Feeding

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!

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

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!

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....

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.

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....

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Originally Posted by 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....

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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)

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. :)