Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a LTC male dumerils boa that has not eaten for six months and is starting to loose some weight. I took him to the vet and he has a clean bill of health. His tem is between 78-82, humidity is the same as its alwasy been. I have been feeding him fresh killed rats. When I stick in a fresh killed rat that is still kicking, he will come over to it to check it out then he refuses it. I always use to get a good response out of him by doing that in the past. He has never been too fond of f/t rats. Has anyone had any luck with those appetite stimulants. I need some advice

Thanks

Doug

Have you tried a live rat?
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Jason

I have not tried a live rat. I tried another fresh killed earlier today. He ended up trying to eat it, but only got up to the front legs of the rat and spit it out. I left him alone with it for a couple of hours and by the looks of the rat he did it multiple times. It wasn't too big for him. I fed him a decent sized medium. He was eating large to jumbo rats before. Why in the world woud he spit it back out after getting 1/3 of it down?

Maybe the temperature is too cool. I've had snakes do that because I guess they realize that it is too cold for them to digest it easily. My Dumerils is also not eating and I think that it is because the temperature went down. I just ordered a heat mat, which I hope makes a difference. You could try that.

Ok, i'll crank the heat up and well see what happens next week when I try to feed him again.

Don't 'crank it up' above 88F

I seriously have to doubt that your boa is a long-term captive (wild caught). Unless something has changed that I am unaware of or you imported this guy from Europe or something... Dumeril's Boas are illegal to export from Madagascar, and have been for many years now. He's probably just a temperamental older CBB.

Good luck!

~Rebecca
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1.0.0 Dumeril's Boa '04
1.1.1 Ball Pythons
[1.0.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1.0 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

Jumbo Rats! How big is your male? Man, he must be huge! My adult male eats f/t small rats. The behavior you are describing makes me think that his food is a bit larger than he wants for the moment. Even if he has taken that size in the past, I'd try a size or two smaller to see if that has any effect on him. I have a female ball python that will refuse a medium rat (her normal food item), but eat a small.

To agree with the other poster...if you have a LTC, he is either illegal, or really old!
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Thanks,
Amy
My Boids

the temperature might be too cool you might want to try to feed it straight up live ones and if it is spitting the rat out then maybe try smaller sized rats and maybe feed more and then ease it slowly into bigger prey but for now the main thing to do is it try and get it to eat but yeah try smaller prey

Have you gotten around to checking out the inside of his mouth to see if he has aquired a case of mouth rot. I ask because the action of him trying to swallow prey then spitting it back out suggests he finds something uncomfortable.

His mouth is good and clean. I tried a small harless live rat last weekend and still he refused it.