KSB kills but doesn't eat!

[Bianca]

Hello everyone!

My Kenyan Sand Boa is having some trouble. His name is 'Marley', maybe that was a mistake! He seems stoned most of the time, pretty relaxed and not very interesting.

Nevertheless, he is having some problems eating. We feed him small mice, which he has eaten quite happily before. We started on thawed, which took a lot of time and left us with sore arms because it took 'ol Marley a while to realize this was food and then a while to actually get it in his mouth.

Then, we moved onto small LIVE mice, which worked fine. But the last two or three times we have tried to feed him, he strikes a few times with no success, and eventually he gets it, constricts it, kills it, but leaves it. He doesn't eat it.

I do put a towel over his tank, leave it for an hour or two, when it starts to smell I remove it. We've fed him in the tank with his sand because he is not comfortable in a container/tub without his sand. He freaks out a bit.

Should I leave the dead mouse in for longer? Should I rather feed him in a container? Is this typical of these types of Boa's?

Thanks!!!

[Bianca]

I guess they really aren't that interesting...

[Wolf777]

I think they are quite interesting, just because you don't see them doesn't mean they are boring. What are the temps etc? Any changes in environment?

[Bianca]

Temps are between 30 and 35, his water bowl is in the cooler corner of the tank. We changed his sand a few weeks ago but i don't think that would make a difference...

I will try feeding him smaller mice, that could be the problem.

Thanks for the reply.
x

[Bushviper]

When snakes have trouble swallowing but not killing then give them smaller meals so that they almost have it swallowed by the time its dead. That should work too.

[Bianca]

He ate a tiny mouse yesterday!

Thanks for the replies and advice.