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I LEFT TOWN FOR A FEW DAYS SO I COULD PICK UP MY NEW GTP'S AND WHILE I WAS GONE... MY STUPID CAT HAD TURNED OFF ONE OF MY POWER STRIPS BY STEPPING ON IT AND IT TURNED OFF THE HEAT TO ONE OF MY CAGES... THE CAGES HOUSED MY 6.5 FOOT RED TAIL BOA... WELL BECAUSE THE POWER SOURCE WAS OFF THE CAGE DROPPED TO ABOUT 65 DEGREES... AND THATS BAD ENOUGH BECAUSE HE WAS LIKE THAT FOR ABOUT 24 HOURS... BUT I HAD THROWN IN A RAT FOR HIM TO EAT BEFORE I LEFT... THE RAT LEFT ABOUT 23 BITEMARKS ON MY SNAKE AND ONE IS ABOUT THE SIZE OF A QUARTER AND A GOOD 1/2 INCH DEEP...
I RUSHED HIM TO THE VET AND THE VET STICHED ABOUT 6 OF THE BITES BUT WE HAD TO LEAVE THE LARGE ONE OPEN BECAUSE WE ARE WORRIED IT WILL FILL WITH FLUID... SO HE GAVE ME THE EQUIVALENT TO NEOSPORIN... AND I PUT IT ON THE WOUND COVERING IT AND HAVE TO WASH IT OUT IN THE SINK FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES A DAY... AND EVERY OTHER DAY I GIVE HIM A SHOT OF ANTIBIOTICS...
SO AS YOU CAN IMAGINE I WAS NOT IN THE BEST MOOD... HOWEVER MY SNAKE SEEMS TO BE DOING GOOD... THE VET SAYS THAT IN ABOUT 2 WEEKS IT SHOULD BE HEALED UP... AND I THINK THAT AFTER ABOUT 4-6 SHEEDS IT WOND BE VARY NOTICABLE... THE WOUND IS SO BIG THAT I COULD PUT HALF OF MY THUMB IN IT IF I WANTED TO...

THE VET SAYS THAT 99% OF THE TIME WHEN THIS HAPPENS TO A SNAKE ITS BECAUSE THE HEAT LIGHT BURNED OUT OR THE POWER GOT TURNED OFF... HE TOLD ME THAT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO SUPER GLUE THE RATS MOUTH SHUT NEXT FEEDING...

WELL IF ANYONE IS INTRESTED I WOULD POST A PIC OF THE INJURY... SO LET ME KNOW...

AND I WILL TRY TO POST SOME PICS OF MY "REPTILE ROOMS" OVER THE WEEKEND... I WANT IT TO LOOK GOOD BEFORE I POST ANY PICS...

SHILOH

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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

now that is just dumb.
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Jeff
0.1 Wife (Homo sapiens sapiens): Kim
2.0 Hog Island Boas, Bob Sears Line (Boa Constrictor imperator): Ham-let and BLT
0.1 Hog Island Boa, Schuett Line (Boa Constrictor imperator): Petunia
1.1 Smooth-Scaled Sand Boas (Eryx johnii johnii): Xerxes, and Sa'rai
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa (Eryx colubrinus loveridgei): Solomon
0.2 Kenyan Sand Boas, 100% het anery (Eryx colubrinus loveridgei): Sheba, Jasmine
1.0 Florida Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula floridana): Seminole
0.1 Doberman (Canis familiaris): Princess Grace
1.0 Pitbull Mix (Canis familiaris): Popcorn
1.0 Rough Collie (Canis familiaris): Dante
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“It’s not bragging if you can prove it”

Hummm.... I don't want to sound mean or anything. But i strongly feel that it is basically your fault and irresponsibly. Everyone know that you should never leave live food unattended. It not even your cat fault and no one to blame but yourself. Lesson hard learn through the expense of your redtail.

...leave rodents in with the animal unattended like that? If not, hopefully now it does. This is one of the most common feeding errors in keeping boas and is in just about every book or complete caresheet.

I found it kind of discouraging that in your post, you didn’t even mention or allude to realizing that maybe it was risky to leave the boa alone for extended time with a live item, nor did you state to have realized that even after the fact.

There are hosts of reasons OTHER THAN LOW HEAT why a boa might not eat its food; for some of them, just read a few of the hundreds of posts on this forum. Thus; your boa could just as easily get mauled by rats, even at normal temps. You might want to stick around and observe live feedings from now on, whether or not you have a cat, electric failure, etc for you or your vet to blame. Better yet, feed frozen thawed.

Consider yourself fortunate that the boa didn’t die a gruesome death of being gnawed at. I wish your boa a speedy recovery and keep us posted.

I HAVE TRIED SEVERAL TIMES TO GET HIM TO EAT A F/T MOUSE ALL THE WAY TO RAT... HE IS ALMOST 3 NOW AND HE WILL NOT EVEN SHOW INTREST IN THEM... SO I AM OPEN TO ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS...

I DO REALIZE THAT I SHOULD HAVE BEEN WATCHING AND I KNOW THAT ITS NOT A GOOD EXCUSE BUT I WAS ON MY WAY OUT THE DOOR... HE USUALLY HITS THE RAT IN LESS THEN A MINUTE... HE HAS NEVER REFUSED LIVE FOOD... BUT THE REASON I WAS HEADING OUT WAS BECUASE I WAS ON MY WAY TO THE AIRPORT TO PICKUP MY GIRLFRIEND THAT HAS JUST REUTUNED FROM EUROPE AND SHE HAS 39 NEW GREEN TREE PYTHONS FOR ME...

BELIEVE ME I FEEL TERRABLE ABOUT THIS HAPPENING... THE SNAKE BELONGS TO MY 4 YEAR OLD SON...

BUT AS FAR AS THE SUPER GLUE THING... THE VET THAT TOLD ME TO DO THAT HAS A 17FT BURMESE AND HAS BEEN DOING IT SINCE DAY ONE ON HIS SNAKE...

IF ITS A BAD IDEA I WONT DO IT BUT CONSIDERING HE HAS BEEN DOING IT FOR SO LONG AND HIS SNAKE IT FINE I DONT SEE THAT IT SHOULD BE A PROBLEM... I HAVE ALSO CONSIDERED KILLING THE RAT RIGHT BEFORE I PUT IT IN AND GETTING SOME LONG FEEDING TONGS...

I AM NOT POSTING TO GET CHASTIZED... I KNOW I MESSED UP BUT I NOW NEED A NEW FEEDING PLAN... I AM GUESSING THAT HE WILL NOT ACCEPT FOOD FOR A FEW WEEKS BUT I GUESS ONLY TIME WILL TELL..

I WILL POST A PIC TONIGHT IF I GET A CHANCE...

AGAIN I KNOW THAT ITS MY FAULT... BUT I NEED A FEW POSITIVE SUGGESTIONS NOW...

glueing a prey animals mouth shut prior to feeding and yes you should kill the rat and offer it to your snake with tongs. I'm sorry this happened to your boa and I hope he will recover soon.
Chuck

I DONT THINK IT WOULD TAKE MUCH SUPER GLUE TO GLUE A RATS MOUTH SHUT... BUT ALL THE SAME I WILL PLAN ON TRYING TO FEED HIM PRE-KILLED FROM NOW ON...

I WOULD POST A PIC BUT I DONT KNOW HOW

SHILOH

I may not post much but I have had hundreds of snakes and I have never had one that wouldn't take pre-killed food. Sometimes it has to be freshly killed and sometimes you have to work on your presentation. Sometimes you have to start it with something different like a hamster or chick. Eventually they all come around. Your boa's probably not going to eat for awhile anyway so it will be nice and hungry at the next feeding. It may be difficult to get it to eat a rat now.
If you know someone that feeds pre-killed/frozen thawed then maybe they can show you how they do it.
Get some long forceps move a warmed food animal slightly in front of him at night with only a dim light(so you can see). It should work - good luck.
Kevin

Suggestions to feed frozen thawed and to observe live feeding from now on are VERY positive suggestions. Did you not read my post? I made logical points; don’t take it personal. From your first post, I just didn’t know if you realized some of that.

Don’t use the glue, seriously. Just because it doesn’t kill your vet’s snake overnight doesn’t mean the glue won’t kill it later. Do you know of anyone who drops dead on their first few cigarettes or loses their teeth after a few weeks of bad dental hygiene?

I have never seen or heard of a boa that can’t be convinced to take frozen thawed items. I heard of that problem with ball pythons and other pythons. Once in a while, you might get one that has a mouse preference or something like that, but I assure you that if you work with the animal, you are very likely to get it on f/t no problem.

You might start by locking it in a somewhat small Rubbermaid tub overnight with the food item and put this tub in it’s cage. Of course, be sure there are ventilation holes in the tub.

There are also other techniques of “antagonizing” the boa with the dead item by dangling it in with a set of feeding tongs. If you can get a defensive strike from the boa, a lot of times, they will take the item and eat it.

I hope this works and best wishes!

i would assume that the vet you are talking about wasnt very knowledgeable about animals at all...super glue?? come on now!

if your boa is THAT picky about what condition its food is in, then break off the rats teeth with some pliers before introducing, keeps the rat alive and makes it safe for the snake

i made the same mistake one time with the biggest female in my collection when i first got her, i left the rat in overnight thinking "oh shell kill it and eat at her leisure", well she killed it but not before the rat took some REALLY good chunks out of her all up and down her body, even taking the end 2 inches of her tail off as well. she pulled through with some tlc and medicine but i know that never happened to me again after that

good luck with your snake, i hope it pulls through
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Brad Hamlin
"...when im a good snake, they sometimes throw me a rat..."
B&P Constrictors

Come on now, I know the rat has to die but torturing it, that's retarded.

Obviously you'll watch all live feedings from now until you begin converting to prekilled.

There are many ways to attempt the conversion to prekilled prey, many of which are already mentioned in this thread. The only reason for failure is the lack of patience. With that, any boa can be converted.