need help and fast

[t-dot]

i need some help i try to feed my soloman ground boas and they are not eatting, can someone help me ??
this is one of the pics that the onwer took ~!!
http://markmlucas.com/images/Boas/Old%20World%20Boa/soloman%20island%2034.JPG

[ohh_kristina]

you're going to have to give more information than "my ground boas won't feed."

How long have they been in your care? What is your husbandry like? What methods have you used to entice them to feed?

[Stockwell]

What are you calling ground boas? Species please

[ScreamingMisfit]

there solomons ground boas and there from a pet store ...have you tried braining the feeder(exposing the brain tissue) i have had a %100 success rate with this method, try puting the boas(indevidualy) in small rubbermades and place the feeder (f/t) in with it over night that usualy works to ....as an absolute last resort try feeding live to stimmulate a feeding responce ...when was the last time they took food ? what are your cool end and hot end temps and humidity? how old are the boas?


Jay

[t-dot]

dumeril ground boa

[Derrick]

didnt you just get these? One of my JCP only ate 1 meal in the first 2 months i had her and she came from a good breeder. make sure they are set up right and give them a bit of time. If they situation is that desperate that they need food now you're going to have to force feed them.

BTW solomon ground boas would jive more pricewise with the fact that you traded them for 2 BP. Or maybe they couldnt get them to eat.

[t-dot]

then how do i force feed them ??

[Frankie]

T-dot don't force feed them. I tried to pm you but it wouldn't work. Send me a e-mail I'll try to help you. If you got Dums not eating seems kinda common with them. My e-mail add frankiew8@yahoo.com

[t-dot]

ok man

[t-dot]

i tried feeding them today but still they never took a bite out of them pinkies what should i do ?? i only had them for only a week from today ~! please someone give me some tips??

[t-dot]

i found out that my boas are soloman not dumeril ~!

[Piers]

solomans are tricky I'd contact Roy "uncle Roy" Hes got a lot of experince with them. Hate to be an **s but you realy should find out about an animal befor getting it. All the soloman island boa group can be very hard to get feeding,those in the pictur look close to new born. find out if they ever have eaten and if so what and how was the cage setup.
Again, talk to Roy Stockwell, he"ll tell you everything you need to know! Hes a great guy and will set you strait.
Piers

[Zoe]

I don't know much about the ground boas but I can give you a few ways to try feeding.
First off, leave them alone for a few days. Trying to feed them nonstop is only stressing them out.
You can try:
Braining - take a dead pinky mouse and stab it in the head with a knife, and squeeze it's head in at the ears so brain comes out of the hole you made. Then place the pinky in a small container with the snake overnight.
Live - place a live pinky in a container with the snake and leave it be for an hour or two. If it hasn't eaten, take out the pinky.
Scenting - I don't know if this will work for ground boas but it worked for a stubborn baby IJ. Try scenting with chicken broth, lizard, or gerbil fur (the latter worked for me!)
Hidebox - wait for the snake to be in his hide box and place a pinky mouse (live or dead) in front of the door of the hide. Sometimes the babies feel safer and will eat.
Washing - try washing, rinsing and drying a dead pinky before feeding to remove the scent that some snakes don't seem to like.

If all this fails you may need to resort to assist feeding. To do this, hold the snake behind his head firmly but gently, and place the dead pink's nose on the side of the snake's mouth (you're using the pinky's nose to open the snake's mouth) and push the pinky gently into the snake's throat. Often, this triggers a swallowing reflex and the snake will finish swallowing the meal on his own.

Ditto what Piers said... if you don't even know what species of snake it is, how can you expect to care for it correctly?

Good luck.
Zoe

[djc3674]

first off...you need to relax...if your stressin after only a week, your probably trying to hard to get them to eat, hence stressing them out even more..like Zoe said. Don't worry your babies will not starve themselves to death. Most likely they used up all of their yokes and dont really need to eat yet. When I purchased my baby Hog Island boa from a breeder, it took a month for me to get cause ALL of the babies did not want to eat. I had him ship the snake to me anyway before it ate. 3 days after I had him, he ate a live hopper mouse and has not refused a meal yet.

I would take Zoe's advice and just leave them alone for a few days. Don't disturb them at all. Feed them seperately, a live pinkie or small hopper mouse. I'm telling ya, live prey really gets babies into a feeding frenzy. I know alot of people will tell you to feed live as a last resort, but if you want to get them eating...try live. That little fuzzy mouse running around in front of it is going to do the trick. You can always switch them over once they have eaten a few times and are used to you.

[Frankie]

T-dot just checked this thread, so their not Dums. Your probable going to have to scent the pinkies with an anole or some other type of lizard. I believe they'll take frogs also. Supposedly these guys will switch over to pinkies around 6 monthes old. I'll do some checking around and send you another e-mail tonite.

[t-dot]

i hope that some one can give me more help to this i picked up lizard scents the one that comes in liqurd form~! and they still won't eat

[sapphire_moon]

well stop throwing food in their face constantly (every day or every couple of days, try once a week, same time, that way they "know" that it's feeding time.), it's only stressing them, and they won't eat for longer periods. I believe someone else said they looked like hatchlings and that they may still be using the yolk to eat, if so they can go up to I think 2 or 3 months on their yolk....
Leave them alone for like 2 weeks, just put fresh water in and spot clean (or clean) when needed. You have them in seperate quarantine containers right? If not being housed together may be stressing them (even though they may have been housed together before.)

plus what is their temps and humidity, do you have hides?

[t-dot]

i think i need more help with these guys

[djc3674]

GOOD..send them to me..I'll be glad to take a few off your hands. :D

[t-dot]

i'm trying to feed them not give them away

[djc3674]

yes I know..sheesh..I was j/k.

Have you tried feeding live??

Also, I really think, as well as other people have said, you should leave them alone for a while. Stop trying so hard to get them to eat. They will in time eat for you. Dude, there not gonna die if they go a month or two without food. Your impatience is doing more harm then good...sorry just being honest.

[t-dot]

i have decied to leave them along for now

[Frankie]

T-DOT just let them settle in for a week or two then try to feed them a small anole or tree frog. I'll e-mail you a link to a care sheet.

[t-dot]

i need more info for care sheet i'v been looking around and i don't get enough info from the other care sheets i look at ! please if anyone knows where i can get more info about these soloman ground boas??

[HetForHuman]

First of all its Solomon.

I did a search on google and found plenty of stuff.
Here is just one of the many i found.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.gamesby/snakes.html

Good luck.

[t-dot]

thanks hetforhuman i have to go read now ~!

[t-dot]

i did a test today i first rubbed pinkie scent on my finger with teasing they stirked my finger both of them did that and when i put liquid lizard scent they stirked too does them mean they want to be teased at or they are sort of hungry??

[Oliverian]

I don't think you should be teasing them. Leave them alone for a while, probably at least a week. Don't even open their cage. You're probably stressing them out more. Just leave them alone! Then, when they've settled in (wait AT LEAST a week) you can offer a brained, normal, live, or scented pinky. Leave it in overnight (unless it's live) and if they still don't eat, come back for more help. I hope they eat soon for you. But remember, let them settle in first!
-TammyR

[t-dot]

yep for sure but now i have to feed them live though~!

[zouleous]

Why do you have to feed them live now? You keep asking for more help, but you aren't giving any information on what you have tried and what method isn't working for you.

Z

[t-dot]

they doing fine now without food it has been three weeks i'm sort of worried

[Frankie]

I still think your going to need to get anoles or tree frogs to get them started.

[daver676]

Originally posted by t-dot
i did a test today i first rubbed pinkie scent on my finger with teasing they stirked my finger both of them did that and when i put liquid lizard scent they stirked too does them mean they want to be teased at or they are sort of hungry??

How obvious is this? If they struck at your finger (god only knows why you'd put the scent on your finger instead of on a food item :rolleyes: ) then why don't you just scent a food item this way and tease them with the food item? Teasing a snake in order to get them to strike isn't the best way to go about it, but it might get them to eat.

[ScreamingMisfit]

dude im sorry if i sound rude but do you know how to care for a snake or did you just get one cuz they look cool ...? care sheets are written for a reason ...read them... send me a PM with some info and were you live i am close to scarborough i might be able to come talk to you and give you some pointers...its up to you ...
how bad do you want your snakes to survive?

Jay

[Invictus]

If you give it a live pinky, don't worry about it. Leave it alone with the pinky as long as you want - a pinky mouse does not have teeth or claws, and cannot do ANYTHING to your boa.

[MouseKilla]

If it's been 3 weeks since you last bothered them then I would also try a live pinky and position it in front of the snake's hides (I'm assuming you've seperated them by now) and watch, from a distance for 10 minutes or so, put the mouse back if it squirms away from the hide. If it isn't gone after the 10 minutes pick it up and bonk it, then squish out some brains. I've found a snake that has been off food for that long will often attack live prey but even the ones that hold out then will go crazy for a brained one. Again, this is assuming the snake hasn't been tormented during it's fast.

[t-dot]

i had ball pythons i had trade these guys for solomon boas~! and yes i have read care sheets on them but they don't want to eat i don't know what to do

[Piers]

t-dot have you tried to contact Roy Stockwell "uncle Roy"? He posts all the time mainly with sand boas. hes had a lot of hands on with solomons.
I know that they can take up to a year of force feeding. some won't eat anything.
I think that the person that you got them from should of told you about this. You should always try to confirm that the animal you get is represented as it is ie eating and good health.
As for force feeding get someone that has done it to show you how to do it. There are a few ways to do it.
Talk to Roy Stockwell!!
Piers
guppyranch@uniserve.com

[t-dot]

i'm bringing it back to the petshop

[BoaBoi]

You do NOT need to have ANY kind of reptile, and if you find your girlfriend pregnant see an adoption clinic.

James~

[BoidKeeper]

BoaBoi I'd say that was less then constructive.

i'm bringing it back to the petshop
The pet shop is where the problem started in the first place.

It seems to me you need to work on patients. These are not mammals they don't do anything like mammals.
Newly acquired snakes need to be acclimated for several weeks before they are "back to normal". Everything with a reptile is slow and that takes patients. Newly acquired snakes are stressed and trying to feed them when they are stressed only stresses them more.
You were given the advice here several times that would have gotten those snakes feeding. You were asked how you were keeping them but never said that is very valuable information when experienced keepers are trying to help. Why did you get so many anyway? If you’re new you should start with one so that if there is a problem you only have one problem not three or four.
Next time you get a snake here's what I suggest.
Take the time to read up on the snake you want first before you buy it.
Find out as much as you can about where the snake comes from. What type of habitat does it live in? I get tired of walking into pet stores and seeing corns on sand. When I ask why sand I always get this answer,” Because it looks cool.” Had that clerk read a little natural history they would have known better.
Find out how big it gets, how long it lives, how large the cage should be, what it eats, where you are going to get the food, what the food will cost.
Then get your cage (one per snake) set it up with the right equipment and the right environment, i.e. temps and humidity, water bowl, hides etc.
Then get the snake. Take it home to its ready and waiting cage. Put it inside and do nothing but monitor the temps and change the water for the next week to two depending on what you get.
Then try and feed it. Once it has had 4 meals and one dump start with gradual handling sessions, no more then 15 min the first week.
Try this next time and I bet you will not be bring animals back to the pet shop. Not that you should be buying from a pet shop anyway but that is a whole different post.
Cheers,
Trevor

[sapphire_moon]

wow, someone finally agrees that you should wait 4 meals before handling........

I second everything boidkeeper says......and although harsh and could have been said in another way.....I kind of agree with boaboi.

If you don't have the patience to wait atleast 2 weeks before handling/feeding them, and you can't provide the proper caging, then don't get the animal....

[ceasar1127]

i'm bringing it back to the petshop

Don't give up! It's only been about 3 weeks since you started this thread. If you would take the advice you have been given and keep at it, your snake will probably be alot better off than going back to the petshop!

[Dark_Angel_25]

try this: if putting the scent on your finger an wiggling your finger workde, then put the scent on a pinkie (live or dead doesnt matter) and dangle it with hemostats (tongs) in front of the snakes head.. if they went for your wiggling finger they should go for the wiggling scented pinkie. But like Invictus said, you could put them all in their own rubbermaid with a LIVE pinkie and they should eat it. leave them overnight, the pinkies won't hurt it.

[t-dot]

my femaleeat already

[V.hb]

t-dot, i see you have 3.. So first off go buy 3 small rubbermaids, put some moist paper towel inside poke some air holes and keep their temperature inside warm. throw in some live pinkies (seperately) and leave them alone!

Keeping 3 of these guys together will make it even harder to get them feeding, its constant stress!