Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Had a small litter of corn island boas born 5 weeks ago. These things will not eat anything. I've tried all manner of live and dead rodents, quail chicks, Anoles, chick scented rodents, etc...

I didn't expect this much trouble getting them going. Anyone had the same problem with corn island babies?

Thanks for any replies.

Erik

I do not have any experiance with corn island's, but have had some picky eaters before (frustrating!)I will just offer some idea's you may have already tried but here you go: wash pinky rodent in mild soap and water rinse and offer both live and dead. Try giving them an arboreal feeding platform, some island boas are more at home off the ground.
Maybe lightly most the cage half hour or more then offer food.
expose the brain cavity of pinky rodents kind of morbid but has worked quite offten.
Remove tail from an anole and transfer blood to pink rodent, maybe expose intestine of anole and scent trasfer that, I would do this one only with frozen thawed anole's to minimize exposure to parasites.
These are some techniques that have worked for me in the past.
That is assuming all their conditions are ideal like temperature and gradient, humidity, secure hide spot's etc.
Hope this helps it seems strange that none of them have eaten in five weeks.
Joel

Thanks for those ideas. Never hurts to try something else. Conditions are good (temp, hides,etc....). Yes-that is exactly what is weird is that NONE of them will eat-granted the litter was only 4 live with one slug..... I figured it must be something specific to island boas since this is my first litter of any offshore localities.

Very good advice given by Joel. This might also be of help: I have found some very young island locale boas to be very shy eaters and not share the typical baby mainland boa feeding response. Movement or bumping them on the nose did not trigger a strike. I left a small, warm, F/T fuzzy at night at the entrance to each hide, placed with a minimum of movement. Turned out the lights and they all ate. Bill
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