feeding my red tail boa

chezza · 11-11-10, 03:25 AM

617.jpg hi. this is my red tail boa porsha. she is around 4 months old. she shed about a week ago now.. but ive noticed she will only feed from my hand. i dropped the rat pup and left it for her.. she sat there for ages and didnt touch it.. after arond 20 minutes, i picked it up and she made a quick srtike for it. then ate it no problem.. with my other snakes, they will eat their food in their own time.. is this normal of my boa? i do not feed her on any kind of bedding incase she swallows any.

shaunyboy · 11-11-10, 05:31 AM

its perfectly normal

you might want to buy a pair of feeding tongs as when she gets bigger you dont want her hitting your hand instead of the prey item

you just heat the prey item grab with the tongs give it a little shake in front of the snake and wham you have a strike

imo its amazing to witness the speed they hit the prey at

its only carpets i keep and they all strike feed.i could not do it with my bare hand or id get bit every feed.

nice healthy looking snake you got there

cheers shaun

marvelfreak · 11-11-10, 02:33 PM

Nice looking boa.

Shauny right get some feeding tongs.

presspirate · 11-11-10, 03:31 PM

Pretty little guy. All of my snakes basically will strike feed. Only my Nic Boa will eat a rat that I leave in with her when she gets around to it. I usually use a plain old pair of kitchen tongs for the larger snakes.

chezza · 11-12-10, 04:18 AM

thankyou. im glad its normal then, i wondered if she was a bit blind at first. ha! and thats why i dropped the rat first place because i used my hand.. she made a quick strike and dropped the rat! i was thinking that because she is a baby its not too bad but the way she strikes, she would definatly cause me pain! im being extra careful coz ive invested in some litter pickers.. ha! especially for the carpet python.

Swan · 11-25-10, 04:48 PM

If you use live prey there's no need to warm or get tongs, right? My Surinames don't like pre-killed food. Throw a live rat pup in with her and see how she responds. Not tryin to argue but two of my snakes refuse to eat the frozen food, but will destroy live rats!

shaunyboy · 11-25-10, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swan

If you use live prey there's no need to warm or get tongs, right? My Surinames don't like pre-killed food. Throw a live rat pup in with her and see how she responds. Not tryin to argue but two of my snakes refuse to eat the frozen food, but will destroy live rats!

if its already eating frozen thawed stick with that

your better to get them on frozen thawed

feeding live has its dangers to the snake

theres plenty snakes out there been bitten by prey items

if you percivere you will get your surinames onto frozen

try fresh killed first then once they start eating them they should swap onto frozen thawed

i have nothing against live feeding if its COMPLETELY necessary

but if your snakes eating pups im assuming its a young snake so its best to start as young as possible on frozen thawed

cheers shaun

presspirate · 11-25-10, 07:25 PM

Have to agree with Shaun. Stick with the F/T, cheaper and safer.

chezza · 11-26-10, 03:26 AM

the carpet python i have was fed live until i got her.. it took around 3 weeks til she ate. and she ate a defrosted rat.. i took her around an hour of throwing it in and moving it about, then she took it. i agree with shaun. if i can avoid live food with any of my snakes i will. the boa has since ate her rat off the floor without me holding it, so thats good.