training Dumerils to eat F/T

[rudedogg]

Hey all, newbie to the forums here and have a question. I recently purchased a young (about 30") Dumerils boa at a reptile expo. Great disposition and beautiful snake...the seller said it had eaten F/T before but i doubt it. I tried a frozen mouse in a seperate feeding box and the snake sniffed it a bit and shoved it around a minute then crawled away. I left the snake in the box for a bit but it ignored the mouse so i placed them both back in his/her cage and left it overnite...nothing happened. I let a couple days go by and tried live in the snakes habitat and boom! instant reaction...soooo how do i get the snake switched to F/T or don't bother???

[Lankyrob]

Will be harder now you gave it live but the best way is to make sure the f/t prey is hot and that the skull is the hottest part then use tweezers or tongs to hold the prey by the scruff and make it "dance" in front of the snake.

If it doesnt take it this time then DONT feed anything else - give it a week and try again. After a few tries the snake will be hungry and tkae the prey - if you offer live in between it will never bother with the f/t and you dont want it on live feeding all its life as once it is eating large rats they can cause MAJOR MAJOR damage to your snake.

[NennaMeerkat]

I would say try freshly killed...meaning you having to kill it yourself right before feeding. Sometimes snakes like freshly killed compared to frozen/thawed. It might be the thing to try as a step before trying f/t again OR if the snake refuses f/t after waiting a while and trying it again. There are several techniques to dispatching mice/rats that is fast and easy.

[stephanbakir]

I would say try freshly killed...meaning you having to kill it yourself right before feeding. Sometimes snakes like freshly killed compared to frozen/thawed. It might be the thing to try as a step before trying f/t again OR if the snake refuses f/t after waiting a while and trying it again. There are several techniques to dispatching mice/rats that is fast and easy.

How does the snake distinguish between F/T and F/K???

[TeaNinja]

f/k smells MUCH more fresh then f/t, not to mention there will still be warm bloody goodness instead of frozen nutrientless blood.

some snakes just refuse dead prey though, or take A LOT of effort to switch over. i just got a new small female dum and i'm going to have to change her over from live mice to f/t rats also, so we're in the same boat pretty much.

[NennaMeerkat]

Hey Tea at least if she doesn't switch over easily you have a fresh supply to give her freshly killed in an effort to get her more "excited" over the idea.

[TeaNinja]

yea, and i can pretty much rest assured my garbage disposal BP will eat what Oracle doesn't. i got oracle 2 live mice the other day but she was in shed and only wanted to strike at it as a warning and not actually grab and constrict. i thought she was just being a sissy cuz she couldn't see so i f/k the first mouse and left it in the box for a while and she was TOTALLY not interested. i put it in her viv overnight and she didn't care either.

i took the 2nd live mouse, put it in the box, put my ball python in. BLAM, first strike, dead. lol

[NennaMeerkat]

Gotta love balls right? I hear they will eat almost anything...Frozen/Fresh Killed/Live...hope that is true for the one I eventually get in a couple of years.

[TeaNinja]

i can even switch mine from mice, to rats, to mice, to rats lol. he'll eat anything.

he takes rediculously huge poops also lol. he ate the mouse on top of his rat the other day then took a poop like a third of the size of his body lol.

[rudedogg]

Yea your right about the smell...I could smell the stench of the thawed mouse from 4 feet! smelled like a wet dog...the live one had very little odor that i could smell. I have a Hypo Honduran Milk that could care less....it'll take a frozen/thawed gently from your fingers while you hold it...i'm tellin you this Boa has NEVER seen a dead mouse before....the snake looked disgusted! So this is gonna take some work!

[stephanbakir]

Clean a retic cage once its been constipated for a month =/ Cleaning any other poo will be good news:P

[NennaMeerkat]

LOL To both Tea and Stephan I used to work in a zoo cleaning all kinds of poo. We had several large snakes and I know that it can get pretty durn big from those guys. Though I could not imagine a constipated Retic....ug!

[marvelfreak]

I recently purchased a young (about 30") Dumerils boa at a reptile expo.
At that size it should be easily eating rats.

[TeaNinja]

rat pups start smaller then big mice, so i would agree with you marvel. mine is probably alittle smaller then 30 inches but i'm about to switch her over to rats also. i'm forgetting your name at the moment for some reason marvel.....is it chuck?

[Marica]

Agreed on the rats. It's what they're going to eat as adults so might as well get them started on them. Baby Dums can easily take a rat pink, then fuzzies, then pups, etc. Here's a link to a sizing chart (http://www.frozenfeeder.com/sizing.html). And, a live rat can do some fatal damage to a snake, so switching to f/t is not only beneficial for the health and safety of your snake, but also more convenient than buying live weekly or breeding your own. Perhaps the breeder was feeding f/t rats, not mice, hence the rejection - a live feeder will often entice a finicky snake. It took 4-6 weeks of weekly rejections of f/t rat pinks before my little Dums took their first meals with me. One will only eat in his enclosure, whereas the other will eat in or out, but they are both regular eaters now. It just takes a little patient persistence :)

[TeaNinja]

i don't know where i can buy f/t rats except for online and shipping costs an arm and a leg. i'll probably just continue breeding my own and making f/t even though it costs a bit in rat food.

[stephanbakir]

You save monkey compared to buying though don't you?

[NennaMeerkat]

i don't know where i can buy f/t rats except for online and shipping costs an arm and a leg. i'll probably just continue breeding my own and making f/t even though it costs a bit in rat food.

I still say a big bag of dog food or cat food will do you good for rat food. But that is just my opinion ;)

And I like that people breed rats/mice for their snakes food. It is always nice to know everything about the critter you are feeding your reptile. Then if something happens to the snake you know it isn't food related.

[stephanbakir]

I could never feed dog food to rats, I like my snake food lean

[TeaNinja]

I still say a big bag of dog food or cat food will do you good for rat food. But that is just my opinion ;)

And I like that people breed rats/mice for their snakes food. It is always nice to know everything about the critter you are feeding your reptile. Then if something happens to the snake you know it isn't food related.

true statement

[rudedogg]

OK,OK!!!......... Just kidding...Loving the responses and help i'm getting here! this is my first Boa of any kind...have had Corns and Kings and a couple BPs when younger. I just fell for the Dums at the show so kind of an impulse buy. I want you all to know he/she is in a nice enclosure with Aspen substrate and a thermal gradient of about 91 on the warm side to about 72 on the cool...50-60% humidity average...just so you know i'm doing my best to provide appropriate conditions for the animal. Now that i have fed it live....it lays outside of it's hides slightly buried waiting for the next meal! oops! But i still think the vendor lied about the snakes feeding habits. I will try a F/T small rat next as you guys have suggested...it did swallow the mouse WAY too easily....keep the info comin' as i do appreciate it...will try to get a couple photos up this weekend, healthy and nice looking snake, also seems VERY easy to handle...no head shyness or other skittishness! loving this little guy!