snake hhmoore, I'm not used to any other method beside dropping the feeder into the cage and the Hogg attacking within seconds. Any advice on your method would help me. Do I have to stick with FT?

As far as the dangling went, I looped some soft dental floss under the hind legs of the little fuzzy feeder guy and hung him in front of the snake figuring I could easilt pull the floss before eating commensed; I'll go by some feeding tongs this weekend.

Thanks in advance.
 
Do I have to stick with FT?
Click to expand...
not at all - if you are going to feed live, just dropping it in is the way to go.
If you are feeding f/t or f/k, though, having your hand right there presents a couple of potential problems. Most of my snakes are no nonsense feeders - I just grab the mouse/rat/whatever with the tweezers and they snatch it away. A couple require a little bit of a tease, and that is where the tweezers shine. You can manipulate the prey pretty easily and even (kind of) simulate "normal" movement. IMO, tweezers offer more control and easier release, but hemostats are good when you want some extra distance or are offering heavier prey items.
 
Right - you don't have to stay with F/T... but if the breeder already had the snake on F/T, why change back to live? The only reason being that later on, when the snake gets larger, and the prey you feed it also is larger, you may have to deal with bites and injuries. F/T can be a pain, but if you've ever seen a snake get bitten by a mouse or rat.... you wouldn't want to switch back to live unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. I just finally got all of my snakes switched to F/T, and there's no way I would want to go back to live. It's annoying if your snake decides NOT to eat a live prey item - then you have to temporarily cage that animal until your snake DOES eat. Stinky little things. ;)
 
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