Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all! about 3 weeks ago I purchased a dumerils from the NARBC show in anaheim and it hasnt eaten since.She got a respiratory infection within a week and a half and 230.00 later she got better but is still on antibiotics until sat.So she is about 1 to 1.5 feet long, I house her in a 4x2x2 wood cage with fake grass as the substrate. The temp ranges from 90 to 85 and the humidity is about 55 to 60. I've tried live pinkies, fuzzies, rat pups and f/t everything.Ive tried feeding at day and night times.Im puzzled.If anyone has any suggestions that would be a HUUUUGE help.
thanks in advance, Nate White

maybe you will have to wait until its off the meds .. and im sure its a bit stressed out from all of this going on .. wait about a week or 2 after its done with the meds.. hope this helps
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NO BEAUTY LIKE THE BEAUTY OF A TRUE REDTAIL !!

a 4x2x2 cage is huge for a baby dumeril's boa, and while it is probably not your problem, I'm sure the snake would be much more comfortable in a smaller cage. I keep my baby red-tails in a ten gallon tank.

Thanks for the help guys. I am getting another baby anery red-tail so I am going to divide the cage in half. how does that sound?
Thanks again, Nate

Basically what Markg said is the way to go. You can vary your cage furnishings, but smaller is usually better with baby dumerils. I keep all of my newborn dumerils in the good ol' .98 cent rubbermaid shoe boxes, like you can buy at any wal-mart(well, until they changed styles again, but anything in that size range will work). Anyway, the 4' cage even split in two is going to be too big for a baby dumerils. You might get an established feeder to do well in that size of cage, but GENERALLY, you'll run into problems such as the one your having now. Also...placing a new animal right next to another recent addition is a bad idea. What if the R.I. isn't completely cleared up and you end up with two sick snakes. OR...you bring in a new snake which is just waiting for the right stress factor to bring on an illness and it gets your recently treated animal sick AGAIN....MORE HIGH VET BILLS-always best to avoid those-LOL! My baby set up is simple....plastic shoe box container, newspaper for substrate, water bowl, PRIVACY. Unfortunately, although they're beautiful animals, they just do not tend to be great display animals as juveniles. I'd start over small, get her feeding strong, and you'll find you move up in cage size rather quickly. Best of luck to you, and your new dumerils. Take care

Paul

Yeah, keep the snake in a plastic sweater box around 15qt size with proper temps, some fake plant cover, some substrate it can bury itself in. Since the snake was ill, it may take time, but I know that young Dums do very well in rather small cages. They like the security.
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Mark