Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi!

Riley Elizabeth is coming home today. She is just beautiful and we are very excited to have her. She is going into a 20 gallon long right now but will upgrade her by the end of the summer. Her temps are good (low 90's hot end, upper 70's/low 80's cool end). They said she is feeding on 2 adult mice twice a week. Should I move that to 3 mice, once a week or keep it twice a week?

Any advice? We do have a ball python who is currently on food strike since January 1st. It has shed and looks great, moves around, active so we keep trying with the mice... hopefully one day it will decide to EAT!!!

I would appreciate any advice from the experts here.

Thanks,
Karen

I'm wondering how big is this baby. One medium sized adult mouse once a week is plenty. I wouldn't feed twice a week. But i am glad to hear your getting a dumeril's boa. In my opinion they are one of the greatest snakes to have as a pet.

Whatever you do don't ever put another snake in with her unless you want to see only one animal in the cage come morning. Believe me I know from experience LOL. Dums tend to be cannibalistic. I have a friend that breeds them and when the male and female are together he is constantly checking in on them to make sure the smaller male doesn't get eaten.

Hello,
I would tend to agree if she's eating 2 mice a week I would maybe switch to something a little bigger and only one prey item. Then after she is settled in your home, switch her to rats. The sooner the better with Dums. Some can get hooked on mice and not want to take rats, which is not a good thing. We have a 5 year old dum here hooked on mice. Find out what size of cage she was in at the person you are getting her from and stick with that size cage for now. Some dumerils can get stressed really easy from a move and go off feed. Leave her alone for the first 2 weeks, just make sure she has fresh water, don't worry about feeding her and try not to handle her. Put her cage in a low traffic area in your home, and make sure she has plenty of hides.

As for your ball python, I wouldn't worry too much, they tend to do that kind of crap. They can go along time without eating, I know of one that went for almost a full year without eating.
Hope this helps some!

Danni
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