Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 5 month old BRB who is a picky eater. She ate frozen fuzzies for me right after I got her, then completely stopped eating to shed, and i have not been able to get her to eat consistently since. My breeder came and tried and ended up force feeding her a coupe of times. She turns her nose up at frozen mice and will actually uncoil and move away when I offer her one.

I have had people check her enclosure for temp, humidity and suitability and everything seems fine there. She drinks water, she is active in her enclosure at night, she has had 2 clean sheds, she is super mellow to handle, she just won't eat frozen/thawed mice.

The one successful feed I have had with her was a runt live mouse. I was wondering does anyone know where I could get live baby mice in Chicago? We were thinking that if we could just get her to eat consistently, her feeding instincts might get more pronounced and she might be willing to take frozen mice again.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

The only problem with resorting back to live food items is the snake may require them the rest of its life. Snakes can go months with out eating so letting them get hungry will not hurt them. Don't push food on them all the time. Make sure the F/T rodent is warmed up well and present at night with the cage and room lights off. Also try leaving a very warm F/T rodent at the entrance to the snake's hide over night. You can also try putting the snake and rodent in a container with lid/air holes and set this in the cage over night. If all this fails try dipping the rodent in pure, unsalted warm chicken broth and that should trigger the desire to eat. "Braining" or slicing a hole in the skull to expose the brain scent will some times get a reluctant eater to eat. I know you said the cage checked out ok but with rainbow boas make sure the humidity is very high and the temps are 80-85 degrees. Improper humidity and too much heat will put a rainbow boa off feed. Best of luck with this. Bill
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