Feeding

[grim reaper in NY]

Just a quick question. Last night I fed my Boa a F/T rat. Merlin struck at it immediately and coiled around it for several minutes. I left him alone to eat in privacy as I know they can be finicjy when it comes to privacy and eating. Today when I looked in, the rat was still in the cage, uneaten. When I tried to remove it, Merlin got VERY defensive and immediately coiled around it again, not letting me take it from his cage. When i left for work he still hadn't eaten. Am I missing something here? I don't want to leave this rat in there very long, but now he won't let me take it out!

[JeffJ]

show him who is boss and remove it anyways as its going to start to reak in about 5 more hours.

[grim reaper in NY]

Thanks Jeff. I am just going to discard it as well as I don't think re-freezing it is going to be healthy for the snake. I've never had a snake hold onto it's food like that unless it was going to eat the blessed thing!

[JeffJ]

some times they just want something to hug.... skip this feed. and it will chow down next one for sure.

RTB's are freaking garbage disposals, so....

[grim reaper in NY]

LOL...Yeah...I'll skip this one. He sure struck quick though. I was really suroprised he didn't eat the blessed thing! I was shocked to see the rat still in the cage this morning when I got up.

[OuijaBoid]

Next time you feed him, "wiggle" the rat alittle after hes struck and begins to constrict it...Ive never had a finicky boa before, but ive had one or two that I had to "convince" that they were "killing" their dinner....

[JeffJ]

Next time you feed him, "wiggle" the rat alittle after hes struck and begins to constrict it...Ive never had a finicky boa before, but ive had one or two that I had to "convince" that they were "killing" their dinner....

great idea

this method works well. i do it with my ball python sometimes
just to get him to give it a better squeeze. (he doesn't seem to give it a good tight one some times and it takes much longer for the rat to pass on, i don't like to watch it flail in pain)

[grim reaper in NY]

I was able to get the rat out of the cage last night. A little diversion works wonders.
I actually did wiggle the rat after he originally struck and coiled. He tightened instantly and I even pulled on the rat a bit after he tightened to simulate prey trying to escape from his grasp. Oh well....next week is another week. We'll see how he does then.