New Boa Questions

I have 2 fully adult ball pythons. My female is about 2700 gm and roughly 5 years old. My male is about 2300 gm and is about 9 years old. The male in particular will go on hunger strikes in the fall, but neither ball eats very well over the winter. I usually have to resort to live rats for winter feeds. They are eating f/t alright at the moment though. They are each fed 1 medium rat every 2 weeks.

Of all my 31 snakes, I have NEVER had any of them mistake me for food. I know I've said it 2 other times already, but this is yet another myth. Unfortunately, there is so much misinformation floating around the internet that stuff like this becomes common. Honestly, you have nothing to worry about. If your Ball is eating well now, you should be able to just feed him and call it good. Pre scenting is unnecessary just because you don't want to be mistaken for food. Our snakes are smart enough to know feeding day, really they are. ;)

If you absolutely must pre scent the room, your boa should be fine. Both snakes should be fine the next day. I always wait 48 hours after feeding to handle any snake, but you could handle the one that didn't eat the night before on the following day. Don't be surprised if the boa starts striking the front of her tub though when you feed your ball.......

Boas have a freakishly insane feeding response. But they are also mellow, laid-back snakes as a general rule. However, they are capable of lunging fully out of their tubs to grab food. I have had that happen with several of my boas. I have to stand to the side when feeding my female Argentine because she'll come sailing out snapping at anything in sight. Bear in mind - this is on feeding day and when I have a rat dangling from tongs in front of her tub. If I were to walk in the room right now (it's 9:30pm and about when I feed), I could open her tub, reach right in with bare hands and pick her up and she'd be a total kitten.

Seriously consider moving your ball python to a 10 day schedule too!! It won't hurt him one bit and may help to maintain his positive feeding responses as he grows up. And this way, you're feeding both snakes on the same day. :gj:

Do you have your tubs in a rack, so to feed all you do is slide it out a little, and drop the rat in, or do you have lids?
Since I only have 2 tubs, they both have lids. So the thought of a boa trying to pop its head out has me worried, sense it could potentially snag the hand holding the lid cracked open. lol For example, I am standing in front of the tub, with a rat on the stats in my right hand, and my left hand is lifting the front of the lid up to poke the rat into the tub.
Is this very likely? If so, any suggestions on better ways of opening the tub to feed? I could just be overly worried.

I tried feeding both today, without prescenting the room.
I tried feeding the Boa first, but I didn't feel her take it, so I am leaving the rat in the tub till tomorrow, and will go in to see if she ate it or not.
I'd say I moved the rat around for a minute trying to see if she'd go for it but no go.

She was also being fed on mice, so this could be why she didn't go straight for a rat I'm guessing.

The ball was good.
When I prescented, it was waiting on the rat, you hardly had to start to lower the rat down towards the floor before she would snatch it.
This time it took her maybe 15 seconds to realize a rat was in the tub, and she took it.
I still will double check both tomorrow.
It only takes Assuming they ate it, when they didn't, and you smell something 2 days later, not to do that again.
So now, I always make sure no rat is in the tub the next day. lol

I'll report my findings tomorrow.
Hopefully I won't find a rat in either tub tomorrow!

I would say that it is a possibility of the boa biting your left hand while opening the lid on your tub, but I don't think that it would be very likely. If you are overly concerned about that possibility, why don't you try putting a thick leather glove (like some type of work glove) on your left hand. As long as the rat doesn't come in contact with the glove to put it's scent on it. The glove should block some of your hand's heat signature and severely lessen the chance that your snake would mistake your hand for food. Just a suggestion that might put your mind at ease.

I might do that when she gets bigger. Right now I am not too concerned about a bite since she only weighs 70 grams. It is when she gets bigger, longer, and has more force behind her bite that I am worried. lol

To update from the feeding from yesterday:
Both girls ate their rats.
This makes me especially happy about the boa since I wasn't sure if she would eat a rat since her breeder was feeding her mice.
She didn't take it off the tongs, but apparently just leaving it with her over night allowed her enough time to eat it.
I guess she's a shy eater for now, but this is ok, because I read somewhere that this is not unusual.

Oh I didn't realize she was that small. lol. At 70 grams you probably wouldn't even feel a bite if it happened. I'm glad that they both ate for you. After your boa gets a little size on it I'm sure that her being a "shy eater" won't last long.

Yeah, I just found out from her breeders that she was born August 1. She seems a bit small for being 7 motnhs old, but this is my first boa, what do I know? lol

My new boa is 67 grams and he was born in July of 2013 and I feel the same way you do about the size. I'm so nervous because he's so tiny!

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I doubt she'll stay shy for long. Baby boas can be a bit more timid about eating simply because they are small. But she'll grow up and get more confident. :gj:

I have racks with pull-out tubs, but I also have enclosures with sliding glass doors and a few tubs that have lids. I haven't observed any differences in their feeding responses just due to the type of enclosure. With one exception - they seem to lunge out of the tub more readily in the pull-out tubs that are in racks. The slide is a quicker open and they know the rat is ready, so out they come.

When she gets some size... maybe 3 foot or so, I'll start looking in to a better enclosure for the boa.
I saw some at the NARBC last week that had a drop down door which I liked.
But didn't look too hard because of her size now.

The animal plastics T25 looks good, but not sure they have a door that drops down.
The Boaphiles are another I'm looking at for the future, but they're a little more expensive.
I liked the way you could crack the door down just enough to drop food into the cage, while also keeping most of it blocked.
A sliding door, there is a gap from the bottom, all the way up.

These are just my thoughts for now though. lol