Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I kinda volunteer at the local pet store. I like to go in and handle the snakes and lizards. Well they just got in a Solomon Island Tree Boa. I have had no expierence with them but I have had expierence with red tails and some pythons. This snake at the store came in such bad shape. I think its tail could be broken. When I run my fingers down the tail region it kinda feels like her bones are running together and it feels crumbly. lol sorry for the bad imagery. The tail would lay there kinda limp most the time. I has about 4 or 5 spots along the body where the scales almost look deformed and sunken in and it looks bad. I am going to try and see if I can get her to do a lil lay away type thing and keep it there so I can care for it. I also can't get it to eat right now. It is about 3 feet long and the only thing they would let me feed it are mice and I feel they are to small. Do you think if it was wanting to eat it would try for a mouse like that. I think it should be on smal rats but if I have to I will feed like 4 or 5 mice now until I or someone owns it. If it just doesn't want to eat what do yall think I could do to get it to eat. This snake just makes me sad and I am going to school to be a herpetologist one day so I kinda want to get my hand on as many snakes as I can. So if yall could give me some help it would be greatly appreciated.

Hello
Sounds like the snake really needs some help. Did you say that it did eat a small mouse or did you just try? If a small mouse is ignored try scenting a dead one with a frog or Gecko. Some need to be stimulated by a amphibian or reptile type meal. They only need to eat 1 small mouse every 21 days. They have a slow metabolism. Hope this helps you out. If it survives, I have a group devoted to Candoia. Here it is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pacificislandboas
Also: keep the meals on the small side for now if it does eat.
Randy