Can’t get baby sand boa to eat, tried everything.

[amhunt12]

Hello, I purchased my little guy from a pet expo Oct. 21st. I was told he was roughly 2 mo and had eaten a week before the show and always ate live pinkies.

I have tried everything
-live
-frozen
-braining
-garlic
-leaving overnight
-dangling
-feeding in enclosure
-feeding outside of enclosure
-putting tub inside enclosure
-made mouse nest

He seems interested. He will look at it, come out of the sand to look at it, even sit by the mouse nest almost completely out of the substrate, but he will not eat.
He is in a 10 gallon aquarium, cal sand is substrate, has an under tank heater and a non light over tank heater I only turn on during the day, he has a water dish and a cardboard hide away. The temp range is 95 on one side and 70 on other. The hide away is on hot side

He weighs 6 grams and I saw on one site that hatchlings weigh around 7 or 8 grams. So he is not conserving body fat but might have lost weight. His skin also seems slightly loose.

I have a vet appointment for him on nov 16th, and I’m going to try another live pinkie next Monday.

[DJC Reptiles]

I would highly recommend checking out a vet like you said, there is a chance that the person you got him from got him impacted. Try to see if you notice any bulge on the botton side of the snake where anal vent is located (should be pretty noticeable). If you do see a bulge try using warm water to help him pass any substrate through. If you do not see a bulge leave him in a small container with a live pinky mouse for the night, (you probably already tried this but it won't hurt to try again) the mouse won't be able to hurt him at this stage. Make sure your not holding your sand boa, they should have at least 5 days to acclimate to their environment, this includes no feeding for that time period as well. Please get back to me as soon as possible so I can help you further.

Hope this helps!
-DJC Reptiles

[Aaron_S]

Hello, I purchased my little guy from a pet expo Oct. 21st. I was told he was roughly 2 mo and had eaten a week before the show and always ate live pinkies.

I have tried everything
-live
-frozen
-braining
-garlic
-leaving overnight
-dangling
-feeding in enclosure
-feeding outside of enclosure
-putting tub inside enclosure
-made mouse nest

He seems interested. He will look at it, come out of the sand to look at it, even sit by the mouse nest almost completely out of the substrate, but he will not eat.
He is in a 10 gallon aquarium, cal sand is substrate, has an under tank heater and a non light over tank heater I only turn on during the day, he has a water dish and a cardboard hide away. The temp range is 95 on one side and 70 on other. The hide away is on hot side

He weighs 6 grams and I saw on one site that hatchlings weigh around 7 or 8 grams. So he is not conserving body fat but might have lost weight. His skin also seems slightly loose.

I have a vet appointment for him on nov 16th, and I’m going to try another live pinkie next Monday.


You picked this animal up on Oct 21st. When you made this post it is Nov 9th. That is a total of 19 days you've had the animal and you've attempted TEN different ways to offer food. That's an average of every two days! You're trying way too hard here.

My recommendation for people is to not offer food for 5 days after getting a new animal. Then offer a meal and only offer a meal once every 5 days. You should be consistent in your offering too. All these changes are just so much.

I would offer a live pinky mouse over night left in the enclosure. If it's not eaten by morning then wait 5 days and try again, maybe, and I say maybe put it in a small deli container.


I would highly recommend checking out a vet like you said, there is a chance that the person you got him from got him impacted. ...

Wrong. Impaction is not a thing unless you have an unhealthy animal. Reptiles will pass substrate like anything else if they are healthy. There are no reasons to think this animal is unhealthy, aside from stress, right now.

[DJC Reptiles]

Wrong. Impaction is not a thing unless you have an unhealthy animal. Reptiles will pass substrate like anything else if they are healthy. There are no reasons to think this animal is unhealthy, aside from stress, right now.

Wrong? You took my advice out of context. I stated if there was a bulge at the end of the tail near the anal vent, that the animal may be impacted. There wasn't enough evidence to leave this theory out of the problem at all. Most likely it is not impaction, but it shouldn't be overlooked if the animal has a buldge, which is what I explained. Your right though, most likely this is a stress related accident and like Aaron S and I stated there shouldn't be any involvement with you and your snake for the first week, which means giving the animal time to acclimate to its environment.

[Andy_G]

You picked this animal up on Oct 21st. When you made this post it is Nov 9th. That is a total of 19 days you've had the animal and you've attempted TEN different ways to offer food. That's an average of every two days! You're trying way too hard here.

My recommendation for people is to not offer food for 5 days after getting a new animal. Then offer a meal and only offer a meal once every 5 days. You should be consistent in your offering too. All these changes are just so much.

I would offer a live pinky mouse over night left in the enclosure. If it's not eaten by morning then wait 5 days and try again, maybe, and I say maybe put it in a small deli container.




100%. Slow down and give your snake a chance to settle before pestering it with food. This species has a very slow metabolism so don't panic.

Also...garlic is a new one for me...I don't understand even in theory how that would do anything...could someone explain it to me?

[TRD]

Everything is better with garlic :)

[DJC Reptiles]

Now I am curious, how does garlic help? I don't think they would be attracted to it... I think you took some weird advice.

[samiam1796]

Definitely do not panic! I am a new KSB owner and had similar issues. I was also trying many things in a short span of time. My baby KSB did not eat for 4 weeks after I got him, but once I gave him a break of me offering food and then offered him a live pinky a week after my previous attempt, he ate right away! Be sure to update if you get it to feed. Now my next challenge is switching from live to f/t...