Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 4 year old female bci (18 lbs.) has refused her last two rats. She does not appear to be sick in any way-I had her outside yesterday and she acts like her normal self, even defacated outside (a little.) Her mouth and nose are normal and her breathing sounds normal. I am militant about cleanliness of her cage (paper substrate) and water, and temps are the same as always (belly heat measured at 88 degrees on the warm side, high 70's on the cool side. I feed her a jumbo rat(f/t) every three weeks and she has never refused until now. Funny thing is, she hasn't moved from her hide box(warm side) in a month unless I take her out. It's almost like she's depressed. I hope she is just constipated (her tail does look kind of heavy.) I have heard that boas can go off feed for no reason, but I've never personally experienced it myself.

mouth and nose

vent/tail

tongue flick

If you think she might be bound up, try soaking her in some luke warm water for a couple hours. Usually this makes them go pretty quick. I feel sometimes animals aren't comfortable on newspaper or cage liners! I know for a fact that babies that I have raised to subadults on aspen didn't seem to care for the switch to a cage liner. Hope she eats for you!

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

absolutely HATES water! I think I traumatized her as a baby. I did the bathtub thing with her as a neonate (one or two inches of water deep) You would have thought I was electrocuting her. Water was room temperature.

Warm water is the only "pretty much" surefire way that I know of to relieve constipation. I have not seen it fail yet. She would get over it as well. Mine will squirm and wiggle and try and get out desperately for about the first minute and then calm down and just chill in the water. I put mine in a sterilite container from Walmart with holes drilled in the lid and about 2 inches of water. She probab;y wont eat as long as she is constipated so i would at least give it a try.... Jon Runde
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0.1.0 Brown Pacman
1.1.0 Albino Clawed frogs
0.0.1 Superlight Baby Sulcatta
1.0.0 Juv. leopard tort
0.0.2 Fly river turtles
0.0.2 Savannah Monitors (one pastel)
0.2.0 juv pastel Columbian boas
0.1.0 monster normal columbian boa
1.1.0 monster pink pastel columbian boas
1.1.0 Hypo Hog boas
1.0.0 Hypo pastel boa
1.1.0 Hypo boa babies, Poss. DH sunglow
0.2.0 Hypo poss. DH sunglow
1.0.0 Coral albino boa (my baby)
and
0.2.0 Pomeranians (the wifes babies)

n/p.

I have had luck in the past and recently with my off-feeding green anaconda male. Here is what worked after 10 weeks.
Place snake with F/T food in box taped shut or secured in some fashion so she can't bust out.
Place box with her and food inside in her normal cage overnight. Keep room quiet and see in the morning.
Good luck! This worked for some tough feeders of mine.
Not sure why they decide to eat in this environment but it saved my guy.
Have you changed anything in her cage?
Any changes in your home she may pick up on? Cats? New sounds, smells etc?
She may be stressed or hitting sexual maturity. I know anacondas better but it may also be puberty. Some animals go off feeding during this phase I have learned.
Cheers
Tom

I am starting to think it may be a sexually mature thing. I'll try feeding her again in a couple weeks.