New adopted Dumeril's boa, need help.

[AkHerps]

We adopted a Dumeril's boa today that is having a lot of trouble when it comes to feeding. According to the store we got her from, she is a year old, and hasn't eaten for the 6 months they've had her. They have had the vet force feed her twice, the last being about 4-5 weeks ago. She's about 2 feet long, thin, but not emmaceated. She is also having a bed shed right now.

Set up is now:

20 Long, with hides on both sides, one in the middle(a tunnel type thing), and a humid hide.

Paper towels for substrate

Heat pad on the far left under a hide about 92*

Hot side air temps are higher 80's. Cool side is high 70's.

I'm using a black night time heat bulb on the hot side because well, it's Alaska, and it's cold.

So, what can I do to help get her eating? She's been to the vet, no parasites.

How long should I wait before trying to feed her?

Thanks for any and all help!

[Vypyrz]

Try switching to aspen. Put about 1 to 1& 1/2 inches in the enclosure. Don't pack it down. Leave it loosely packed where the hides are. Dumerils, especially young ones will burrow down in the hides. For feeding, try leaving a f/t rat about 3 inches out side of the hide. Do this later in the evening, turn out the lights and don't disturb it for at least an hour or two. Sometimes they won't eat if you are watching, or keep disturbing them. If it doesn't eat, and the rat is still there the next morning, throw the rat away and try again about every 5 days. If it does eat, then feed about every 10 days. This is what worked for me, so hoopefully it will work for you too...

[reptilebrett]

have you tried live? sometimes they need a live rodent to kickstart their instincts. I run a reptile rescue and have ran across lots of snakes that have supposed eating problems, and 9 times out of 10, they need a live rat. good luck

[Ham]

Dumerils Boas are big burrowers, you need a deep substrate she can dig in.

They are supposed to be ambush predators, and like to bury their bodies and just stick the tip of their head out of the substrate and wait for prey to pass by, when you see her do this I would attempt a late night feeding, just wiggle the prey in front of her maybe passing it back and forth in front of her ambush site. Hopefully this will get her to feed.

Also the hot spot should be about 90F and the cool side should be 80-82F, also their humidity should be about 50%

She may be too cold to feed...

[AkHerps]

I'll bump up the heat and get some aspen bedding today.

They tried feeding her frozen/thawed mice, and live mice.

We don't have any live rats here, of any size, colored rats/mice are illegal here, so we never really get any rats in anymore, I think there's some frozen at the pet store, but I think they are just adult rats, and that's way too big for her.

Thanks for the help so far.

[Ham]

Im originally from Anchorage, Alaska...

Didnt know rats are illegal...

But I reccomend getting Cypress Mulch if possible it holds humidity way better than Aspen Shavings thats for sure!

The Aspen will be a pain to keep at the right humidity.

Once your temps and humidity go up and the snake can burrow, I bet that she will be way more likely to feed for you!

PS How large is the snake?

[AkHerps]

Colored rats are illegal, we can only have albino's.

I think it will be fine with aspen, I haven't had a problem keeping the humidity up with it before.

[AkHerps]

Put in Aspen and the heat is now up. Her behavior has changed quite a bit from getting her to putting her in a tank with more heat. She is A LOT faster then when we got her, but she does love warm baths to help with the stuck shed skin!