Snake won't eat

mysticmoon · 04-05-16, 05:33 PM

Hi guys, meet Pyro. He is a 3 year old, foot and a half long Rosy Boa. He is currently feeding on f/t fuzzy mice.

2 months ago I switched to f/t but before that he had eaten live his whole life. What concerns me is that he willingly ate f/t the first few times, but for the last few weeks he has refused f/t. He will flick his tongue at it but won't eat.

Nothing has changed environmentally or behavior wise, is he just not hungry? Is the prey too small? I have tried leaving the food for a few hours, dangling it, wiggling it, sometimes the food has blood on it from the other mice I thaw, nothing is working.

Here is a picture of the last time he was interested in a mouse. He later spit it out and hasn't eaten since.

macandchz · 04-05-16, 06:02 PM

dear mysticmoon, i know what you are going though. i had the same problem with mac. last nov. he decided he was not going to eat froz\thaw ever again. no matter what i did he wouldn't eat. he went 2 months with nothing. i tried everything-holes in brains, trying to soak them in chicken broth-nothing. i figured out that i probably wasn't heating them to his satisfaction. so we tried the hair dryer method, heating pads-nothing. finally i bought live and brought them home and killed them since i was afraid to put live in with him. that did the trick and he's been eating ever since.

mysticmoon · 04-06-16, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macandchz

dear mysticmoon, i know what you are going though. i had the same problem with mac. last nov. he decided he was not going to eat froz\thaw ever again. no matter what i did he wouldn't eat. he went 2 months with nothing. i tried everything-holes in brains, trying to soak them in chicken broth-nothing. i figured out that i probably wasn't heating them to his satisfaction. so we tried the hair dryer method, heating pads-nothing. finally i bought live and brought them home and killed them since i was afraid to put live in with him. that did the trick and he's been eating ever since.

Thank you for your answer mac! Glad to know I am not the only one experiencing this. I thought too it might have been the temps, but I've checked and double checked and they're fine. I suppose I will have to consider feeding live again.

Albert Clark · 04-06-16, 08:42 PM

Hey, sometimes it takes a live feeder to restart the feeding clock once they go off food. Also try feeding the dark and check the temp of the feeder b4 offering. The heat signature may need adjustment.

mysticmoon · 04-07-16, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albert Clark

Hey, sometimes it takes a live feeder to restart the feeding clock once they go off food. Also try feeding the dark and check the temp of the feeder b4 offering. The heat signature may need adjustment.

Thanks Albert! I will try that, I just remembered that when I started feeding him f/t I had been placing the frozen mouse into a cup of warm water for about 10-20 minutes. Since then I have started dethawing them in the fridge and warming up in warm water, but perhaps the other method was more effective at warming/more appealing to him

macandchz · 04-07-16, 12:39 PM

dear mystic, after your posts i thought i'd try mac on a small f/t rat last night. forget it~ he took 1 look at it and balled up way on the other side of his feeding box. back to me killing another mouse tonight.