dumerils not eating

[TeaNinja]

so nigma hasn't wanted food in 2-3+ months. he doesn't appear to be noticably losing weight, but i never had him weighed so i don't know 100%. the last few times i tried to feed him he just wants nothing to do with it and wants to hide. i put my male breeder in with him the other day to see if he would eat and he just hissed at the rat then tried to hide some more.

any suggestions on how to get him feeding again?
smaller prey?

[ct851]

What is his housing conditions

[TeaNinja]

his hunbandry is pretty good. he ate multiple times in this viv after i got it. then when i bumped up the bulb from 75w to 100w he put off food because of mating season and he still seems uninterested.

4x2x2 wooden viv, 100w infrared bulb.
http://i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af184/teaninja/newviv001-1.jpg

[presspirate]

Give him time, don't bug him, just let him chill a week at a time. Except for water changes. Try feeding him at weeks end. When he is ready, he will eat.

[TeaNinja]

yea i figure he's an adult snake, 3-4 months probably isn't THAT long to them.

[Jendee]

Maybe its the bulb, I used to use bulbs with my single pet boa like 20 yrs ago lol and within a month he wasnt eating. Im completely aginst bulbs for boas now and Ive never had a feeding problem. Not even during breeding season

[TeaNinja]

you use UTH? can you use UTH's with a wooden viv?

[Jendee]

yes you can, just make sure to put pegs or little feet under your cage maybe .5 inches high so that the heat wont get traped and get too hot. I have a friend ho is breeding his boas successfully in home made wooden vivs and he uses flexxwatt without a problem

[marvelfreak]

I just give it time. My big Jungle hasn't eaten since Nov 28. Last year she went almost 4 & 1/2 months with out eating. Do you keep records of when your snake eat and shed? I do and it helps give me peace of mind when she goes off feeding. Because then i know when it hit 4 months to start offering something every week until she start. Up until then i just offer once every 3 weeks, because i know she won't eat.

[TeaNinja]

i havn't kept records so far, but i'm going to start keeping them for my snakes. nigma just pooped and shed pretty recently so i would think he would want another meal.
maybe he REALLY wants a mate.

[Jendee]

Different species have different feeding responses, I have a lot of trouble with my pythons eating. I don't have problems with my boas infect they just about take my hand off. So a boa not eating for that long makes me think something is wrong
If he is pooping still I wouldn't be soo worried, he must have something still in his tummy. Was it urinates or poop?? white or brown lol

[illcyat420]

I just checked my records and my boa hasn't eaten since Dec. 11. This is the first winter it has happened but he is also maturing....probably three years old now. I have been housing rats since then and offer him every two weeks but still uninterested. I hope he eats soon as I don't have any intentions of keeping pet rats.

[mld]

What about checking for mites! you never know, especially if you have people coming over who work in pet stores or who own snakes.

[TeaNinja]

jendee it wasn't urates. im sure there were some urates also but he has been pooping.
im almost positive he doesn't have mites. i havn't seen any and i've never seen him bathe.

[TeaNinja]

also i don't really have many people coming over at all. and none of them frequent or own pet stores or own any snakes. none of my friends own any reptiles.

[TeaNinja]

i tried to feed him the other night and he showed some SERIOUS signs of being interested in the rat. he kept smelling the air and creeping towards the rat like he was going to strike, but when the rat walked up to his face he just backed up and finally got over it and went back into his hide. i suppose if he is showing interest he will get hungry enough to strike sometime soon.

i try to feed him my male breeder rat every now and then until the pups get big enough to freeze for f/t. although for nigma im thinking f/t might be a bad idea if he doesn't want to eat. i'd end up wasting snake food.

also i've heard dumerils are notorious for being very slow metabolically. his time between poops seem pretty far apart and his overall shed process seems very slow.

[2006gt]

i would say since he is so big now, he would do good with one good size meal every 3-4 weeks since he is full grown. hope he's alright and starts eating for you again

[Jendee]

How long has it been now??
I cant believe your still feeding live!! bad boy, bad boy lol Get smaller rat then you usually feed him?? Like a small rat leave it in there over night, I bet it will be gone by morning. I dont recommend leaving a live rat in there unsupervised though its up too you, but I wouldnt do it. If he goes a long time without eating like 6 months I would get a frozen thawed rat and cut off his tail, assit feed the tail. Sometimes a snake after going so long without eating forgets about being hungry, so with a little something something in his stomach he might wake up his hunger a bit. I dont recommend assisting feeding to be done often and deffinitly not with a whole prey item, just way to stressful for your snake. Boas are out of season, so it cant be that anymore the season starts back up in septemeber I hope you have him feeding good by then. I think you should switch to f/t I have alot more tricks up my sleeve for that!! I have very finicky blood pythons and have learned several tricks lol

[TeaNinja]

both my snakes were eating live when i got them so i just stuck with that for a while. now that i'm breeding rats i'll be feeding f/t. i already switched my bp over. but it's going to suck if the dum doesn't eat and i end up wasting rats.

As for time since he ate, probably around 4 months. i wasn't really keeping records on when my snakes ate and shed and pooped, but i'm going to start writing all that down now so i can have a better outline of what's going on.

[stephanbakir]

if they are eating the same size prey you might wana feed the dum first?
you prolly already thought of it, im just tossing it out there

[TeaNinja]

they do NOT eat the same prey lol. the dumerils is almost 6 feet long eating large-jumbo rats and the BP is about 1 1/2-2ft JUST eating weaned rat pups.

but a good idea to attempt to feed nigma first lol.
in a few weeks when the rats become a decent meal i guess i'll f/k one and leave it in his viv over night and see how that goes. if he takes it then i'll switch him over to f/t rats also.

[TeaNinja]

http://i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af184/teaninja/rat001.jpg
http://i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af184/teaninja/snake001-2.jpg
http://i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af184/teaninja/ratsandsnakeeating010.jpg

those are pictures from the last time they both ate. the dumerils is from like 4 months ago :x
he ate a few times after i switched him to his wooden viv and then once the season came around he stopped eating.

[TeaNinja]

MAN, that's a LOAD off my shoulders. i took nigma out the other day and he felt a little light like he's lost a bit of weight not eating in all this time. i f/k him a rat and left it in his viv today. i JUST got home and sat at the comp for a few minutes and i heard the illusive *THUMP* of him hitting the rat.

THE FOOD STRIKE IS OVER! YAY

[NennaMeerkat]

YAY I am happy for ya Tea!!

[dshin963]

MAN, that's a LOAD off my shoulders. i took nigma out the other day and he felt a little light like he's lost a bit of weight not eating in all this time. i f/k him a rat and left it in his viv today. i JUST got home and sat at the comp for a few minutes and i heard the illusive *THUMP* of him hitting the rat.

THE FOOD STRIKE IS OVER! YAY

CONGRATS! lol

[TeaNinja]

YAY I am happy for ya Tea!!

CONGRATS! lol

ty :)
this was also nigma's first non live rat.

[Lankyrob]

Good job!! Glad he ate for you

[TeaNinja]

thanks, i was starting to get worried that he wouldn't eat. it was a big relief.

[coll159]

Mine's the same at the moment but he's in with my female he's not eaten for
at least 6 months . Don't worry he will eat when he wants to

[coll159]

I have this problem every year as they are a breeding pair

[Marica]

Grats! That's awesome news Zak!

[TeaNinja]

thanks :)
it was funny, a day or two after he ate the little rat, he was clearly hungry again. i was watching him drinking water while i was laying on my bed with my dog and the dog jumped off the bed and walked passed the snakes viv and out of my room. the snake saw the dog walk passed the glass and lifted his head up super fast from the water bowl and stuck his tongue out for a few seconds then flicked it and did that a few times. when he didn't smell anything he finally went back to drinking then hid again lol.

i just had the split second irrational thought of "oh god! don't eat the dog!" lol

[serpentshideawa]

Im glad to hear hes finally eating for you again :)