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Rainbow Boa Won't Eat - 3 months
Hello everyone, I'm sure this has been asked before but its case dependent so I'm asking again and being as specific as possible.
I purchased a near-adult Brazilian Rainbow Boa from someone who needed to rehome him. He is 3 years old and about 4.5 feet long. I brought him home about 3 months ago and he has only eaten once, about 1 month after I got him. His previous owner said he never had problems eating, he would just thaw a 120g rat and leave it for him in his enclosure. When I do that, he is very interested in it, goes over and smells it etc, but doesn't actually take it. I've tried leaving it in with him over night completely alone, and dangling it in front of him. He wont take it.
He is in a 4 foot wooden terrarium, humidity is consistently 70-80%, temperature gradient is about 75 on cold side and 85 on hot side. He has a UTH and a red heat lamp on a dimmer, no heat rocks. I use sphagnum moss and mist daily for humidity, and a combination of reptile carpet and cypress mulch for substrate. He has 2 hides, one on each end of the temperature gradient. He has two water dishes that I change regularly, with one of them big enough to soak in. I dont particularly want to try feeding live because I live in the middle of nowhere and supplying live rats would be a problem, plus I would worry about them harming him, particularly if he doesnt try to eat them. I have tried smaller rats (down to 50g) and even an adult mouse just to try to get him to eat something. I try him with food every 7 days. He last shed about 5 weeks ago. He's in a quiet part of the house and I handle him every couple of days. He doesn't look like he is getting skinny, and is still active, but I'm worried about him not eating. My last boa (a red tail) never turned down food. I know snakes can go on hunger strikes, but I wasn't expecting this after I was told he is such a good eater.
Anyone have any advice for me? Thank you!
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