Is it time for a visit to the vet?

Hello all,

I posted about a month ago about my new 5 month old dumeril's boa not eating. Unfortunately I still have been unsuccessful, and it has now been about 7 weeks since she has had a meal. I feel like I have tried everything, from brained thawed small mice, to live mice, to even a live fuzzy rat. She did end up killing one of the small mice, but then she left it. She had a beautiful one piece shed about a week ago so I thought she would be nice and hungry but still nothing. She has also not left poop or urate. The breeder told me to just double check her set-up but I feel like everything is perfect. I'm worried that she's starting to lose weight, she seems too young to not be eating for 7 weeks. Should I take her to the vet? I'm afraid a force feed is next, and I really don't want to do that.

Any advice?

Her set-up:
20 gallon tank
2 hides and a towel covering up half of the cage
Deep aspen bedding to bury in
Hot side about 85 degrees, cool side about 72
Humidity 55-60% https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../1/3/file.jpeg

How are you measuring temps?

Are the hides nice and tight on the snake? If not, putting dry moss can take away the extra room and make it feel more secure.

Covering three tank sides with paper for added security may help. Also adding plants, rocks, driftwood, etc can help.

something about your husbandry is off. I doubt it is a disease, so a vet visit wouldn't help. The snake could be stressed out. Need to know more details, and see a photo of how you are keeping the boa.

I can't figure out how to edit my post for some reason. But here is some more info:
-I measure temps with a heat gun, but I also have a probe lying on her wood hide under her heat lamp with a dimmer so that I can regulate the temperature of the hot spot quickly. I use a 50watt red bulb (usually half dimmed) and I also have a small UTH under the hide, but it is covered with a lot of aspen so I don't think it does much to heat the cage.
-Since the breeder told me he found that dumeril's needed extra humidity I have a cool humidifier attached to a tube that lets out a tiny amount of fog in her cage. I couldn't keep her humidity up the first few weeks I got her until I made this.
-Most of the cage is aspen, but her cool side has some eco earth substrate to help humidity.
-2 hides, one on hot and one on cool. The small hide is plastic on the cool side and pretty tight when she is in there, and I fill the wood hide with a lot of aspen so I think she feels secure in these.
-A plastic leaf thing and a rock are on the cool side.

Let me know if you need more info, and please let me know if there is anything I can change to help her stress. I feel like I do endless reading on how to keep them, but something must be wrong.


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../1/3/setup.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../3/setup_2.jpg

1st the uth needs to be unplugged until you get a thermostat.

Once you have a tstat you should only have a 1/4 inch of substrate over the uth at most.

2nd half logs are not very good as they have two openings. What I would do is press it against the glass and place thick paper on the outside to cover the opening. Thick paper on three sides will also retain some heat. I would also place moss or substrate around the opening to make the opening smaller.

3rd the temp on top of the log is going to be nowhere close to the temp on the inside. You should monitor the temps inside the hide.

Dumerils dont need tons of humidity or heat. I keep my girl with a 86F hot spot with flexwatt and ambient temps of around 77-79F. I will usually spike her cage with misting which she does like once a week or so but the humidity usually sits around 50-60%. She does like to sometimes soak half in her water bowl. Her substrate is aspen only. And she eats like a freakin horse. She was a fat baby.

Your setup seems ok. Baby dumerils are known to be picky eaters which is why you want one that has been eating good. What was the breeder feeding it? How often?

How was the breeders set up? Best to try and replicate everything until you get her eating well, then you can slowly switch out stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Laura23

I can't figure out how to edit my post for some reason. But here is some more info:
-I measure temps with a heat gun, but I also have a probe lying on her wood hide under her heat lamp with a dimmer so that I can regulate the temperature of the hot spot quickly. I use a 50watt red bulb (usually half dimmed) and I also have a small UTH under the hide, but it is covered with a lot of aspen so I don't think it does much to heat the cage.
-Since the breeder told me he found that dumeril's needed extra humidity I have a cool humidifier attached to a tube that lets out a tiny amount of fog in her cage. I couldn't keep her humidity up the first few weeks I got her until I made this.
-Most of the cage is aspen, but her cool side has some eco earth substrate to help humidity.
-2 hides, one on hot and one on cool. The small hide is plastic on the cool side and pretty tight when she is in there, and I fill the wood hide with a lot of aspen so I think she feels secure in these.
-A plastic leaf thing and a rock are on the cool side.

Let me know if you need more info, and please let me know if there is anything I can change to help her stress. I feel like I do endless reading on how to keep them, but something must be wrong.


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../1/3/setup.jpg


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../3/setup_2.jpg

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For a Dumeril that setup sound ok. My friend has 2 and gets his Rats from me and he had to bring them back Dec and last week so they have been off feed since mid NOV. His are picky too, if the rat runs into one of his Dumerils then he can forget feeding. They spook easy. It seems like anything can effect them. They are healthy though and he takes 1 rat from me every 2 weeks for each of them during summer. I wouldn't worry, and get a $12 digital gram scale at Walmart. I put a tote on top of it, zero it out and put the snake in to record weight every month.
PS: the pic of him looks ok.. Not sickly or to skinny.

About twenty years ago I had a baby Dumerils that I had to force feed for a bit till he got going on his own. It’s not fun to do, but unfortunately it comes with the territory sometimes. Good luck.

My 16 months old male Dumerils boa did not eat for over 2 months now and I think because they might stop eating during the cold winter months. Wait until it gets warmer and they will eat

Great news! She finally took a live small mouse. I think what finally did it was leaving the mouse in there for over an hour. She eventually got interested and struck! Thanks everyone for your help!

Grats. now wait until she gets scared of anything except mice haha. My girl is terrified of rats and do rapid machine gun fire of it and then hauls serious scales out of the area haha. I've gotten her to eat a rat 2 times but it involved rubbing them together and then laying them down next to each other on a piece of cardboard. Finally Luna's drive for food overrode her drive for fear and she came over, ate the mouse and inspected the rat and ate it too. The next feeding, she was terrified and did the same thing. I gave up and just feed her FT mice now as those are big enough for her still. I'll worry about switching her when 2 adult mice no longer work and maybe she will view weaned rats as more food since they will be a lot smaller to her.

Congrats on the successful feed! Dumi's can be very finicky, so don't be discouraged if (when) this happens again. I do think 72 degrees on the cool side seems a bit low, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. At 5 months, my Dumi rarely took food in intervals shorter than 2 weeks, and often preferred to wait longer. I experienced tons of anxiety about it until I realized that she simply has a slow metabolism and prefers to be offered food every 3 weeks or so. Yours looks perfectly healthy and not underweight. Sometimes, they are just finicky little suckers, especially in winter! Mine still won't eat unless it's completely dark and no one is around. She's weird like that. Next time your little one goes off feed, be sure to cease all handling until she eats again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Grats. now wait until she gets scared of anything except mice haha. My girl is terrified of rats and do rapid machine gun fire of it and then hauls serious scales out of the area haha. I've gotten her to eat a rat 2 times but it involved rubbing them together and then laying them down next to each other on a piece of cardboard. Finally Luna's drive for food overrode her drive for fear and she came over, ate the mouse and inspected the rat and ate it too. The next feeding, she was terrified and did the same thing. I gave up and just feed her FT mice now as those are big enough for her still. I'll worry about switching her when 2 adult mice no longer work and maybe she will view weaned rats as more food since they will be a lot smaller to her.

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Hahahaha well put. Thats to funny. My friend has 2 & both do the same Sauzo. He ends up bringing the rats back to me until he thinks they have their courage up again to try and feed. Very similar tendencies to a Ball is how he explains their feeding to me.. He says if anything gets them into a funk just forget it [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]