Starving Dumeril's Boa! Please Help!

In November 2008, I bought a healthy baby Dumeril's Boa. He ate a live mouse every six or seven days, no problem. He prefered to eat in the dark and took around ten to fifteen minutes. Early Febuary, he had stopped eating. I knew he would eat when he was hungry, so I was patient and continued to offer a small mouse every week.

In mid April, he ate, finally. Although, he hasn't eaten since. He has also started to kill them, then abandon them. He has done this every time I've tried feeding him since May. He still looks pretty healthy and has not lost too much weight.

Additional details:
he is in a 20 long tank. He has a cooler spot of around 80 and a warmer side of around 93 degrees, he has multiple hide on each side. He has a thick layer of substrate for him to burrow. He is also very active and a sweetheart : ).

I have tried different feeding arangments (he prefers feeding at night, in a dark place), frozen, tons more. To get him to kill, I had to lure him by using tongs to lure him.

any advice/experience is much apriciated!

Well you temps are a bit high, 78-88 is a little more like it but that's not a huge difference.

How are your humidity levels? Is the snake defecating and passing urates?

Thank You, I will try to lower the temperature a wee bit.

The humidity usually is around 40-60%, higher when he is shedding, which was a couple months ago. Yeah, he has both defacated and passed urates in late April, after he ate once.

have you tried getting him de-wormed to rule that out?

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Originally Posted by Igotpaddywhacked

He still looks pretty healthy and has not lost too much weight.

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If he's not losing weight and looks healthy then he's most likely just being a typical Dumeril. They are like BP's when it comes to going off feed for no reason.

I have heard they can be iffy with feeding like BP's. I have no personal experience but have heard from keepers. Just make sure he / she is vet checked and cleared.
Rusty

Hmm have you tried offering something else. My dummy quit eating mice and I offered a F/T rat pup and bam she took it right away and Never had a problem since. I have one question. After yours kills them and then leaves them how long do you leave the dead mouse in? I have a blood that will coil even F/T and then leave it for hours sometimes all night before eating.

Try to get a big paper bag, like the ones they use in some grocery stores, and put the mouse and him in the paper bag and fold it over and put it in the tank. It's what a lot of people do when they have problem feeders. It's smaller, dark, and peaceful.

No, I haven't checked or gotten him de-wormed, but I am getting a vet appointment.

I currently feed him in a shoe box, but I have plenty of paper bags, so I will give it a try.

I just got back from the pet store, where I work to buy a rat pup. I am going to try and feed him tonight. I thought that the jumpy mice may be stressing him out? I guess we'll see.

Thank you for your replys!

Well shoebox should be fine, as long as hasn't gotten any holes in it.

Try to feed him tonight, as long as its been atleast 5 days since you last tried, and if that doesn't work then I would possibly bring him to a vet.

Also it's a good possibility that the jumpy mice are stressing him out, and he could associate mice with stress and that could also be a reason he's not eating. The rat pup was a good idea, let us know how it goes.

P.S. - Just to offer some insight I useto feed my anaconda hopper mice before she grew a bit and I upped to adult mice, but once she went to strike the hopper mouse, and it jumped out the way at the last second and she caught her tail, and ever since then she won't eat anything that jumps around and moves. It's possible something like that could of happen to your snake and you just didn't see it because your snake is a shy eater and mines not. If the rat pup works, then I would switch to F/T.

Try rats.

If that doesn't help, try downsizing his enclosure.
If he's not loosing any weight, he's probably fine and just being a typical Dumeril's Boa.

I would lower those temps to 86-88 or so and up the humidity a little bit. You want it at about 60-70%.

My sand boa eats once a month (or every other month) and is still growing, shedding, pooping, and looking healthy as ever. KSBs, Balls, and Dumerils I have heard all will have fasts for no reason. Just keep trying to feed, and if all else fails we can try tweaking little things in husbandry, etc.

He hasn't eaten. I tried luring him in with tongs, and he struck and wrapped the pup several times without killing it. So I left him alone for a long time, and cut the amount of activity around his box. Both them huddled in the corner.

I think I'll set up a vet appointment tomorrow.

I had a young dumerils do that to me once... that snake was the strangest darned thing I've ever owned. Started out eating well, then just stopped. Then started eating again but only on HIS terms:

1) the mouse had to be a freshly killed, adult, male, WHITE mouse.
2) I had to lay it in front of him and then leave the room for hours
3) even though his cage was up high so when he was just on the ground, he could not see me, I could not be in the room. He would sit there with his head elevated and watch me until I left. No matter how long I was in there he would just watch me. He was also very mean. Then if I was gone long enough the mouse would somehow dissapear into the tenth dimension. If I accidentally peeked in and he was swallowing, he would spit it out.

Nope, no luck. He struck at it, and coiled it several times. But he wouldn't kill it.

I think I am going to get an Appointment with my vet.

Thanks for the help : )

oops. I posted twice. Excuse me, I am terrible with technology.

Talk about being bad with technology.. I am right there with you
Vet check, rule out viral, parasitic, and bacterial. Just check the poor thing out... If he is free and clear.........
Please don't panic.....
Reptiles act on their own will. (ask any WC Ball Python owner) The little bit should eat once he / she is comphy in his or her suroundings.
Now it may take some time (that is why I always say "check at the vet")
If everything is cool. Just do your best to provide the best possible habitat.
Good luck, let me know
Rusty

::UPDATE::

Thank you everyone who replied!

He has still not eaten, although he still looks healthy and pretty thick. I brought him into my work (a pet store), and showed him to my manager (very intellegent when it comes to snakes), and he told me he looked beautiful and very healthy. He did not want to force feed (which I wouldnt have wanted).

I did lower his temps to around 86-88 degrees. Thanks for the help and advice, he'll eat when he wants to, I'll have to just be patient.

Caitlin

::UPDATE::

He ate!

Three days ago, he shed quite perfectly. Then ate tonight!

Thank You everyone!