Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have been having a hard time getting my dumerils to eat he is a yr old and hasnt eaten in 6 weeks. he has not lost any weight and is still very active, so i am not overly worried at this point he even shed 2 wks ago. my temps, husbandry and cage set up is all within in range. . i am considering putting him in a smaller tank and staring over setting up the cage just looking at how others are keeping their dumerils thanks in advance for any and all help

My Dums were the same way at first. I thought that they would be simular to my other columbiians but to my suprise they were very shy when eatting, infact i needed to place the rat into the cage and they would come eat it on there own. I have heard that there are owners of dums that are very agressive eaters. The other thing that I can think of is that they are in breading mode. Both of my dums went off food for 3 weeks prior to their first observed copulation. I placed them together while cleaning the females cage when i returned the male was courting the female.

I've a 3 year old, and the only time he's missed a meal (other than being in shed) was this part January, and even then he only went for 3 weeks. If memory serves me, Dumeril's tend to have a slower metabolism than other boas, so every other week is fine.
For reference/btw:
Ivan's in a 36*18*18 slide-top glass terrarium, with the ambient temp staying at around 86, and a warm side that's pushing 90. at night it drops to 82, with the hot spot going to 86-88. Humidity stays between 55-65%. Wish I had a digital to show him off with - his pink is dern near red, and he's got a lot of orange, and a slate blue head, all of which has only gotten more intense with age; he truely is stunning!!
hope this helps
Kim & crew - particularly Ivan in this case
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the crew:
1.0 Dumeril's boa (Ivan)
0.0.1 Ball Python, hypo (Nikkomis)
1.0 viper boa (named him Dante)
1 Shar-pei (Sable)
1 wookie(half old english, half giant schnauzer: Gus)
1 cat goddess (Graycee)
too many "breed-my-feeders" mice/rats
1 dumbo rat (Boopsy)

1 very understanding husband, who only claims the dogs

Mine is eating small to medium p/k rats. Ususally if I dangle or dance the rat, she just gets defensive....actually she just watches my hand. So I'll just drop it in now and usually there's not a problem. If it's not eaten in an hour then I take it out and throw in a small live mouse *appetizer* ....that poor thing never lasts 10 seconds! After she eats the mouse she'll be in feeding mode for the next few minutes, so back in goes the rat. Anything that smells like food once she's in feeding mode (mouse, rat, finger...) gets eaten....bye bye p/k rat!

-Jeremy