Hello,

I had the same issue with my Saharan. I got him (assuming it's a male) in Oct 2010 and finally got it to eat in March 2011. I tried all different substrates, temps and food items / sizes before he finally ate for me. After feeding live for close to a year, I was finally able to get him to take frozen. He feeds for me around every three to five weeks.



I feel one of the main problems with this species is that since it if physically similar to other sand boas, people assume that the care requirements are the same.



I have had the most success with my snake after switching to Bed a Beast (coconut shell). I occasionally wet the substrate with room temperature bottled water very week of so.



I no longer heat the snake from above either. Since my snake appears to be most active at night, I have settled on just heating from below with a commonly available Zoo Med under tank heater located in one corner of it's enclosure. I do not light the tank.



I also think one of the biggest mistakes that reptile keepers make is overheating their animals. Since you did not include the temperature that you are keeping your snake, I am not going to assume you are making that mistake, but that is always a possibility.



Remember, it does get relatively cold in the desert at night (even in Africa) and many of the species we assume need to be kept at 90f are slowly becoming desiccated over time due to overheating.



So, to make a long story short, I had to figure out how to make my animal comfortable before it started to behave and eat normally.



Losing the cedar would be a good start. Good luck and keep us posted.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]