Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an adult female Aru GTP that I bought at the beginning of August, and she just will not eat. I've tried f/t, and live mice. I tried dipping f/t in chicken broth, and all she does is hide her head in her coils when I present it to her. She's still very robust and healthy looking. She has been dewormed and seems happy in her enclosure. She even shed once without issues. Any ideas here?
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---Dan

i am guessing she is WC, because you said she was dewormed... Where did you get her???
you said she was an adult, about how old is she??? length? weight?
how long has she been in captivity?
is it possable that she is gravid???

with that info it will be easier to make a guess as to the problem...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

I got her at a rep show and the seller said she was LTC. I dewormed her just in case of any possible parasites. She does not look or act like a freshly WC animal. She's very easy to handle. Age is unknown. She's about 4.5' long. I don't have anything to weigh her with at the moment.

I'm frustrated because I have CB and WC GTP's and my best eaters are the WC! They are the most healthy and aggrssive eaters out of all of my GTP's. This one for some reason just has no interest in eating. I don't think she's gravid because she's not looking very fat. I've only had her for a little less than 2 months so who knows.

Any suggestions on getting her to eat?
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---Dan

if you can get your hands on the newest copy of reptile mag... it has 25 feeding tips in it and i think most of them are great ideas and would work great on chondros...
if you cant get one let me know and i will type several good ones up for you...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

If you could type me some, I'd appreciate it. I never bought a reptile magazine.
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---Dan

i'll type that up for you tonight... i dont have the mag at work...
not a problem...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

extremly shy snakes may be opposed to taking a dead rodent from hemostats or forcepts. an alternative is to use a live rodent. because of the potential for harm to the snake, you should watch carefully after intdoducing the prey, and never leave live prey with a snake overnight.
there is a certian point at which handeling can affect the feeding resfonce in a snake. many snakes exhibit a defensive responce when handled. equally, other snakes invarably deompstrate edfensive behaviors, such as striking, fleeing or hissing. keep handling to a minimum until your snake has settled into its new home.
many species that prey upon rodents in the wild will take lab or domestic mice without a problem. invariably, there are some rodents-eating snakes that refuse mice. small rats shoudl be tied next. other prey, such as gerbils and hampsters, can be tried with caution. Because of the aggressive nature of there rodents, however, they should only be introduced freshly killed. deer mice and african pygmy mice are two other alternatives that can be given to diffucilt feeders...
tease feeding is a good choice. the point of this method is to offer the food via a feeding tool and lightly tap the snake on its two hot spots, the tail and the neck region. tease feeding forke especially well with small arborial snakes. after the specimen has taken hold of the food item it can be avdentageous to either remain perfectly still or slowly back from the cage.
also the bait ans switch... this technique involves entising the snake with something you dont want it to eat., but not what you want it to eat (such as a wild caught lizard) wave the food item in from of the hungry snake until it starts to flick its toungh. immediatly bafore the snakes strikes at the food, switch it with the food. if the snakes strikes and takes hold of the switched item, it may automaticly start swollowing.
you can also try scenting the food with a different food item that you dont want it to eat, like a lizard...
or you can try slpa feeding... this is accomplished by lightly tapping the prey on the face of the snake and getting it pissed... then it will strike and constrict and that be vary slow and move away so you dont bother the snake..

goos luck

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

Thanks for taking the time to type all that! Ok, tonight I tried the slap method because that's all I could do. I must've bopped her nose for 10 minutes and no aggression whatsoever. I've never seen a tree snake try to flee instead of fight as much as this girl. Next I'm onto the rat pups.
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---Dan

Are you sure it's a female? Sounds like a male that might be off feed?

Yes. No spurs and I probed her myself. I'm not worried about her yet because she's still very robust. She's not thinning out at all. If she's just going off feeding right now, how long could it take until she begins to feed again and is there anything I can do to trigger her to feed again?
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---Dan

not really much you can do... i have heard that letting a chondro watch TV all day will stimulate feeding and drinking responce... HAHA

let me know if you get tired of her... i would be more then happy to try and help out and send her back...

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

Thanks for the offer, but I have pros local here that could take her in for me... I don't think anyone could do any more than what I'm doing except put her in a different cage... but if you saw her cage, you'd agree that it's the perfect enclosure for a GTP. I was hoping that someone would post a radical new idea that I haven't tried yet... I'll be sure to keep you posted on this pain in the arse gtp.
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---Dan

Two of my Chondros will "switch" from mice to rats for no apparent reason. They will feed regularly on one for months then refuse all attempts with one prey item and attack the other. One is an adult male Sorong and the other is a sub-adult Aru. Usually a small, live rat left in after lights out does the trick either way.

Bill