Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a hatchling Boiga cyanea four weeks ago at a reptile show and it hasnt eaten since I got it. Ive tried assisted feeding but it doesnt seem to work, it just spits it straight back out again. I have also tried other methods like putting the pinkie on a branch in its tank but it still doesnt eat!!! The only other way I can think of is force feeding, could anyone tell me how to do this???

Have you tried scenting pinks with a frog or lizard? Scent work magic with mangroves. Get a tree frog or leapord frog and freeze it and use its goo to scent washed dead and live pinks and put three in a variety of places in the cage including the branches. Also, if you insist on force feeding, use a pink head in the beginning. Hold the snake behind the head with one hand, and with the other, pick up the pink head with tweezers and grab the pink head and angle the tweezers to gently open the mouth of the mangrove and slide the pink in there and put it in the mangroves mouth and slowly release the mangrove and do not move. If the mangrove spits it, then try again and put the head further down this time. Usually a few times does it. Also, babies sometime need peace and seclusion to eat, so arrange your tank with lots of branches and vines and put the scented pinks on leaves to imitate a frog or lizard. Baby mangroves emerge after sunset and look for sleeping lizards and frogs to eat, so just put the entire cage where there is no people traffic and your mangrove should take to feeding on its own without resorting to assist or force feeding in the first place. And a proper light cycle is important as is misting and humidity to replicate the tropics.

If the Boiga will not accept the pink, aim th pinkie's head towards the throat. Use a (preferably) sterile ramrod (I find the end of a small paint brush works-you want it to be narrower than the snakes head)

Use the rod on a side to side push till the pinkie is well down the throat (at least an inch). If it trys to throw this up place your finger against the bottom of the snake (you can feel between the ribs and gently push the food about one third of the way down it's body. This should get it past the neck so the chance of throw up is less.

The above method is very stressful and should be used when no other option is available. However, I have used it successfully for many years.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."