Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm hoping there are some people on here that can help. I'm at a total loss on this one. A while back..right before the ban I purchased a large male green burmese from a guy on line. I received the animal in quick order and it was explained to me that he had been off feed for a bit because he had been in "breeding? mode so he was a little bit under weight. To say he was under weight would be correct. He was huge though....coming in at about 15 ft. I noticed right away that he had numerous old scarring all over his body. Some looking like past injuries and others looking like something different like maybe sometime a long time ago he had maybe had a bout with scale rot or something like that. We also discovered a bit later that he came to us with a mite problem. We got rid of the mites easily enough only to have him later show early signs of a RI infection. We also got that quickly taken care of. The alarming thing is....that he will not eat. I have gone through one frozen thawed rabbit after another and he gives them a smell and then turns away. I have tried rats....same thing. I tried a live rabbit...no response other then nearly acting scared of it. He drinks fine....just will not eat. I have no idea what to do at this point. He keeps losing weight and I'm really feeling I'm at the end of the line with him. If he doesn't eat soon I'm afraid I'm going to have to put him down. I can't watch an animal starve to death. In all my years of keeping large snakes I have never encountered one that would not eat like this. Feeding was NEVER a problem with any of my retics,olive pythons,bloods or anaconda. Any ideas of something else I could try? By the way.....I don't have the name anymore of the guy I purchased from to ask what he had been feeding on or for more info on his back story.

Just a few suggestions, and you may have tried all of this already. A good hide box, substrate (not air) temps in the upper 80's, high humidity (70-80%), and f/t or f/k chickens. Leave chickens in overnight. Try this to see if it will at least get him started again.

Kelly

If you have access to a chicken (live) that might be worthwhile, or a duck. I know it sounds horrible but saving the animal is paramount at this time. Frozen stuff doesn't necessarily "smell" the same as live animals. Years ago the local zoo acquired a African Rock Python for their new spiffy new African exhibit. It wouldn't eat anything they were trying ( a contradiction in terms for most sebae!), so when asked I recommended a duck. Problem solved. Backing up just a bit... has the inside of the mouth been checked for infection? Just a thought... Hopefully you'll be reporting good news soon.