Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When I first got my dumerils I was assured it was eating frozen. Well I tried everything I heard of and long story short all she will eat is live. It was no problem when I was feeding her mice, and eventually she graduated to small rats. At first it was okay, it took a few strikes to get the rats but eventually she would get them. The last couple of times I've fed her she has struck out at the rats a little-almost defensively- but hasn't ever ended up eating them. I fed her two mice the other day to keep her fed but they are way too small now and not enough food. Now this last time I put her in the feeding cage with a small rat to try again and she went after it right away so I thought there wouldn't be a problem. After a couple of hours I checked in and the rat had done some good damage to my snake. There were a few severe bites in the side of her completely through the skin. I took her out and put her back in her cage scared that my handling might injure her further. The wounds don't seem fatal but I'm definitely not an expert. My two questions are 1) Should I do anything to help her heal or prevent disease or infection? 2) What can I do to help her eat, I know the rats aren't too big for her? Thanks in advance

First, I would take the animal to the vet to help the injury along.

Second, have you ever considered trying "stunned' prey items? Holding them with some forceps? Dangling the rat in fron of them animal usually does the trick. I have kept many animals including problem feeders and never had to resort to feeding live. Even wild caught animals. Try stunning the prey and dangling it over the boa and moving it so it resembles live prey.

Hope your snake recovers and hope this helps.

To stun it do you just hit it on the head? After this I definitely think I will try to do that.

Take the animal by it's tail and wack it hard against an edge of a table, 2X4, etc. that should do the trick! Use forceps when feeding it to your boa. Good luck.

Thanks a lot for your help

Take her to the vet and if yer vet is ANY good, he/she will prescribe a set of injections which you can have the vet do or do it yourself. I'd recommend having the vet do it unless you live with someone who has experience in giving injections. Rat bites are nasty and if left untreated by antibiotics, your snake could very well DIE. If possible in your area, try chicks. I switched my 5 foot Suriname after she got bit by a rat and she does just fine now.

I can't stress the importance of Bactryl or some other antibiotic for ANY type of bite wound your snake might receive. It will probably set you back 100-300 dollars but if you honestly care about your snake, you'll get it done.

After the first injection, remove ALL substrate and replace it with paper towels. Keep her cage as dry as possible and clean her wound with diluted iodine solution (it should be the color of iced tea) 1-3 times a day and apply painkiller-free neosporin or polysporin. The main thing is to keep the wound clean and dry. Make sure you clean the wound, that way you can monitor the progress of healing. There might be SOME scarring but if your snake is anything like a typical one, a few sheds will lessen it almost to the point of never happened. It's not a guarantee though, it all depends on the severity.

Hope this helps.