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Can I get some input from an experienced Dumeril's owner. I bought a Dumeril's at MARS back in September making the snake about 4 months old now. After giving it three days to acclimate, when I brought it home, I fed it two large fuzzy mice which it eagerly took. Once a week I fed it a hopper mouse for the next two weeks. It showed strike behavior when some one passed the cage so I stepped up its schedule to every five days, which brought that behavior to a halt. After 6 feedings that snake stopped taking food and it turned out that it went into shed. After shed when the snake had not fed for 16 days I introduced a fuzzy rat pup. The snake showed little interest. I left it overnight and it fed on it. Five days later I introduced another fuzzy rat. It showed no immediate interest but when left alone, took it within 20 minutes. Five days later introduced a fuzzy rat which it refused even when left overnight. Tried again the next day and no deal. Waited 3 days then reintroduced a fuzzy rat without success then tried a hopper mouse and no go. The snake has now not fed for 12 days and has only taken two meals in 38 days. One final piece of information, the food crawling around with it in its feed box seems to agitate the snake it will strike to drive it away but not to kill and constrict it? Can anyone enlighten me on this situation?

Your feeding it too often. Slow down the feeding schedule to more like every 7-10 days, one appropriate sized prey item. Also, if the animal is located near a high traffic area so that it is striking when you walk by, it is probably more stressed than hungry. Twelve days is not a long time between feeding for juvenile dumerils at all. In fact, you will from time to time see people post here about their juvenile dumerils going MONTHS w/o feeding. This is usually due to improper housing and too much stress(location, handling, attempting feeding too often, etc.) It sounds like your caging must be good if the animal is feeding as often as you stated. It seems to me like a case of wanting the animal to feed on our schedule, not theirs. Cut back a bit, and everything should be fine. Also as a side note, if it is taking rat fuzzies, stick with them as dumeils can sometimes be tough to switch to rats...sounds like you might have a great eater, just not as great as you'd like-LOL! Good luck

Paul

I checked my records, I moved the snake from a temporary Large Faunarium container to a 20 gal. long a month after I obtained to deal with its first two years of growth. However it fed before the move and five days afterward without a problem. The strike behavior was while the snakes cage was at the bottom of my bed. It was literally responding to the movement of my feet in bed late at night when it was active. This stopped after the cage was moved by placing my bureau next to my bed and the cage on the otherside of the bed. I'm surprised to hear you diagnose this as stress behavior, but I guess its possible. When handled the snake does not make any attempts to strike and has stopped showing stress behavior such as heavy breathing when handled.