Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I fed my dumeril boa a mouse yesterday. He has been really finicky with his f/t food, so I went live. The mouse looked a little bigger than what he is used to, but I didn't think much of it.
Well its 24hrs later and there still is a pretty significant lump in his belly. Is this normal, is he ok?

Thanks a ton in advance.

Jeff

Not at all unusually, in fact I would say that if you haven't been seeing that before, you've probably been underfeeding him a bit (not a big deal as long as you correct it).

How big is he and how big are the mice you've been feeding? A comparison photo would be ideal, as it may be hard to describe well if you're new to snakes and mice.

Also, how old is he?

Foar larger snake it's not too unusual to see a lump for a week (but I don't think dumerils get in that size range (I'm not that familiar with them.)
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Ok Mitch is at least 24". He is believed to be a yaer and a half old. He is pretty thick for his length, thicker than a broom handle, I would say 1 1/4" around or so. The mouse I fed him was a small adult, maybe 2 1/2" long (no tail). He seems to be OK, I was just concerned with the lump.
How often should I feed him this size prey? I was feeding large hoppers before every 5 days, and you could not even see any lump whatsoever.
I really appreciate your help.

jeff

I'll assume for the moment that you mean 1-1/4" across since 1-1/4" around is about the size of the tip of my finger (IOW much smaller than a brooomstick).

That size mouse should be fine, in fact you could probably feed him two at a feeding. He could probably eat the largest mouse you can find, but I wouln't reccomend that without actually seeing him.

Hopefully, someone who's more knoledgible about dumeril's will chime in too...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Yeah I meant across, ha ha. Thanks for relieving my concern.

A 2ft. Dumeril's can easily eat a large mouse that's slightly bigger around than it's own body once a week. And like Larry already mentioned, if you DON'T see a visible lump, it really is being under-fed in my opinion. The important thing is maintaining a proper temp in the low-mid 80's to allow proper digestion.

One word of caution!........NEVER leave a mouse or rat in the snake cage unattended with the snake. Live prey animals can severely injure a snake that is not interested in eating it. I have personally witnessed this several times. Also,even if the snake does grab and constrict the mouse, the rodent's jaws(and teeth) are free to bite whatever is close, and in the way. This is why most breeders/collectors, especially with high-dollar animals, choose to feed frozen/thawed rodents. Or you can even quickly and humanely kill the live ones yourself.

Another suggestion, since you're new to snakes, would be doing a "google" search, and print a copy of a Dumeril's Boa "care sheet"....this will help you to get familiar with other additional things you should be aware of for the continued well-being of your snake.

Hope this helps, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I've got a better idea, Jeff. Just send me the Dumeril's and I take care of feeding it and you just take care of your black throat monitor. How about that? Hahaha!!!

My Dumeril's is right around 3ft. I feed him 2 medium rats every 10 days or so. He was given to me not long ago and I'm still in the process of finding his feeding limits, capabilities.

I prefer a few smaller prey items versus one large prey item Prey items are sized in relevance to snake's body diameter. In other words, if one extra large mouse left a huge bulge in your Dumeril's Boa I would feed it two large, or 3 medium, mice, instead of one extra large. To me, anything that leaves a bulge inside a snake 1 1/2 times the snake's diameter, is too large for easy, proper digestion. That's just my opinion, the way I've been doing it for nearly 40 yrs. without any problems & good growth rates & health.

Catch ya later!
Mike
(HH)
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Much much friendlier to new goofy owners like me than other forums here that I won't mention.

HH you are always great and a big help, thank you.

Well for what it is worth here is a couple of pics of the dum and his setup.

I know he looks way smaller than what I had said, but he is really curled and its deceiving. When I measured his shed several weeks ago it was right around 2', but i do not recall exactly.

The cage was originally designed for something else that is why it is so tall with that shelf. He goes up there only once in a while. The cage has a variety of temperatures (probably my lizard oriented care techniques) and he seems to use all of them.

He has several hide areas, some dry some humid, some hot some cool. i think he has 5 or 6 different ones. Forgive my noobyism, but with lizards I always offer many options and let the animal choose. Maybe I am over thinking, maybe not. 1 thing I am doing wrong, I know is thinking the care is the same as a lizard.

I am a real "learn by doing" type person. I use caresheets as a guide for the simple fact that every one I look at is different, lol, then I adjust from there. All my herps have done very well by doing this mild trial and error method.

All you guys have been great!!! I am open to all advice thank you.

Heres some of me herping near where I live...

Snakes every time I drive down that same dirt road, gotta love south Florida!!!!

I hung on to the corn snake. It is so beautiful and has such great behavior. Great eater. The day after he was caught he ate a rat pinkie from my hand ever so gently, it was great.

> > > Much much friendlier to new goofy owners like me than other forums here that I won't mention.

Ha! Let me just say that there are some forums you might not have a "ball" participating in, or you might need to "monitor" your posts in another one, and there's one that you could get "envenomated" in.

The last time I looked the Dumeril's forum was a tad slow but social. This "General" forum has always been a pleasure for me.

Looks like we might just have ourselves a good ol' FL boy reunion. I'm originally from Apopka (near Orlando), Doug is in central FL and I believe Larry is, too.

You can take what Larry & Doug say to the bank. They're good people, very experienced & knowledgeable, and most of all, they've got common sense, something that most of today's reptile keepers seem to lack, which you already know. Ha! I have a lot of respect for both of them for their experience, knowledge and the way they carry themselves & treat others.

While I mostly post in the Monitor and Burmese Python forums, I'm all over the place and see a lot of their posts. I think they're experience is more versatile than mine and they're more knowledgeable than I am in several areas, especially the in-depth areas, where my main thing is typical husbandry & health related.

I'm tickled to death with my Dumeril's. He's got more personality than most of my other snakes, combined. He's right up there with my Timber Rattler; very inquisitive, calm, and intriguing. He makes the most use of his hot/cool end hides than any snake I've ever seen. When given to me, his setup was a 55-gal with a cardboard box on both ends, with a heating pad under the hot end hide box.

Come sundown he makes a beeline from the cool end hide to the hot end heated hide. Come sunrise he beeline's it back to cool end. I kid you not. Dangdest thing I've ever seen.

On measuring snakes - using shed skin isn't reliable as they generally get stretched out during shedding. The easiet way I've found is to place snake on a window sill or something similar with a straight wall & most of the time they'll straighten out alnog the wall as they crawl.

> > > I always offer many options and let the animal choose.

I think this is the right approach to keeping any animal. We humans aren't as smart as we think we are. The animals will instinctively seek & do what's best for them.

> > > 1 thing I am doing wrong, I know is thinking the care is the same as a lizard.

Ha! It's so much simpler; much less work & time.

That is a nice corn snake you've got there. While they're prettier than yellow rats I've always been partial to yellow rats. I think they make great captives and are overlooked, underrated. But then again, my first long-term captive was a 5-footer named "Boss" that grew to just over 6ft before I traded him like a fool. Many, many moons ago; so in all honesty, my measurements could've been off by a foot or two. Haha!!! But he was huge and docile to a 13yr old boy.

Take care, Jeff. Good to see ya outside of the 'hood.

Mike
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

I'd suggest getting your snake on rats. If it gets stuck on mice your gonna hate it when you having to feed 10 mice a week to satisfy an adult dumeril.
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Jason