Help With Adopted RTB

[Brewster320]

Ok well my younger brothers teacher had a snake that her son no longer wanted and she was telling my brother about it so my brother said how I own and breed reptiles and that I would take it. Well I agreed with it but after I agreed I soon learned it was a colombian red tail. At first I was a little neverous at the idea about the snake and after talking to people who own them and doing my research I became pretty confident I could take care of this little guy.
Well Monday morning my brother teacher came over and droped the boa off. It was bigger than I was told and is 35", 265g, a year and a half old, and I'm guessing female for now because her spurs are almost non-existant. It came with its enclosure and everything.
However I was really upset with the shape of it. Its encolsure was a 30 with a way to small log hide, a branch, way to small light bulb to even do anything heat wise, a very small almost empty water bowl, and fish tank gravel as substrate. The tank was full of bits of shed, dirty water, feces, and other "stuff?". The boa it's self was covered in shed skin and had a lot of wrinkled skin toward the from of the body and head. Also I was told it hasn't eaten in 3 months. Also seeing how it acts and listening to it breath I seriously thought it has a RI and it was dehydrated because its been drinking nonstop since I put it in its enclosure and while I was giving it a bath.
I cleaned its enclosure, replaced the gravel with fresh aspen, and cleaned everything inside the enclosure. For the shed I spents over 3 hours bathing it, peeling, and had it in a pillow case with a damp towel for and hour and I've gotten most of it off. All that is left are a few very stubborn flakes on the neck. She was actually very well behave through the whole ordeal and didn't hiss, bite, or get spazzy while I removed bits of its shed(it probably felt good it, it looked horribly uncomfortable). For what I thought was a RI I gave a very large wattage light bulb for the time being to keep the temps warm enough until I can get a heat pad.
I brought her to the vets yesterday and brought a fecal sample which she was just ever so happy to share with me when I got her. The Dr. talked to me asked me about her set up, the temps, and what I'm doing to take care of her. He checked her mouth, listen to her lungs, felt her body, palpated her, and just did a basic body exam. He said that she does not seem to be sick, her eyes are clear, her mouth is clear, her lungs sound good. He says her weezing is actually coming from gas build up that she has in her gut and thats why when he palpated her she made a lot of weezing and clicking noises. Also her fecal sample came but negative so no eggs were found. Although he said he does not probe snakes so I will have to get that done some other time. He was a very nice guy and the vet techs that were there fell inlove with her and thought she was very cute lol.
After everything was done he told me at this time there seems to be nothing wrong with her other than being undersized for her age, dehydrated, and a little thin. All the problems she was having was do to with her improper care by the last owner and she was still suffering the side effects. Your doing everything right by keeping the temp hot and giving her daily baths to remove that shed and rehydrate her. He also gave me some tips such as offering much smaller prey to her because she might be intimidated by normal sized prey so I should just offer her pinkies and fuzzies until her confidence gets back up, and that I may have to use live since she is used to live and slowly switch her over to f/t. The other tip he said was to keep giving her daily baths for now but make the bath 50/50 water and gatorade end she will absorbe it through her cloaca and possibly drink it and the electrolytes will her rehydrate and give her back her appeitite(never thought of that, interesting). If she does not improve at all by this time I'm suposed to call him and go and see him again.
By my own personal experience though she has improved a lot. She is very active during the day basking, crawling around, drinking, and curious as to whats going on around her or when she is being held.
Now I just need to get her eating! I've been trying, offering her mice and rats of various sizes. Braining them and cutting to release the scent of blood. Also I've tricked secenting with lizard, frog, bird, hampster, and even steak juice and she has not show the slightest interest. I'm probably going to have to give her live but does anyone know any other tricks and does anyone know any tricks for switching a snake from live to p/k or f/t?
Also I have a question about what she may be. The owner bought her as a colombian but a few people have questioned that and say she looks like she may have some Nicaraguan influence in her (which may answer as to why shes small for her age). Anyone else have an opinion on that. Although I guess the only way to know for sure is to see how she grows. Oh ya, BTW I'm not 100% sure on if shes a female but I have named her Baby!
Baby taking a Gatorade bath lol!

 

[nrich]

what a great rescue! I'm so glad she found a person who actually cares about the wellbeing of their animals!

as for feeding, I have no experience whatsoever, but I do have a friend that hand feeds her nitpicky ball python. She gently grasps its head and places the food in the snake's mouth. Once it is in there, the snake takes it with no problem. She hasn't been able to get the snake to take food any other way.

 

[cassadaga]

Nice looking snake!

When you try feeding her, how do you present it to her? If you're not using tongs and tempting her with it, try that. If you already are trying that, and it seems like you've tried a lot of other ideas already, I would try live. Get a few good meals into her, and try F/T again.

 

[Sunrise Reptile]

To me, that boa looks nothing other than Columbian. And it's probably so small because it wasn't kept properly. The low temps probably caused it to feed very irregularly, and since it hasn't eaten as often as it should over that long period of time its small.

If it hasn't eaten anything but live, then you'll probably have no choice but to feed live. It can be very difficult to convert a snake from live to frozen rodents, and the odds aren't in your favor. But when you do feed live rodents, make absolutely sure you don't leave the snake alone with the rodent until its latched on and started coiling. You don't want the boa falling victim to a mouse or rat. Good Luck with that boa, and Congrats!

 

[Barbel]

I think it's great you were willing to take in an animal that was in such poor condition. Most people wouldn't want to take on such a responsibility. Don't you just want to yell at those people that had her before! I know you probably won't, but you know if that was a dog, it would be considered abuse.
Anyway... We have purchased several ball pythons that were strictly eating live their whole lives and switched over to f/t without any problems. We have never fed a live rat to any of our snakes and really don't want to ever. You may need to experiment with different feeding methods. A few of our snakes like their privacy, so we will place them in a feeding tub with their food and then put the tub in a closet or other dark space and leave them alone for about 30 minutes. They will eat every time this way, but if we try with tongs, they refuse to eat. Two of our other snakes will only eat in their enclosure. For them we clear out the substrate and place the rat in overnight.
When we got our Red Tail she was still tiny and hadn't eaten her first meal yet. We used the tub in the closet method the first two times and now she will take from tongs.
I'm sure you are aware, but you also want to make sure the head is nice and hot. We noticed if a good eater isn't taking it right away, once we heat the head up for a few minutes they'll take it no problems.
Well, I hope that helps and I'm sure she will start eating for you soon.

 

[sweetsnakes]

Once you get her temps right and get her healthier and get a few more meals into her it shouldnt be hard to get her over to f/t rats. In my expierence its usually not to hard to get a RTB over to f/t if they are kept properly the usually have a very strong feeding response Ball pythons on the other hand can be a pain in the ass IMO. Get her healthy and acclimated to her new home get her on a good feeding schedule then try f/t again I bet she will take it.

 

[Brewster320]

Well shes not weezing or drooling anymore. Shes very active and actually looks pretty hungry. She'll check the f/t rodent out but then lose interest as if she knows its dead. Even wiggling the rat with the tongs that usually get my tricky eaters to eat won't work. So some time this week I'm going to have to head up to NERDs and get a live rat fuzzy or two and see if that does the trick. Its the closest place in the area that sells live feeder rats(that small). I'd rather get her feeding on rats so I dont have to switch her off mice and onto rats in the future, I'm currently going through this process with my ball python.