Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my ATB for three months now. In this time, it has only eaten twice--This is not from lack of trying on my part. I attempt to feed every week. The enclosure is kept humid--it is misted heavily twice a day and a heat lamp shines 12 hours out of the day over it-- and warm, and the temperature never falls below 70.

The first meal my ATB ate was a live fuzzy/hopper mouse. The second was a f/t scented (I used chicken broth to dip the mouse in to warm it and to give it a more persuasive odor.) fuzzy mouse. Since, for two months, the snake has refused to eat every week. All it has been offered is f/t scented mice, as I would rather not feed live food and have had a hard time finding fuzzy/hopper mice where I live. The enclosure has not been moved, nor has anything been introduced into the house that should cause the snake stress. It is not in the middle of shedding. It should not be dehydrated-- Fresh water is kept and changed every day for it and it is misted heavily for humidity, as I already explained. There are no drafts.

What else can I try feeding it? How else can I get it to take food? What are some possibilities of why it's not eating? I can't imagine two months with no food for a four foot ATB could be good..

Thanks for your help in advance!

To be honest the FT feeding you may have just been lucky, usually takes some time to convert a live feeder to FT. Here are some tips.

1. Drop cage temp to 70-72 degrees at night and feed a live hopper.

2. Use live russian dwarf hamster babies( warmer, and stinky)

I have never had a emerald or amazon starve to death, just relax, also if it is male, I have had some that go off feed b/c it is that time of year.

Best of luck

Joeb
www.emeraldboas.com

Thank you, I'll try that. His cage temperature does go down at night--He doesn't have a heat pad, just a lamp that's on in the day, so it's able to fall. I'm going to try to go to the next town that sells live mice--which, unfortunately, is 50 miles away--and see if I can find some hoppers. I have no idea how I'll find dwarf hamster babies. Most places would refuse to sell them to me if I found them, I would think, but I can always try that! Thanks so much! I'll let you know how it goes.

I made it to a pet store 50 miles away that keeps all stages of mice, so this is where I'll have to go to get feeders from now on. Within minutes of putting a live hopper in with my ATB, he had it in his mouth past the shoulders. I'm very happy for that.. That just means that the mother figure won't be too happy to travel fifty miles every week or so for a couple of mice. Oh well.. =) As long as my snake is happy!

The best thing to do is, get a water bottle for a hamster a 10 gallon tank. Set it up for mice, hamster food, shaving mulch. And buy a 1.2 trio of mice before long you will have more fuzzies than you know what to do with, and you can feed 3 or more amazons this way!!

Joeb

Hah--Easier said than done. For some reason I've never been able to keep adult mice alive. I raised a fuzzy mouse--Fed it formula and all until it was an adult because one of my snakes refused to eat it. It's been with me for three months, however I haven't been able to keep an adult mouse alive for over a couple of weeks. I tried breeding before, but it just doesn't work for me. Maybe I'll give it another try sometime..

ATB's can be a ton of fun. Unfortunately they do not usually eat hopper mice in the wild and if it is not CBB it may want something more interesting.

Step one: Warm up the blender.

Step two: Insert one dwarf tree frog (preferably after being frozen **Euth'd**)

Step three: Smear that F/t fuzzy and multiple of them all over with the frog mess.

Step four: Watch as the snake devours the meal

Frogs are also not the mainstay of meals as more so birds, mostly in nests and possible flybys are. They also eat bats to an extent.

The key is i have never had frogs not work enough to scent something in and believe me I have had my fun with these little guys. When you get him eating, get some weight on him before trying to get him off the scent. Then only scent maybe the head, then just the nose and then try nothing at all.

Dwarf tree frogs will become more available during these months and should be easier to find now.