Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have had a pair of dumerils boas for a few months now they are 06 babies male is eating and growing like a champ female hasnt taken a meal by herself she strikes but out of defense i am new to dumerils this is my first pair if anyone knows what i should do please let me know i have tried frozen, live, and pre killed everything she had the same responce
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Hey, I know you posted this a while ago, but this question does come up a lot in here. Try looking at some old threads.

There are a TON of tricks you can try. First off, if your female is behaving defensively, she is feeling stressed about something. Does she have adequate hiding places (stuff to burrow through), and is her cage/enclosure located in any kind of a high-traffic area? These may be a major root cause for her feeding troubles.

Additionally, what I have seen from my own lone Dum, is that she is a very shy eater - but once you take care of that shyness, she is very reliable! For my Dum, I feed her in a tupperware container that is separate from her cage, and I put the container in a dark area, then cover it with a towel or a blanket, so she doesn't get distracted by any movement (myself, my husband, or the dogs - as the last 3 love to wrestle when I am trying to feed my snakes ).

This is only scratching the surface, but give us some idea of what you are trying specifically, if you can't find suggestions in previous posts that you can either understand or apply to your own situation.

Good luck!!

~Rebecca

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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

i feed her outside her cage in a small tub havent tried to cover her up while eating so i will definetly try that also she has a hade spot in her tank but barley uses it she is always under the dirt and i have her on top of a dresser far away from where anyone can touch the glass one other thing i have her with the male should i remove them and put them seperate i have all my other snakes seperate so i was alos thinking that might be the problem thanks for the help

I'm sure that is your problem! If you do some basic research on dumerils you will find that it is not uncommon for young dumerils to be cannibalistic! In the future you should be more carefull! It is common in snakes that cohabitate though (of any species) for one or both to become so stressed that feeding discontinues!
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3.17 Normal ball pythons
1.0 Pastel ball pythons
1.0 Plains Garter
0.1 Normal Kenyan Sand Boa
1.1 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Mid-Baja Rosy Boa
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat
1.2 Dumeril's Boa
-----My list is too long, so I'll stop here!
*Amy*

I agree with Amy (reptilicus81) - housing the two together could be a cause of stress for your female. I would think that is more so because this species has been known to be cannibalistic. While I don't recommend it (because we know better now than we did then), I grew up keeping several species of colubrids, and we commonly kept up to four snakes in a cage without any feeding problems arising because we fed our animals in "feeding tubs" outside of their cages. This was a common practice... 15 years ago, but we NEVER did this with any of our potentially cannibalistic species. I've actually got it so ingrained in my head now that all snake species should be housed singly that I felt really weird putting my male Ball Python in with my female a few days ago to try to breed them. Funny how experiences change us.

I would not however say that separating your male and female will cure all your worries with feeding. I think you SHOULD separate them... but then also try covering her feeding bin - I leave a timer set for 20 mintues, and force myself to leave her completely undisturbed until that 20 minutes has elapsed (keeper interference is also stressful) to feed my shy girl. Try that trick, but like I said, look through some old posts here, because there are countless tricks you can try until you find one that works for her.

Let us know if something does work for you too, because this forum needs some more activity and discussion!

Good luck,

~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

np i seperated them today and i will be trying to feed her this weekend and hopefully she will eat i will definaley post what happens thanks for all the help

alittle back ground info
Ive s[poken to alot of people who have been to madagascar and no one I know of has ever found baby dumerils, they find alot fo adults but no small ones, the babies live underground in rodent and other animals burrows, tunnel sytems in rocky areas and in leaf cover on the ground etc, they proabally dont surface for the first yr or so of their lives, around here we go herping and find alot of red milks its the same deal we will find adults and subs out and about but have to dig for little ones, flipping rocks under logs etc, Ive never found a small red milk exposed, for dumerils we need to atempt to give this to them as closely as we can, the point I am getting at is they live in dark, small confined places, so large brightly lite enclousures with minimal substrate are going to stress them, Ive had some dumerils eat the day they were born and never an issue, some you could keep in a glass cage with no bedding and nothing but a water bowl and theyd do fine(i dont recomend it) those that pose issues, IMO are a little more nervous then other and are seeking what I discribed above, the key to any species of reptile is understanding the habitate where they come from and trying to simulate that as closely as possible

as far as your problem feeder I would recomend to always give them a week to settle in to the new enclousure, like someone else said do not keep them togther, Ive had babies each other before, I may have missunderstoud but if you have been force feeding her stop, ive had baby dumerils go up to 6 months without eating their first meal, force feeding a baby dumeril is the absolute worst thing one can do, force feeeding any snakes should only be dine in extreme cases, when you move this one to a new enclousure put it in a dark colored rubbermaid 5.7qt shoe boxes with an inch of aspen shavings and a water bowl, id put that in an aqurium or something if you dont have a rack because they can pop the lids off, leave her be for a wk or two(probally 2 would be better) dont handle her or aside from checking water disturb her at all during this time then atempt a live white hopper mouse over night, if this doesnt work wait a week to 10 days and try again, never atempt to feed more then once every 7-10days or they will start to veiw the food as a source of stress, with the defensive stricking sounds like it may be the case here, also feed her in her enclousure, I never unerstoud moving snakes from cage to cage to feed them, with other established snakes it may be fine but I highly doubt with her issues shell ever start doing so, hopes this help Jason
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Jason & Christina
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