Hey all! Well, I took in some boas as a babysitting job and it ended up a rescue here the last couple of months (edited to reflect the current situation). One in particular, Princess (7.5') was not only VERY skinny from inappetance, but had mouth rot and scale rot. With help from some wonderful people here (Beccah, JustMe (SIS, you were great!), JuliusSqueezer, Lori, Eddie, Constrictor BO, JoltMan and SnakePool) we were able to cure her of the 'rots'. We got some Baytril and injected it as instructed, 2 weeks later, she looked good as new, if too skinny. She had been kept in certain conditions with a previous owner (left with a live rat, she was chewed upon!) so now it's very difficult to get her to eat. She hasn't eaten on her own for 6 months, well..7 now. For the past month, we've been half-way force feeding her. Thawing out small rats (fuzzies, 2 of them), making sure they are nice and wet and sticking them in her mouth, one at a time, getting it caught real good on her teeth and down far enough to where she just says, "Too much trouble to spit it out. Forget it, I'll just swallow it!" She has been taking these well, but she's also been getting stronger...lol. It was starting to get more and more difficult to fight her. I got many suggestions to feed live or fresh killed....but after dealing with the mites from the other 4 boas we decided not to ask for trouble. I decided to try a different tactic. We got 2 black rats. They put them down for us at EBV and we brought them home and froze them. Come feeding time, Tim, my boyfriend, tries to get her to eat, but still, a no go. He puts the rat under the heat lamp and goes outside for a smoke. I wasn't ready to give up! I took that rat and approached her differently. Where he tries to bump her on the nose, she shies away. I came at her from behind. Tapping her body gently along her lower third. She tried to move her body sideways, I could see she was getting aggravated. When the rat went past her neck and to the level of her eye, she whipped around and took the rat!! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] I jumped, not from fear, but from the fact that it worked! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] It took her a while to get it sorted out, like she was lost, out of practice. She finally managed to get it down. She was looking around so I got the second one. I stuck it in front of her face, she lightly hissed, lined it up and took it! That one went down MUCH faster!!
I have been through a major crash course in rehabilitation, and I know it's only the tip of the iceberg. But I did it! WE did it. Now if she will do that on white jumbo rats, we're home free....time will tell.
Here is a pic of her constricting a small rat, her first in quite some time. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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"If love was a choice, who would ever choose such exquisite pain?"
- Tuptim, King's concubine from Anna and the King
