Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi there!,
I've a 2.5" wonderfull dum..I love her..cute..sweet..but I am not able to swich her to F/T mice! I tried with F/K but didn't help me!what can I do now?please help!tnx

Has she fed on live or are you saying that she hasn't fed at all? I'll assume she has fed before for you. Their is a very good rundown of all the feeding techniques in "The Ball Python Manual" by AVS series.

I use tong feeding for the most part. It is best to feed 1-2 hours after the lights are out, once the boa is in "hunt mode". Make sure the room is dim and the rodent warm. With the tong, bring the rodent as near to the boas nose without touching the boa, as contact can intimidate them into refusal. Then move the rodent an inch or two away, the boa should come out towards the prey... hold very still for as long as it takes.

If the boa still refuses after that, the next thing I do is bag feeding. Get a paper bag that the boa can fit into comfortably and allow some distance from the prey item. Rewarm the rodent. This next part is nasty but it works... cut open the top of the rodents head so that the brain is exposed. The odor attracts the boa to a p/k prey item. Put prey in bag followed by the boa. Paper clip the bag and put it back in the enclosure overnight.

Try this once a week. I've never had to repeat the above procedure more than twice.

Good luck-
Matt Schubarth
Pet Nebula

I tried a lot of times to move a dead mouse near the nose..but didn't work. I also tried to leave overnight a P/K mouse in the cage, but it was the same. The snake it appeares excitated..interested by the prey..she smell it..walk around it..but never fed it. With live prey..really different matter!no chance for the mouse! I will try with the paper bag..thank you very much!

try taking the f/t or p/k and rubb it in some smelly nasty bedding from lives ones, the scent from the live bedding on the f/t will normally get them to take it, after ya do that just have it on a pair of tongs and bat her in the nose with it, normally theyll take it coil it, drop it, grab it with the tongs bat her in the nose again this time when she grabs it tug on it so shell get really pissed and coil it tight, normally second time they swallow it, you may have to play that game the first couple feedings but that normally works for me, for me the papaer bag has never worked on dumerils, worked well on corn snakes, anyway best of luck Jason
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Jason & Danica
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