Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a boiga dendrophilia dendrophilia that has eaten rat fuzzies or mouse fuzzies weekly. He is now 5ft. Three weeks ago he has stopped eating.
He checks out the prey for a few minutes and leaves. The animal has good weight and is very healthy according to the vet I took him to 3 days ago.
I have had him for five months and he has never done this before except when he had a perfect 5' 6" shed skin a month ago.
Does anyone know if this is common and when should I worry.
He also only eats live items and has always refused f/t or fresh killed. Help, please
Bob C.

I have one that is more or less hit or miss. I offer the prey item and sometimes he takes it and sometimes he won't. When I got mine about 2 years or so ago, he was from LLLReptile. My wife bought him for me as a Father's day gift-I had never seen one before and I had NO IDEA he was rear fanged, until we e-mailed the company to get more info from them as to the types of prey and care, etc. Mine of course is w/c and was LOADED with internal parasites as well as mites. Anyway, he was originally fed live mice, but I have since switched him over to f/t medium rats about every 2 weeks and he seems to eat about every other time for me. He is now very healthy and seemingly happy. Hope this helps.

Thanks a bunch David.
I went (back) to putting a nest of fuzzies up in the branches, instead of on the floor without a nest. Lo and behold he went right for it and consumed four out of five.
This is the most finicky animal ever.-------I would like to get him on f/t but he ignores them. What is your trick? He will not even eat dead chicks.
Anyway I am relieved hes eating again.
Thanks

Any reason you're feeding him such small prey items? Does he just not respond to anything larger? I ask because my dendro denddro is not even a foot longer than yours and eats a small rat once a week.

So far he has struck at a mouse in a defensive way but never has gone after it.
I bought him from LLL reptile and they told me how they were feeding him, like I do now. I also called East Bay vivarium and they also confirmed small prey in a nest type situation. They said it never misses. All this because he wouldnt take larger live or dead prey.
Though a long snake his head is not that large. However when he yawns his mouth opens pretty large I would be afraid to give him a rat bigger than a pup because of the potential danger to the snake. Though rear-fanged he cannot subdue prey like my green tree python.
Thanks
this is boiga dendrophilia dendrophilia not melonata which are a bit more aggressive and larger, from what I have seen.

That's odd. Glad it's working out for you though. I've got a Dendro Dendro as well, and I'm telling you, that thing INHALES small rats (and I mean small as in, just weaned). Mine could just be a bit thicker than yours though, not just longer. You can't even see a lump after feeding time, and like I said pretty much every week he downs a rat. What kind of "nest" do you use for feeding though? Like a store bought bird's nest (for finches) or do you just make your own? If I get eggs next year, I'm going to keep that in mind for raising the little ones.

I have 20 Mangroves..Dendro Dendros, Melanota, Gemmicinta, as well as Boiga Cynodon. Even my smallest Gemmicinta will take day old Chicks...as will all of the rest. The Cynodon will eat nothing but avian prey. Like alot of species they seem to tire of the same routine and I have to shake things up. Switching from rats to mice to chicks. Even the 8' Melanota can't resist live rat pinks. All mine take f/t prey..but only 2 will eat from tongs.

IMHO, the Gemmicinta are by far the meanest and most aggressive of the group. My Melanota are the largest and most robust in build..similar in girth to a large Cribo and are much more tractable than my Dendro Dendros.

Got 5 good eggs from the black/white female pictured below this week and have a gravid aberrant female Dendro Dendro due to drop any day (lavender/yellow instead of black/yellow).
Bill

Mangroves can't resist split-brained mice! I know its a tried and true tactic for baby Colubrids but a nice messy mouse smeared w/cranial fluid/matter left up high is usually relished! Works especially well w/fresh imports!

Bill