My Brat

Ok, so I guess it's time for a little update on my little worm (charina bottae). I've had this bugger since the beginning of December 2007, and he has never eaten for me. The people I got him from said that he eats f/t pinkies. Great, so I've tried every week since then, and he hasn't even thanked me. :bang:

So this morning I went to turn his light on, and it burned out. So I thought it'd be a great opportunity to go to the local pet store and get a live pinkie. I really didn't wanna try a live pinkie, but push came to shove. So I brought the little guy home, put Aden in his little feeder box thingy, then put the pinkie in. I felt so bad for that pinkie, he had to have been terrified. Aden acted very interested, so I had to leave the room before anything happened. Well, I had to keep checking in, and yep, the pinkie was still there, panting for his very life. So I decided to add Aden's water bowl and put the box inside his tank. Aden is still there, and so is the poor sweet little baby mouse.

The lady at the pet shop told me that if Aden doesn't eat this time to call them and ask for the manager. The manager will be able to force-feed Aden. So Tuesday I'll probably take the little brat in with the last f/t pinkie that I have in the freezer. I'd do it tomorrow, but I'm gonna be in class, then I have a bunch of errands to run.

Ok, thanks for reading all this, and any input would be greatly appreciated.

Have you tried any tricks yet, like washing, slitting, scenting, boiling, any of that??

Nancis got the right idea, force feeding should only ever be tried as a last resort, i'm not so sure that 2 months without eating is long enough, hows the snakes condition? Have you been weighing to see if its loosing weight?

All the best
Tom

You REALLY need to get advice from someone familiar with rubbers. Those guys are like NO other snake, and no NOT let anyone force feed it yet. Pretty much, that can be worse on him that anything else. Rubber boas (many localities of them, anyway) will NOT eat live pinks. Periods. The live pink was almost a waste of time. For some reason, they'll frequently eat thawed but never live. Go figure. ALSO, most other tricks don't work on rubbers, either. The best (and frequently ONLY trick) that works is too brumate the non-feeders. They need it cold for months! Many (most?) will start feeding again afterwards if all else is OK.

There is a good chance it WAS eating thawed pinks before getting shipped. If it got cool during shipping inside of that dark box, that is ALL it takes to get many of them thinking it is winter. They want to brumate regardless of the following temps, and they frequently won't eat until the DO receive a proper brumation.

One LARGE breeder ships his rubbers with a key chain light ON inside of the shipping box - even during the summer - to prevent the brumation response. These guys can be THAT picky. Matter of fact, i've known of ones that need to be brumated after ONE day of a reduced light cycle. Crazy, but true. Never let them fall below 12 hours of good light per day or get cool - that's my advice - and then be prepared to brumate them if you break that rule.

I can't say this is YOUR problem, but it is the most common one with rubbers not eating. It is the ONLY reason I do not keep them - nor would I sell one AT THIS TIME for any amount of money! There are just too many people that have problems with the sensitive little SOBs.

Some subspecies and populations are MUCH less problematic, of course! Regardless, if I were you, I'd get specifics from a breeder that has worked with them in LARGE numbers (not just a guy with a pair or two!) and be prepared to get that little thing cold and dark for 3 months REAL SOON.

No matter what you do, BEST OF LUCK!
KJ

Geez.

Is it possible he's brumating himself right now??

Wow, thanks everybody for all the insight. I've tried the tricks, but I never thought he could be brumating himself. Is it too late for me to continue brumating him? I've had his light on everyday, and usually it stays on even through the night to prevent a huge temperature drop. He's gone at least 3 months now without eating. But he seemed most interested yesterday when he kept smelling the pink. Thanks again for all the info.

Good luck with it! I wish I had advise, but I know nothing about the species but that they are on my wish list...
Maybe send an email to Don at SMR, I know he bred them in the past, you should probably check your husbandry against his care recommendations..

Ok thanks. SMR=South Mountain Reptiles? That'd be great if he can give me some advice.

That's an evil li'l feastie beastie. Good luck with that feeding problem.

Thanks. I just hope he eats soon. He seems ok. He slithers about his tank and flickers his tongue at a normal speed. I don't have the means to weigh him, but he doesn't seem sunk in or dehydrated. He seems healthy. He's always alert and curious when I hold him.

Ok, so here it is towards the end of March, and I've been worried about my little worm. I tried a live pinky/fuzzy (smallest they had at the time), and he seemed interested at first. I really thought Aden was gonna take, but never did. So Tuesday I took him in and had him force-fed. I held the card in his mouth while the lady gently massaged the pinky (a smaller one). Aden wanted to regurge, but the lady kept massaging the pinky into Aden's stomach. The first live pinky I purchased, by the way, was in fact a pinky when I got him. But he grew to be a fuzzy before he died (I gave him to Atreyu, my cornsnake, and Atreyu thanked me right away). Aden hasn't regurged, and I've been letting him hang out in his tank. I felt bad for the little bugger. He kicked up quite a fit, musking on the lady and squirming like there was no tomorrow. But he's ok now. I figured maybe Friday night or maybe even Saturday I'll check on him. Hopefully next time I give him a frozen/thawed pinky he'll be more gracious .

Thank you all for your advice and kind words. I do appreciate it, and I'm sure Aden does too. He just has a different way of expressing his gratitude :bang:.

Ok, so I guess it's time for another little update on my sweet little Aden. I put him in his feeding container yesterday with a small pinky mouse. A few hours later, I checked on him, and he shed :eek1:--in one piece :eek1:. I was so shocked, but so proud of my little guy, even though he didn't eat. I figure this time I'll let him slide, since he was in shed . I cleaned his feeding container out today, too, because he pooed in it, which tells me that he was able to keep that one mouse down. I'm so proud of my boy :dancer:.

Ok, so I feel like the proudest mama ever :dancer:. I saw a video that somebody posted online of their sweet little rubber boa. This video is literally a life saver. In the video, the rubber boa was eating out of this person's hand. So I thought, "Wow, I need to try this with Aden." So today was his feeding day, and I remembered the video. But somehow I knew that Aden was kinda turned off by the human scent on a mouse, so after letting the frozen pinky thaw in a dish with boiled water (for about 30 minutes), I poured the water out, didn't touch the pinky, and held my little guy up to the pinky. He smelled it and acted really interested. Then he kinda moved away, but returned to the mouse and started to open his mouth to eat. I can't put into words how proud my Aden has made me tonight. It's been almost 3 more months since I had to force-feed him. I told myself I never wanted to do that to him again. My next resort was to muster up some cash and take him to the doctor. But I don't have to do that, cuz he ate on his own and really seemed to enjoy his meal. He started eating the mouse as the mouse lay in the dish, and Aden's tail was wrapped around my fingers. Then as the pinky started to advance into his stomach, I gently removed Aden's tail from my fingers so that he could stretch out to get the pinky all the way down. We were successful tonight, and this is the best night I've had in a long time. Thanks for reading this, everybody, and I hope y'all feel the same excitement from your snakes as well. :wavey:

That's awesome!
I love reading all the success stories on here.
I'd love to see a rubber boa someday. Around here there aren't many herps to see outside, but there is rubber boa territory in the province, just not where I live.

Thanks . Rubber boas are awesome little snakes. They feel like silk running through your fingers. It's a really cool feeling. They don't get too big, and they are very friendly. They never bite. If you're interested in getting one, you might check out kingsnake.com. I don't think they're illegal to have in your area, but you might want to check into that if you're interested. Thanks for reading our success story.

I haven't looked into it too deeply but I believe it would be legal for me to import a captive-bred one, but certainly not to go out and grab one. They're probably covered by CITES regulations too, so importing would be a pain.
Oh well.