feeding worries with young snake?

Question

last saturday i bought a young female columbian boa who's about a year old..i left her to get used to her new viv for the first couple of days then handled her once a day after that..she seems happy and healthy but tried her with a pre-killed thawed juvenile mouse (which the store said she's been feeding on) on the tuesday and she just wasnt interested. tried again on friday and put her in a smaller container with another mouse and left it inside her viv but she's still not interested..its now sunday and still no luck.the store says to feed her every 4-5 days but i'm unsure when they last fed her.should i have cause for concern or this normal for a new snake? thanks for any replys

Answer 1

Chances are if you got it at the pet store it was wild caught. Often times wild caught snakes will start to refuse food and will make a slow decline. They generally do not thrive the way that captive born specimens do. They also tend to have internal and external parasites, so I would get her checked out by a good herp vet. Parazap is also a good product for any internal parasites she may have.

As for getting her to eat, a lot of snakes are very stubborn about not eating food that is frozen and thawed. I have a baby cornsnake that I took in as a rescue from a breeder friend of mine who was planning on putting him in the freezer because he would not eat. I had to force feed him (DO NOT try this yourself, and I honestly would not trust most any pet store employee to know enough to do this correctly). I finally got him to eat by offering him another food source (in his case an anole). I broke the tail off another anole before feeding that one, and will now use it to scent other food like mice to wean him off the anoles. There is a theory that snakes get imprinted with what they should eat while they are still inside the egg based on what is around them (thus telling them what food sources would be readily available). Try a live mouse, but whatever you do, DO NOT leave that mouse in with the snake if she does not willingly take it. Food can turn your new snake into food very quickly. Mice and rats will bite your snake and it can become very serious very quickly.

If her eyes look at all cloudy, then chances are she is about to shed, and while I have some snakes (I breed ball pythons) that will eat around that time, most will not. Check her eyes and see if her body color is looking dull and faded as well.

In all honesty, if it were me, I would return the snake to the pet store before you waste too much more time, energy, and money on it just to end up with a dead snake. There are MANY reputable snake breeders that are very easy to find online, and you can get a baby that you KNOW is feeding, that you know is healthy, and that you know is captive bred. Good luck with the little one no matter what decision you make. :)

Answer 2

You might ask the store to force feed the snake for you. My daughter has a small red-tailed boa.


Feeding
Allow your snake to acclimate for a couple of weeks to its new home. Start your hatchling off with a single pre-killed week to 10-day old "fuzzy" rat. A smaller sized hatchling may require a small mouse. Larger Boas may be fed larger pre-killed rats. The rule of thumb is that you can feed prey items that are no wider than the widest part of the snake's body. While Boas will often gladly eat prey that is actually too large for it, they will generally regurgitate the prey item one or more days later. Not a pretty sight. If you have not had any experience force feeding a snake, you may not want to try it yourself until you have seen someone do it. Force feeding should be an action of last resort, as it is very stressful for the snake--and the owner! It is very easy to overfeed captive snakes, especially the boas and pythons, as they do not get enough opportunity to exercise and burn calories in captivity as they do in the wild. Be judicious--your snake will get big and impressive soon enough. Feed it enough to keep it healthy, not obese.

Answer 3

First thing you must remember a snake will not eat anything that it thinks is too big to eat. The girth of the mouse cannot be larger than the largest girth of the snake. If the snakes goes up to 2 weeks without feeding it will not harm it. I would wait at least a week from the time you brought it home to try to feed it. When using pre-killed (which is the best choice I might add) I alway put the mouse in a bowl of warm water for several minutes, to give it a mock body temperature since snakes sence heat.

Answer 4

well I would buy a a mouse that is alive and put it in the tank with the snake. we had a boa years ago..and the mouse would be alive for days sometimes over a week..until the snake actually felt like eating it. I know they eat more at babies...but I think I would try that route. she's probably adjusting to her new home too. that might take a bit. hope it helps..and also just some advise. if they are hungry they don't like to be handled!!!

Answer 5

just be patiant and let the snake acclimate to its new ivironment then try a live fuzzy rat and see what happens wait a couple of weeks to try this you also want to use a differant container to feed in than the main cage this will help cut down on feeding accidents as boas can and will inflict nasty bites

Answer 6

Stick with the frozen prey. It took my red tailed boa about 2 weeks to get used to his cage and eat frozen prey even though they had been feeding him frozen for the whole life. All the books I've read say it might take up to 4 weeks before they'll feed, but they'll be fine.

Answer 7

Try putting the snake in a small box with the mice. it fills up with the smell and will make the snake want to eat it more. Or you can try making a small whole with a sharp knife or injection in the mice's brain. This will expose the smell of the mice much more. If neither of these work then definitly take him to a vets :)

Answer 8

maybe it's time for her to shed. or it might be that
it's too big. give it pinkies instead of the furries, and see if that helps.
or it just might be used to live food, not frozen. ask the store about how to contact the breeder. if they won't tell you, suspect wild- caught snakes.