Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Good morning all!Well I thought this day would never come!But due to my wifes health problems,it has!I will be making the dreaded switch at the beginning of the month!I know these questions have been asked before,dummy me,I ignored them!So if you all dont mind answering them again it would be great!I have heard many people have good luck with frozen thawed an bad,What can I expect after a year or more of feeding pre-killed?Is their any certain way or the best way to thaw the feeders out!I will be feeding jumbo,large,an mediums!An I have been feeding on an every 7 day regiment!I was thinking of changing it to every 10 days since I have no boa's that are babies any longer,my youngest is a late 03 baby so he is if not a year very close,He needs to stay at every 7 right?Everyone else is 4 ft to 8 ft!Oh an one more question those who read my forums remember the big male that me an my wife got on our little journey?Well he has been really fun to take care of,lol,He knocks over water bowls,an everything else,We have faught an r/i infectoin with him an the whole 9 yards,He is better as far as the infection goes,an dont knock the water over as bad,but he don't want to eat!He ate for me the first feeding but hasnt since,could it be because of breeding season?His weight to size wasnt the best when I first got him,but he dont seem to be any worse either,just dont wanna eat,an it has been 2 weeks since his last antibiotic shot!Well any help on these questions will be greatly appriciated,Thanks,Eric[Hypoboa]

ok .. all my responses are based on my personal experience ...
i do not feed frozen anymore because i do not have freezer space but what i would do is put the prey in a plastic bag and fill a bucket or the sink up with water as hot as it would come out of the faucet. then just soak the prey item in the bag for a little while. if you are doing lots of prey items at the same time then use the tub (your rats will be in bags so its not really unsanitary or anything haha).
as far as the 03 boa i would say you should be fine, an extra three days should not hurt him if he is not under weight or anything, in the wild, meals do not come on a regular schedule.
lastly about your guy that is not eating, i have not yet bred boas and have never had any problems with them going off feed for certain periods but i have a few methods of getting them to eat when they are not for one reason or another ... i do not like to feed live but sometimes it is last resourt. before that i will normaly dangle the prey item about four to six inches from their face so they see and smell what it is, if they are interested they will normaly s up and strike and then your golden. sometimes they can be a bit trickey as we all know. one thing that seems to help for me is to leave them in their cage and turn out all the lights and the lights in the room and just leave the prey item in their dead with them for about a half hour with no noise disturbances. this normaly works for those who are normaly good feeders and for some reason are not showing a feeding response. i have read that some people tap their snakes on the nose with the prey item "so they know its food", but maybe it is because most of my snakes are rescues but whenever i had done that by accident then getting the animal to eat was shot, they would normaly retreat and hide or on occasion attack in deffense and not consume the prey. anyway good luck with it all.

Thanks for the feeding info,I dont think their will be a problem except for two,but they may surprize me,Main thing is I wanted to make sure about the thawing process!As far as the large male goes,I strongly feel that he is afraid of the rats!When I got him their was a couple of rat bites that I treated,they are better now an he sheds on his own fine!Even though I feed prekilled,believe me I make sure they are dead!Wiggling in front of him,knudging,laying on the floor,it doesn't matter he don't want to eat it!An when you hang or nudge he pulls back an tries to hide his head!I just dont understand him at all,92 degree hot spot 81 degree cool spot an 65% humidity,an he is offered food every 3 days?Who knows?Well anyways thanks for your help!Thanks Eric[Hypoboa]

thats how my guy is ... he was left in the cage with a jumbo live rat and suffered a good few bites before i got him. try just leaving the dead rat in there near him and do the lights out no noise bit .. that normaly works for my guy.

Hi again, I too have a male that ate fine for the first 3 meals, then became a "shy" eater.
I keep al my sub-adults/adults in melamime cages that are 4'x2 1/2'x2' . I feed all of my snakes in separate rubbermaid style tubs, so that I can clean their cages at the same time. The shy guy often won't take the pre-killed rat like the others do, so after his cage is clean, I put him in a smaller plastic tub w/the rat, back in his cage (to keep him warm), and in the morning he's nice and full. Hope this helps. ----David
I usually use pre-killed rats/rabbits that I raise. The extras are vaccuum packed for another day. I also thaw them in hot water. By the time that they are thawed, I put fresh hot water in the sink to get their bodies nice and warm. Don't try to thaw them too fast by means of a stove or microwave -- that would be bad.