Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Looking for a little help here. My dumerils is only about 18 inches long and has been a pain in the butt to get to eat from day 1. When I first got the snake from and online/phone purchase it was sheading in the container. (I picked it up from a local retailer thats a friend) I was told that it was eating rat pups from day 1 however months went by and the snke would not eat. I purchased the snake in oct 2007. Months went by and the snake would not eat. I was told that pending how much "yolk" it retained from the hatching would determin how long it would go before the snake would decide to eat. # months went by bringing the snake up to jan 2008 and still refused to eat. I was keeping the snake in a 20 long fish tank with approx 3" of aspen substrate. There was various hide caves and leaves etc... The snake however would always drink like a fish. The snake was always sheading in 1 continous piece, basicaly everything it should have been doing as a normal snake. I was not seeing any loss in body weight as well. It eventually got to the point that I had to force feed some pinkey mice in fear of survival of the snake. Everytime I would put rat pups in the tank nothing. I tried every method possible. Feeding with heat, without heat, in the tank, seperate container, in the dark, in the light, and every other possible combination of the previous stated methods. I had been having to force feed till july 2008 till I went to the white plains show and spoke to several breeders. All the breeders that I spoke to stated that the snake was in way to large of an enclosure and that the snake was feeling "lost" and "scared". They all recomended getting a 5 1/2 gallon tank and filling it with about 3-4" of aspen along with blacking out 3 sides of the tank and leaving the snake alone for 2 weks and try again. In deperate measures I purchased a rat pup and just left it in the tank in mid-afternoon. The rat pup did its rat pup thing for hours on end and still no luck. I did the big no no and left it in the tank overnight. Well good thing is the rat pup was gone in the morning. 3 weeks went by and the snake finally ate again in front of me. Is there anything that I can do to get beter eating habbits out of the snake? Rat pups are fine I guess but its a real pain in the butt to have to track them down where I live. I would love to get the snake on mice if possible. Is there any way to do this and if so how do you do it? The snake is only taking 1 rat pup per feeding.

Thanks for all the help in advance

If you can't find rat pups, breed rats.

It is not smart to take a dum who wants to eat rats, and try to convert it to mice! This is a snake that will not eat mice as an adult...the sooner mice are out of the picture, the better!
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Thanks,
Amy

My Boids

If you think you're scenario is odd, here's my story. I bought a young Dum from a friend of mine who sells snakes. He had trouble eating at first, but after my trying a million different things, he eventually ate. He was then feeding on a regular basis, about once every 7-10 days. Last October (that's 2007) he stopped eating. I also have a Royal python who coincidentally stopped eating at the same time. I took this as the regular winter non-feeding period. I did keep trying every couple of weeks to feed them but none of them did. I did not worry as this happened to me and my friend with other snakes as well, and I know enough to know that this is normal behavior. Of course I kept track of their size and weight and everything was OK.

In March of this year, as expected, my Royal started eating again. But unfortunately, my Dum did not. This went on for a few more weeks and I started noticing my Dum was getting thinner and lighter. Again I tried everything I knew to try and make him eat, but nothing seemed to work. He only striked in defense, would bite the rat and would let go immediately.

I was hesitant to force feed; that would be my ultimate last resort. After speaking with my friend, he said that there is one more thing we could try before force feeding; this is a method that he swore by. He told me to give him Flagyl which is an antiprotozoal drug administered orally. I gave him the recommended dosage over a period of 6 days and then left him alone for 10 days. On July 22 2008 (yes, you are reading the date correct, 9 months without food!!!! ), I gave him a small rat and he attacked and ate it like there's no tomorrow. Ever since, he eats his meal every week without any hesitations.

Needless to say that now I also swear by Flagyl.

I just wish I won't have to go through the same again next year.
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1.0.0 Dumerils Boa
1.0.0 Royal Python

I got a story to lol. I got my dum from a vendor who never feed, watered, or did any kind of care for his animals. He just went from show to show buying and selling. Needless to say when i got him he had multiple stuck shed layers, he was dehydrated and very skinny. He wouldnt eat for me no matter what i did.
I got an idea from a friend and tried an ASF rat along with the normal 8 layers of sweaters around the cage to keep light out. He ate them endlessly with this method.
He will now eat without the darkness but i still cant get him off of the soft furrs... still working on it. btw he was about a foot when i got him and he is about 22 inches now.

I am new and I hope you don't mind me replying to your message. My name is Cheryl. Dumeril's are known as the most over fed snakes around. Their metabolism is very slow and they don't need to eat as often as, let's say Red Tailed boa's. One rat pup every 3 weeks is fine. Your snake looks beautiful and I don't believe you have anything to worry about. Rats are better for your snake than mice. Keep him/her on the rat pups. This is just my opinion and advice that was given to me. I always ask plenty of questions to my breeder. lol My breeder say he feeds his Dumeril's once a month because that's all they will eat and you don't want to over feed a Dumeril because they will get fat. jmho
Cheryl