Help feeding

[wisherp]

Ok I been trying to get this argentine boa of mine to feed frozen for the last year and a half. Well I have posted on here before about him and i still can not get him to eat F/T or Fresh killed. Any ideas?? I tried chicken broth, braining, tease feeding, Over night, Diffrent times of the day. Anything and everything. I am starting to get upset. I hate feeding live. Oh yeah and i tried just to offer him dead rats and nothing else and he didnt eat for almost a year.

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.

[Slithers]

are you able to feed your other herps f/t?

have you tried scenting the thawed prey item with other rodents scents?

are you feeding in or out of the enclosure? (maybe they would prefer the opposite?)

have you tried offering live, then a prekilled immediately after?

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.

[wisherp]

Yeah i got all my other reps to f/t. I tried scenting and also in his and other enclosures. I am the type that says all snakes can convert to f/t but dang this is hard. I also tried live then prekilled. I am going to try it again. I am prob going to try also that worked for my stubbern bp is feeding small meals frequent get him eating alot of small stuff then throw a killed one in with him. Oh yeah he is almost 3 1/2 years old and been fed live all his life. I got him a year form last jan. But yeah he has been the worst i seen to convert.

	Ball Python The Ball Python (Python regius), also known as the Royal Python, is a ground dwelling snake native to the savannahs and rain forests in western Africa, predominatly the countries of Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.

[Stargazer]

I think you need to stop letting him read magazines with pictures of very thin anorexic super model snakes on the cover.

Seriously, I just wanted to post on this thread to follow your results. I am curious what will finally work. I give you major respect for your efforts. Also, I did not know a boa could go without eating for a year. Did you try f/k mice? Sometimes they may go for that before a rat. Have you tried different ways of making the rat dance around? Also the prey should be warmed so they can sense the heat coming off of it. Some ways to do this are putting it under the heat lamp, warming (on warm) a few minutes in the oven, or wrapping a microwaved towel around it for a minute or so.

I have a problem feeder BCC. I have noticed that if he does not show any interest right away, he will not show any later. So sometimes it's the way the prey item is introduced. He is more like to show interest if he is in the warm side of his tank and if the rat is brought in slowly from a distance. Occasionally I make the rat dance around on part of the snake's body. If he gets annoyed enough he will strike at it.

	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.

[TammyJamaica]

I can think of some things you could try but they are grisly and bizarre.

Anyway a not too bad one: have a live hopper mouse handy. Kill a half grown or full grown rat.

Tie the dead rat's tail around the live hopper mouse (good luck with this.)

The mouse will move around dragging (or trying to drag) the dead rat with it. and the snake will grab the mouse and get the dead rat too in the process...

The moral of this exercise is: "You Can't Always Get What you Want.....but if you try, sometimes, you just might find....You Get What You Need!!!" Playing this song during the experiment may help the pocess along considerably....

[wisherp]

I tried fresh killed And diffrent temps. for the rat and his cage. He has a heck of a hunger responce to live. but to dead nothing. I tried dirty rat shavings to scent it also but no go on that. I dont know what the prob is but it is fustrating

[X-Factor]

What about different sizes of prey? Different colors of prey? Different prey items (I know rats are better but....)? If you offer on a Thursday and he refuses, do you offer again the next day or wait until the next scheduled feeding day?

Those are my thoughts, best of luck to you and kudos for the effort!

[SoundUnsleep]

I came up with a few tricks for my I-refuse-to-eat-f/t snakes. Perhaps one of these will work for you:
1. Get a live rat pinky, hold on tongs and immediatly after that snack-size item is taken and before the tail of it is gone put a frozen/thawed rat right behind it. I had to repeat this procedure several weeks, but my RTB finally figured out, what them big f/t rats were good for!
2. My Arizona Moutain King would not eat for me at all, until I decided to offer her exactly what she would eat in the wild (lizards and snakes). Your argentine's top menu item in the wild would be birds. Maybe a f/t chick would get you someplace. Remember to freeze them for about 36 hours to kill any parasites they may have. Also remember your argentine is nocturnal, so try to feed at night time with as little light as possible.
Someone correct me, if I'm wrong: I heard about argentines eating bird EGGS???
3. This one is for absolute emergencies (I've done this twice with an adult BP that I didn't want to offer live due to already existing bite wounds from previous owners feeding live rats): Get a live mouse and a couple crickets and put together into a small container with plenty of small (!) airholes or - if you have - use a mini cricket container. The crickets will aggrevate the mouse and keep things very lively in the box. Put your f/t prey on top of the box. Turn off the lights and hope for the best.
As to 3: Yes, I know, it's inhumane. I had three choices: Feed live and risk more injury, starve my snake to death, or give this a try (since all else had failed).
I wish you the best of luck!