Amazon Tree Boa feeding help

Its been almost 2 weeks since my boa last fed which was a week before i bought her at a reptile expo. They fed her live mice but i dont have means to continuelly but them so i feed my snakes frozen except she wont eat and im worried she might die if she doesnt eat soon. What can i do

2 options, keep trying thawed or feed live...I would feed live until you get the animal eating, then try to convert to thawed...

Im going to try and feed it a lizard since those are their natural prey items. I mean one that i buy from petsmart of course. But i dont know where i can get live feeder mice and i dont have the means to keep them let alone keep them alive

Can you not get mice or small rats at your petsmart? My ATB didn't eat for several months after I moved. Mine is a full grown adult however, and could handle it.

Try Craigslist for live feeders if your petsmart doesn't stock them.

Mines only a few months old i think. Ya i can get frozen feeder mice at petsmart but she wont eat them. I bought a long tailed lizard and put it in with her since lizards are their natural prey and she seems pretty interested in it but hasnt made a move yet cuz its not night time when she is really active. I just want to get some food in her system until i can figure out how to get her to eat frozen mice

So buy a live mouse at Petsmart. Don't they have them? If not try Petco. Just don't mention its food. The few times I bought live I bought mice with no questioned asked but I didn't volunteer info either.

They dont have mice that are frozen fuzzy size though other wise i would do that. Aside from trying to get mice and what not are there any really good techniques to get her interested in feeding though. I read somewhere that using lizard scent tends to help but i have no clue where or how to get that

Are you feeding at night and dangling the frozen / thawed prey on tongs? That's what all four of mine require in order to take frozen / thawed. If I just lay the prey item down, they have no interest at all.

Yup ive been doing that to. My kingsnake eats them when i put them in a dish as does my milksnake. But my boa just doesnt seem interested in the thawed mouse as she does my fingers at the end of the tong

2 weeks isn't anything to worry about. Was she advertised as wild caught or captive bred? Most of the ATBs you see around are WC, so I might also be skeptical about her eating with them, unless you know and trust the people you bought her from. Have you tried braining a small pinky? I've also heard of dipping the pink in tuna juice has worked. I would check out www.amazon-alliance.com as well for some help with this, or to just show off your new ammie! Good luck and keep us posted.
-Guy

They said they breed her and what is braining pinkies. Ive tried to access that site and it keeps saying it is down. So after how long should i start to worry then

How are you warming the prey?

Im thawing them in a cup of warm water then after they are thawed i hold them under the heat lamp to warm them up

Try refreshing the water with the hottest your tap can offer and let it sit in there for about 5 minutes. A huge part of presentation is heat. If the heat is to low some snakes will not go for it. A mouse body temp is around 100 so you need to present the prey as life like as possible.

I use this technique and two of my snakes sometimes require me to heat them a second time before striking. Some are just pickier than others.

Well i finally got her to eat it was amazing watching her strike and catch the lizard i put in there and she ate it but now comes the time to try and get her eating mice

My Amazon used to be like that. I assist fed mine after he refused live and F/T. After assist feeding his feeding was hit and miss. It was also a temperature problem for me. I keep the basking area at 90* and then I have a UTH as well going 24/7. That seemed to help a lot. After changing the temp he seems to do pretty good for feeding.

sorry didn't see post date.

I would not feed your ATB lizards at all, it will be nearly impossible for you to get her on rats/mice at that point, live or F/T.
I used to breed ATB, i promise that she won't starve herself to death (if she isn't ill), my snakes went 2-3 months without eating during the breeding season and they were fine.
I would look on your local Craigslist or Kijiji for live feeders, or buy a "pet" mouse from PetSmart without mentioning what it's for. ATB are pretty hard to switch over - Maybe try "braining" a freshly killed pinkie or fuzzy, basically what you do is crack open the skull of the mouse/rat then offer it to your snake.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sabertooth_chris

Yup ive been doing that to. My kingsnake eats them when i put them in a dish as does my milksnake. But my boa just doesnt seem interested in the thawed mouse as she does my fingers at the end of the tong

---

Now I am just getting back into the hobby so take what I am saying with a grain of salt. I am sure there are others here with more current info, but I don't think snake behavior has changed that much.
I used to own an emerald tree boa that did this. I was able to convert her to frozen/thawed but it took some work. I needed to "reheat" the mice under her basking light just prior to feeding. She went for my fingers a few times as well. I ended up putting on a glove, not because I was afraid of being bitten, but to mask my own heat signature. Once I did that and provided the mouse with a proper zombie dance she did fine.

Dave

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AKA Dave

Now I am just getting back into the hobby so take what I am saying with a grain of salt. I am sure there are others here with more current info, but I don't think snake behavior has changed that much.
I used to own an emerald tree boa that did this. I was able to convert her to frozen/thawed but it took some work. I needed to "reheat" the mice under her basking light just prior to feeding. She went for my fingers a few times as well. I ended up putting on a glove, not because I was afraid of being bitten, but to mask my own heat signature. Once I did that and provided the mouse with a proper zombie dance she did fine.

Dave

---

The post you just quoted is over a year old.

Huh...Suppose that's what I get for not looking at the dates while cruising the forum on a 22 hour work day.

Dave