Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings! I have purchased my first pair of dumeril's (05 hatched) and am in love with them. They seem to be settling in well and have shed fine. I have a question I've been unable to ferret out an answer for, however.

I have them in shredded aspen bedding and they love it, they burrow under it with their heads out in strike position or hide completely under it the majority of the day. The problem I am having is that they hate my feeding box with a passion (it's just a plastic box with newspaper down I use to feed all my snakes in). I tried leaving them in there for a few days with a wooden hide to get used to it but they refuse to feed in the feeding box. I am afraid to feed them in their normal cage because they may ingest aspen bits. I tried presenting the mouse to them with tongs in their normal cage but they hate the tongs and movement and just hide and refuse to eat in there. I was told they were feeding on F/T and kept on newspaper previously.

I don't want to switch them to newspaper in their permanent cage because they really do seem to prefer digging and I use aspen for all my snakes. But does anyone have any tips or ideas for getting them to eat in the hide box? I tried putting some live mice in there too to make it smell more like mice. They want nothing to do with it. Should I just keep trying?

Thanks so much for your time!

-Fox Wold

1.1 Dumeril's boas
1.0 Taiwan Beauty
0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty
1.0 Diamond x Carpet python
The Foxloft

Baby dumerils tend to be on the finicky side. Usually, even a well established feeder will go off feed for a short time after being relocated(sold/shipped/etc). The best thing to do IMO is keep everything simple. Newspaper is not pretty, but it serves it's purpose. I keep all my baby dumerils in baby racks which hold small plastic shoebox containers(.98 ones). Substrate is newspaper, water bowl, and heat source at rear of racks. I don't handle them any more than necessary, I focus simply on them feeding. Given their nature to be finicky, I don't think pulling one from it's "home" and putting it into a "strange home" is going to help your situation much. The aspen shouldn't be a problem, especially after it compacts a little bit. Just keep an eye on the snake while feeding, and if you see a big piece get in the snakes mouth, carefully try to flick it out with a pen while trying hard not to disturb the snake from feeding. It can be done! You may also have to feed live rather than F/T to jumpstart their feeding response a bit. The main thing with new dumerils is to be patient, they will settle in and feed in due time. Congrats on your purchase....dumerils are the best! Take care

Paul

I keep my adults on newspaper, but my juveniles are kept in aspen. I believe these snakes like to stay partially buried in leaf litter in the wild. I've found that juveniles feel much more secure, have a better feeding response, and just establish more quickly when they are in aspen bedding. I'm well aware of the concern about injesting the bedding and all I can say is that in 14 years of keeping Dumeril's, I've NEVER had any problem from an animal injesting a bit of aspen here or there.

All my snakes(Dumerils, countless red-tails, rainbows, corns) are kept AND fed on aspen. I do use a high quality aspen but if a snake can't survive the accidental injestion of a few pieces of substrate, there was something wrong with them to begin with.
Later-
Matt Schubarth
Pet Nebula

Thank you all for your advice. They really, really do seem to enjoy being on the aspen and are content to bury in it all day. I will try feeding them in-cage this week, putting the mouse on a small plastic lid or the like. I've heard so much about aspen being a risk, but the kind I get is shredded small and seems very soft. I am sure it wouldn't be great for them to get a mouthful of, but hopefully a few possible small pieces won't be bad. I assume they ingest some groundcover in the wild when chasing down a meal as well!

Thank you again
The Foxloft

I too agree 100% about the Aspen. I keep all my snakes on Aspen, from my Sand boas to my Dums and none have ever had a problem with the Aspen. I have seen on occasion my Dums getting aspen in thier pouth, and most every time, they find a way to work it out of thier mouth. They are Great snakes.... Enjoy them