Dumeril's Boa Feeding Help

[insideleslieshead]

i have found mine to be very shy the only thing that has worked more than once for me is to get a live mouse kill it and place it in the cage then i leave the house

[drezden]

Sadly needing to leave the house seems perfectly reasonable to me at this point. It's frustrating because according to the feeding chart the breeder gave me, he was eating every 7 days no problem, sometimes 2 f/t mice at a time.

I think I'm going to call the breeder and ask him how he did his feeding, and double check my setup..etc..

[Mike41793]

I think I'm going to call the breeder and ask him how he did his feeding, and double check my setup..etc..

this is what i would do

[Andybill]

So I have a 4 month old Dumeril's which I've had for about a week, tonight I tried to feed him (I did it in a separate container) with a mouse hopper (what he had been eating for the breeder), he struck at the F/T mouse many times, at first I thought he was just missing the mouse, but a few times he made contact with it but did not coil around it, just snapped backwards.

Do you think this was defensive strikes vs him missing his feeding strikes? I'm really anxious now thinking that maybe I was just traumatizing him and now it will be that much harder to feed in the future?

Any thoughts or suggestions. I know many boa people feed in the enclosure, but I don't understand that when people have to use a snake hook just to tell their snake it's not feeding time. Might as well feed in a separate container so opening of the cage doesn't = feeding response without snake hook conditioning.

Background: Temps: Cool Side is 73, Hot side is always between 89-91 He has 2 hides on both sides, on paper towel substrate with UTH.

thank you for any advice.

I have a 4 month old dum. She is pretty picky i couldnt get her to eat f/t at all so now i feed her live large mice. they are ambush preds and opportunistic feeders so it may take them a few minutes. I observe when she feeds its a good policy when feeding live rodents. She sneaks up moving real slow. I dont remover her from her cage and i usually stand back so she doesnt feel like i might do something tricky. She has never fed from my hand and usually strikes from her hide spot. I hope this helps...

[drezden]

I have a 4 month old dum. She is pretty picky i couldnt get her to eat f/t at all so now i feed her live large mice. they are ambush preds and opportunistic feeders so it may take them a few minutes. I observe when she feeds its a good policy when feeding live rodents. She sneaks up moving real slow. I dont remover her from her cage and i usually stand back so she doesnt feel like i might do something tricky. She has never fed from my hand and usually strikes from her hide spot. I hope this helps...

I think I may have to resort to using live. But according to the feeding chart he's been taking f/t no problem. Maybe I'm not being patient enough dangling the f/t.. I guess I could wait longer before giving up. I'm just so used to my BP striking within seconds. The dumeril doesn't even move around when he smells it.

[drezden]

Does anyone else have a boa that rests part of their body and head on their hide or something raised up on an incline at night?

[insideleslieshead]

....... do you have a pic of it occurring ? mine likes to "creep" alot just leaving a bit of his head exposed .... sometimings even using the tail bait trap

[Andybill]

Does anyone else have a boa that rests part of their body and head on their hide or something raised up on an incline at night?

my dum does that too. usually on her water bowl or on the side of her hide.

[Void]

My male dumeril became picky for awhile too. Then I found out that if he's in his hide he'll eat live or f/t without any problems. He likes the surprise attack,while my female, will eat no matter what.

[drezden]

You guys!!! He ATE!!! I'm so happy.. I feel like a 10 year old on Christmas morning.

I offered him 1 size bigger f/t mouse and dropped it in and covered the tub with a blanket.. now it's gone.