durmeil boa problems?????

[americanrebel79]

I have my baby she is a durmeil boa shes about 7 months old she have had her about 4 she is a very shy eater but she has eaten 2 meals but hasent eaten in 6 almost 7 weeks she had stated to shead 6 weeks ago and took her 4 and a half to shead and tried everthing to help but i finally thought she was finally done but looks like shes starting again i feel really bad she haznt eaten :( any ideas any thing i can do to help her i want her to live a long happy life but im afraid she wont if i cant get her to eat good and shedding

[StudentoReptile]

I had a pair of juvenile Dumerils once, and they were both very aggressive feeders! From what I gather, this is rather typical of the species.

Can you describe your set-up?, specifically the ambient and basking temperatures? Do you have a couple of hides/shelters and/or a deep substrate for her to burrow into? Mine always like to burrow. You'd think they were western hognose!

[americanrebel79]

It stays 87 to 90 during the day and 75 to 79 at night plenty of aspen shavings she use to she dont hide in it now she dont and have good hides and and water dish she spends most of her time in it now and has been for a week she will sit in her water bowl for hours and she never uses her hide she just. Basks on it

[CDN_Blood]

Personally I'd ditch the Aspen, throw in some newspaper and then take temperature readings again. If I understand correctly and a moult took 4 weeks, that temperature is totally out of whack. Something is very not right, whether it's the temps or the time frame being inaccurate, I can't say, but starting without shavings and just paper and the water basin would be a good place to start to get accurate temperature readings.

[KORBIN5895]

So she isn't eating, she is shedding often and she spends a lot of time in the water? Could be mites. I have a hard time putting all of the info into any sort of time line or sensible sequence.

[CDN_Blood]

So she isn't eating, she is shedding often and she spends a lot of time in the water? Could be mites. I have a hard time putting all of the info into any sort of time line or sensible sequence.

Ditto. I was thinking the same thing and it's all the more reason to ditch those shavings. I dunno who started the whole snakes on shavings thing, but I'd like to meet up with them in a darkened alley for a few minutes at some point, lol.

[KORBIN5895]

I know Todd! What ever happened to the good old days of keeping them on gravel?

[Lankyrob]

Can you explain the temps again? Hot end/cold end day and hot end/cold end night. Plus humidity levels.

Also your way of typing with zero punctuation is very hard to understand. Does she have a hide at both ends of the enclosure so that she can thermoregulate AND hide?

I agree with a lot of the above comments that multiple sheds in a short time and lots of time in a waterbowl COULD be mites. And taking 4 weeks to shed COULD be humdity and temperature issues.

A photo is worth a thousand words so a picture of the enclosure could also help us help your snake :)

[CDN_Blood]

I know Todd! What ever happened to the good old days of keeping them on gravel?

Gravel? GRAVEL?! Are you sure you're not thinking about fish? LOL

I blame Snakebytes for putting the idea of shavings into the general public's mind. I blame them for a *lot* of things - <musters-up best Comic Book Guy voice and says "Worst examples to follow ever">. If it wasn't them, it was probably Microsoft 'cause they're to blame for equally as many things, but it seems unlikely in this case :D

But getting back on track, once we have the details on husbandry and setup, we should be able to give you a better idea of what might be wrong with this Dum.

[americanrebel79]

Ok then what should i use if not aspen shavings? She use to burrow but if i use newspaper or something else how would that happen? And temps on hot end reach about 92 and cold end 85 and night hot end 80 cold end 74 to 70

[Lankyrob]

What about the humidity levels?

[americanrebel79]

Im not sure

[Lankyrob]

To shed properly a lot of snakes need fairly precise humidity levels, if you dont measure it then there is no way of knowing if your husbandry is correct or not

[americanrebel79]

Ok what should the humidity be?