Your one stop reptile community

avantgarde · #1 (**permalink**) 10-27-2006, 09:57 PM

Hello everyone

I purchased one of this beautiful snakes from a breeder about 3 weeks ago. He is 16-17inches long already and have been feeding on pre-killed mice. However, since I brought home this snake, he wouldn't eat anything but lizards that I have shot with my bb gun. I also checked the temperature and humidity levels of his cage and so far they were all within the right range. I also isolated him and didn't even bothered him to minimize stress and let him adjust to his new home. For the feeding part, I tried all sorts of techniqes to entice him to eat rodents but so far nothing has worked out. I tried feeding him some pre-killed, f/t, brained, and even scenting the mouse with the lizard but he just wouldn't eat them. I also tried pinkies and rat pups that were also brained, f/t, pre-killed, and scented without any success. I know this type of snake sometimes wouldn't eat for months but this is not the case since he would always eat lizards that I put in his cage.

Any suggestions guys? Im really desperate!!! It is really weird for a snake that is used to eating mouse to switch back to lizards.

mark5019 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-27-2006, 10:51 PM

give him time to settle in and stay with rat hoppers he will eat but your stressing him.
plus the lizards may cause parasites

Brandon27 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-27-2006, 11:02 PM

Definately no more lizards...Mark is right about the parasites.

My main question for you is, How often are you attempting to feed? You've tried many different methods with several different prey items in a fairly short amount of time. Offer a f/t hopper rat once evey 5-7 days. DO not break down out of fear of it starving, and feed it a lizard. Just stick with the plan and it will eat when it's hungry. Good luck, post pics, and keep us updated!

er, uh...and welcome to rtb.net!

JuliusSqueezer · #4 (**permalink**) 10-27-2006, 11:06 PM

It's not weird at all. They are notorious for feeding fine for awhile on rodents and suddenly stop and hold out for lizards. It's what candoia do

If they weren't such a pain, everyone would have them. This and the fact that they give birth to babies the size of hair puts a damper on their popularity. Good luck. My only suggestion is to find a line of feeder lizards that doesn't involve a bb gun and keep trying from time to time but as long as he's eating lizards, he's at least eating.

JuliusSqueezer · #5 (**permalink**) 10-27-2006, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brandon26

Definately no more lizards...Mark is right about the parasites.

My main question for you is, How often are you attempting to feed? You've tried many different methods with several different prey items in a fairly short amount of time. Offer a f/t hopper rat once evey 5-7 days. DO not break down out of fear of it starving, and feed it a lizard. Just stick with the plan and it will eat when it's hungry. Good luck, post pics, and keep us updated!

er, uh...and welcome to rtb.net!

Brandon...Mark? You guys ever kept Candoia? I'm thinking not

It's good that you want to help, but please know a little something about the species before you give advice that seriously could mean life or death to someone's animal. These snakes are lizard eaters. Sometimes they take rodents but it's not natural for them to do so and more often than not, they get tired of it and hold out for what they want. And they will hold out till they starve to death if you get hard headed and refuse to feed them lizards.

avantgarde · #6 (**permalink**) 10-29-2006, 03:03 PM

Brandon: You got me all wrong, the first time I tried to feed him was about 4 days after I got him. My next attempt came after a week and he still wouldn't eat. So after nearly 2 weeks of not eating anything I decided to give him a buffet of 3 pinkies and 3 mouses that were f/t brained scented all at once, just to know what his preference is. BTW how do you post pictures here? I would gladly post them for you guys.

JuliusSqueezer: Thanks for straightening everything out for me. For a moment there, I thought I did something wrong to my snake. I also thought of a possible paraste problem that may arise from the lizards that I've been feeding him. But here in the Philippines, there are no breeders of feeder lizards. In fact, it is really hard to get hold of a pinkie here. JuliusSqueezer if its not to much to ask, what are my other options? Are there any alternative food sources for my snake?

Thanks you everyone for helping

JuliusSqueezer · #7 (**permalink**) 10-30-2006, 04:49 PM

You can freeze the lizards to a- be stocked up with a never ending supply and b- to rid them of any parasite hazard. Your SI boa will do quite well on it's natural diet of lizards. Make sure they are thawed completely before feeding them to your snake. There is no need to excessively warm them as you would a rodent but slightly above room temp is good. If there is any part of the lizard internally frozen when you feed it to your snake, it can kill him so make certain it's thawed.

An alternative that he might go for ...frogs. African clawed frogs and dwarf frogs are good clean nontoxic feeder frogs. I can't make any such claims on your native Filipino frogs...I don't even know what frogs you have there. clawed and dwarf frogs are readily available here in the states at any aquatic petstore but again...no idea what you have in the Philippines.

As I mentioned earlier..the babies are tiny and hard to deal with. In the wild, their survival at birth hinges on the coinciding hatching of tiny little frogs. In captivity, most breeders that successfully raise them do so painstakingly on feeding them anole or skink tail tips and some times mouse tail tips and/or pinky mouse FEET. Not many people want to fool with that so most of what hits the pettrade are wildcaught adults and subadults. In the wild, their primary diet is frogs and lizards. It's what they have evolved/conditioned to hunt for and what they immediatly recognize as food whereas a rodent may not be.

Something else to try if you haven't already is to just leave the dead rodent in the cage near the hide, turn off the lights and go to bed. Check back in the morning. They are shy feeders and generally don't want to be disturbed when they eat. If you are trying to feed off tongs, you probably won't have much luck especially with food they are reluctant to eat in the first place.

BWSmith · #8 (**permalink**) 10-30-2006, 05:47 PM

Sorry, just saw this one. Candoia paulsoni are a bit different than other boids. You said that the temps are right, but you didn't elaborate. I keep mine at room temperature of about 72-75 degrees. They also don't need to eat as often as mentioned by someone. Paulsoni actually do quite well on a meal every 2-3 weeks.

One thing that you can try is feeding a small lizard, then offer a small hairless rodent (mouse or rat pink depending on size. Candoia seem to prefer smaller prey items than their boid cousins. Whatever size prey you would feed a Colombian boa of the same size as your Candoia, use a feeder half that size. So at 16" long, I would think that a hopper mouse or rat pink would do fine. You can try scenting the rat pink with lizard or minnows and that may elicit a feeding response. Candoia also respond to touch. So put the rodent on tongs and gently move it toward the snake to the point of gently touching the second loop when the snake is "S"ed up. If it shies away, try again, again.

Advertisement