Need boa help!

[kyler]

i had a lady call me and say that her and her husband divorced, and in three months he never came and got his snake and she wants it gone. so not knowing what kind of snake it is i went to pick it up. it happened to be a red tailed boa. which she said is two years old, and he is only three feet in length and noticeably skinny. he was in a 55 gallon aquarium with a heat rock and a completely dry water bowl. i cleaned his tank and put him on paper towels with a heat lamp a hide and water bowl (which he immediatly went to). the heat rock was destroyed and thrown away. so my question is, should i wait a few days to feed him? and do i need to do anything else to help his recovery?

thanks

 

[lizardminion]

I'd get him a meal as soon as you can. If he isn't well fed, fatten him up and feed him. (of course!)
Check him for other problems as well. Check to see if the heat rock may have burned him.
The simple cure to a neglected animal is to put them in good conditions(feed them, take care of them[properly]) and monitor their health.
If you suspect any medical problems, take him to the vet.

 

[Rada]

I just recieved a very skinny sharp albino het anery, and what I'm doing is keeping him @ 85 degrees, misting him everyday, and feeding every 3-6 days. He is starting to look much better. What you can do is get a fresh pre killed small rat, dangle it over him for the first 5 minutes. If he doesn't take it, leave it in there for an hour and if nothing else happens freeze the rat and and defrost it in 2 days and try it again. I don't refreeze my feeders if my boas don't take it. I just start fresh and do the process all over again.

There is a few things that might be going on if he is still not eating. Some of the thing I've delt with are pre shedding, new to the invironment, and he just might be sick.

It sounds like like your doing everything right and the moment of truth will be is when he eats. Good luck

 

[Nebulosa]

You might try feeding immediately assuming you are keeping it warm enough to digest food. Offer it a relatively small mouse at first. If it has gone a long time without eating, a very large meal may result in a regurg. Same thing if the temp isn't quite warm enough. A small meal will digest easier and the small mouse shouldn't intimidate the snake too much. Play it safe at first so you get the desired results (eating without problems). After it takes a couple of small meals over a period of several days to a week or so, you can start offering larger prey items (larger mice or rats). I'd prekill the prey and offer with foreceps if you have them and are comfortable doing so. Don't shove the mouse into the snakes head as this may scare it. Give the snake at least two dark hide spots (one on the cool side and one on the warm side of the tank). This will help the snake feel secure in it's new surroundings.

You may also want to soak the snake in a container of shallow (just enough to allow the snake to comfortably rest in it without swimming) room temp/luke warm water. This will rehydrate it and also help you see any mites (hopefully not though) that it could potentially have. Mites will drown in the water and appear as little black specs in the bottom of the container and you'll see them seeking higher ground on the snake as well (again, just in case). If it has mites, that's a whole other issue, but easy to treat. It probably doesn't, but you should at least look for them and rehydrate the snake.

Congrats. Boas are awesome animals. Good for you for rescuing it! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[Hayden]

In addition to what everyone else has said (which you should definitely do) may I suggest a heat pad in addition to the lamp? It'll help keep his temperatures consistently high, day and night.

 

[kyler]

well i fed him a F/T mouse this morning, he has only been fed live. i offered it to him, he flicked his tongue once and then hit it hard. he has been constricting it now for about 15 min. so it looks like he should do fine. I'm going to give him a couple days to digest and i will offer him another. thanks for all of the help.

 

[lizardminion]

Got a pic of the little guy?

 

[kyler]

here he is when i first brought him home




and eating his first meal in months


the pics dont really show it but there is alot of loose skin

 

[Rada]

Nice congrats on the feeding.