Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've got a 5 year old BCC female. She's about 8' long and weighs about 17 lbs.

She has been fed regularly every 10-15 days on Jumbo Live rats until I got her then I switched her to F/T. She ate the first two cycles with no problems. A week after I got her I introduced a 2 year old male BCC - about 5' long, into her cage.

It's been a month since she has eaten anything. I've tried F/T and switched her back to Live just to see if it made a difference. She just kills the rats and leaves them in the cage and I end up feeding them to my Burmese. Who will eat anything.

In addition to this - she has shed twice in the last month - and is going blue AGAIN, right now.

What's it all mean?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

~jack

Two problems that come to my mind are ;;

-- You need to quarantine new animals from your collection for the safety of your established collection. It doesn't matter who you buy from, they should be quarantines for 3-6 months imo. By doing this you can determine that they're having regular stools, good sheds, and eating well.

-- More important to the new snake, is that they need to acclimate properly. Older ones often need more time to acclimate than younger ones. Once you get a new Boa, put it in its new enclosure with the proper temps/humidity, hides, and fresh water. Then wait 5-7 days before feeding, and offer a small meal. I wouldn't be handling the boa for the first couple of meals, and defecations.

-- I'm curious why you put another snake with your new one. If it was for breeding purposes, then you need to wait for the quarantine/acclimation time. If you're just keeping snakes in the same cage to save space, then stop. They should have their own cages except during breeding.
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Snake room janitor