anyone ever had a problem with feeding thawed mice?

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em16

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 13, 2012
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Central Texas
I have a nicaraguan boa constrictor.
He'll be four years old in December.
He used to eat thawed store bought mice with absolutely no problem at all.
But now, (and for the past several months) I've had difficulty getting him to eat.
I sometimes end up wasting mice, and having to wait a day or so after he is supposed to have eaten before he'll actually feed.
He's also become a lot more aggressive, which I think may be because he's maturing? But I'm not sure.
I know sometimes stress can be an issue that will cause them to not eat, but I can't think of anything that would really stress him out.
I moved out of my parents house and into a place of my own... but that was almost a year and a half ago now.
I also took great care to do everything I possibly could to make sure he didn't stress.
I don't know this is just a curiosity thing more than anything.
He still does eat, just not as regularly as I'd gotten comfortable with.
Two of my herp keeping friends said that I should be feeding live or fresh killed mice.
But I've also read that snakes can contract diseases that way, and also that if they aren't used to killing their own food, they may be injured by their prey...
any insight would be appreciated, thanks
 
Live feeding should not be used, at all if possible. Not only does it increase the risk of parasite transmission, but the rodents often cause injury to the snakes via bites and scratches in the struggle.

If your snake is eating regularly, even if it is taking slightly longer between meals, maybe your temperatures are too low (and thus he is taking longer to digest each meal). I would not worry unless the snake is completely refusing to feed. A grown snake will need to eat less frequently than a young one, how often are you offering food?

Best,
Paul
 
Like I said, I'm not worried about it I was just curious what might cause it.
and thanks for reassuring me about the frozen vs. fresh thing.
I'll double check his temps more often just to make sure its normal.
He's still a really small snake despite being about halfway to maturity. I generally offer food every week and a half. he eats small mice.
Like I said before, if he wastes one, I just wait a day and he usually eats the next day.
on rare occasions, he won't eat for like three subsequent days, so I just wait a few more days and then I feed him one mouse two days in a row.
I start the week and a half from the last day he eats.
I got the idea for feeding 2 mice over 2 days from someone who told me they "pile feed" their snake to make it grow bigger.
at the time that didn't seem like a great idea to me, but the idea came back to me when I first started having trouble, and it worked out well enough, and he's not growing at an alarming rate or anything so again, I'm not too worried
 
small mice for a 4 year old boa!? He should easily be on medium rats by now if he was growing properly. feeding to small of a meal could be the cause for his small size and possibly for his aggressiveness to. Generally if a snake is not being fed enough they will become aggressive because they are hungry and one would think that this would make their appetites greater but that is not always the case.
I would try upping his prey size to small rats and see if that makes any difference...
 
Also... don't power feed... it's a cruel method that money hungry breeders use to make their snakes grow large and fast.... Feeding to much and to often is just as unhealthy as feeding to little and to far apart....
 
He's WAYYY too small for small rats. He's eaten large mice before, but he's more reluctant to eat those. I could possibly feed him more medium mice per feeding(I never said small... I just said mice), but unhinged jaw or not, there's no way he's getting anything larger than mice down his throat.
is power feeding really bad for him if I only do it when he hasn't eaten enough to begin with?
also, the nicaraguan boa is a dwarf species, thank you for your concerns and advice.
 
Even as a dwarf species he should have been on rats long ago, even if you were just using rat pups of similar size to mice, they have more nutrients, more mass to them that is actually body and not just fur, making them a better choice for larger snakes like that. I still would try rats, Whatever size you think is appropriate, even if you start with a fuzzy rat... get it really warmed up, around 100 degrees, and see how he takes to that.
How big is he exactly?
 
Not to anger anyone on the live vs frozen issue, but my kingsnake doesn't really like frozen but can easily eat an adult mouse. I don't want him to get bit or anything so I feed him fuzzy rats. They are the same size as an adult mouse,but can't bite or anything and have the benefit of moving and smelling right to the snake. Id give them a try if you want.


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Really? I have never in my life seen a picky cali king.... I'm pretty sure mine would eat 3 day old roadkill if I offered it
 
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