Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello! I have a little baby Brazilian RB and he is giving me a little trouble. He's my first RB (I'm used to Red-Tail boas, corns, and kings). I first tried him on live pinkies with their first bit of fuzz and he refused to eat them. They went to an Amazon Tree Boa who's ALWAYS hungry and I thawed some frozen pinks for the RB. After a LONG while of pestering him and trying different methods (and some faint interest in the mice as well as a little mouthing on his part) I got him to take three. Our other baby snakes have been eating a couple of pinkies every three days, but he wouldn't eat. He shed last night and I tried again today to feed him. I managed to annoy him to the point where he lunged at me with his mouth closed and I got him annoyed at the pinky until he grabbed it. He then dragged it into a corner and promptly dropped it. I did it again and he took it. But he hasn't eaten since. He's acting healthy in evey other way and his living conditions are just right. Any ideas?????? I had heard they were agressive eaters (he is not), they can be nippy as juveniles (he's darn near IMPOSSIBLE to annoy), and they could take fairly large prey (he's only been eating pinks).

LAURA*

Hello again! I'm going to answer my own question because I contacted a trusted breeder and thought I'd put the answer on here for anyone with a similar problem. I'm feeding him too small of prey, he should be on fuzzies by now (BRBs will quickly lose interest in anything too small) and I need to put him in a really small little deli container with the mouse and put it somewhere overnight so that he can have complete darkness and complete silence in which to eat it

LAURA*

Laura,
. You got good advice. I start newborn baby BRBs on hopper mice and have them on young adult mice within a month. I have often seen them pass up fuzzy mice and then aggressively take a small adult mouse. They do eat better in the dark but after they are tame and calm and used to being handled some they will eat about as well in daylight
Jeff

>>Hello again! I'm going to answer my own question because I contacted a trusted breeder and thought I'd put the answer on here for anyone with a similar problem. I'm feeding him too small of prey, he should be on fuzzies by now (BRBs will quickly lose interest in anything too small) and I need to put him in a really small little deli container with the mouse and put it somewhere overnight so that he can have complete darkness and complete silence in which to eat it
>>
>>LAURA*