While waiting with Talyn in the veterinary waiting room, I met two teenagers who were very impressed by my beautiful girl. They asked what kind of snake she was and I said, "she's a Brazilian Rainbow Boa."
"That's what it is!" the girl told her friend/brother? withe. "Yep" he replied.
They then told me that their snake is a "cross between a boa constrictor and a Rainbow Boa!"
Since I've read that cross breeding different species of boas is rarely possible due to the physical differences in hemipenis structures, I was naturally skeptical. "Wow, I'd like to see that snake. Who told you it was a cross-breed?"
"Somebody. It must be a cross breed by it's markings". When the boyfriend finally showed up with the snake in question, they showed me a lovely but OH SO COMMON Red Tailed Boa!! He was very light creamy grey up until the last 1/3rd which had lovely deep red and black markings to the tail.
I informed them of what their snake was. It's called a Red-Tailed Boa, because they have red tails! They thought because the tail was so different than the rest of the snake and looked so much like Talyn, that it must be a mix and someone told them so.
Their snake was in there for multiple rat bite wounds. I tried to explain the importance of feeding F/T or at least F/K... clueless disbelief. "No --snakes have to eat live- it's in their nature to kill their own food." they told me. They left the rat in overnight... eeeekkk! More counseling on watching the feeding and removing the animal immediately if it's not taken right away. Blank stares.

They tried to advise me to get Talyn a heat rock instead of my lamp which required a protective cage... and I tried to tell them that heat rocks could cause serious burns as well. That I had an Under Tank Heater and that the Ceramic Heat Emitter is safe: the protective cage was not properly mounted and secured enough because I assumed Talyn wouldn't go climbing on it. (Totally my fault!)
They soon seemed annoyed at my advice and I had the impression that I was talking to a wall.

Waaaaaaahhhh. If that poor snake manages to live through it's first year it'll be a wonder.
I know I haven't been too lucky with my snakes (mites, endoparasites and now Talyn's injury) and I'm still learning, but I researched my two species very thoroughly before buying... people should really have to take a test before being allowed to buy reptiles!!

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Andrea

hmm...interesting people
good thing u were there to save the day!
and about live feeding, my ball will ONLY
eat live gerbils, cause apperantely thats what the people that sold them to the petstore fed them (that pet store I got 2 snakes from, and 1 died within a month and the other in a week). she had a few healed over bite marks (little spots where the scales dont seem to fit in) when I got her
ive tried fresh killed mice/rats, frozen mice, the chicken broth trick with live/dead mice/rats,and none worked
I of course watch carefully to make sur te gerbils dont harm her,and there is usually no problems
but the gerbils get pretty messed up though!! *just amusing myself here*

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MY PALS
0.1.0 BALL PYTHON-JERRI
0.1.0 AMEL. CORN-BAYBE
1.0.0 GHOST CORN-BOSS
0.0.1 BLUE TONGUED SKINK-DOUGLAS
2.1.0 CATS-POJO, CHEDDAR, SAMMIE

Such a shame. Well done for trying your best to edcuated such clueless people though Andrea.

Sadly some people are unfortunately clueless and listen to silly advice combined with not researching fully on their animal, while others are just ignorant, and will just close off to all good and proper advice, almost as if they don't want to take care of their pet properly.

Perhaps you should think of reporting them to the authorities? Or hopefully they may have taken your advice without thanking you. I usually find though that someone who genuinely cares about their animal will take good advice and happily put it into practice.


Ryan, how long have you tried feeding f/t for? The transition may take a while, and snakes can go a long time without feeding. Perhaps you should wean your snake off live food by leaving him for a few weeks? It will not do him any harm, and just because he doesn't eat the f/t one week doesn't mean that he won't eventually start eating them. You could also try fresh killed to wean him onto f/t. There are many other tricks that you can try. Since your snake has previous injuries from the past, even though you monitor his feeding, it might be safer, and kinder, to try harder to get him onto f/t?

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

Our transitional period lasted almost a month,,,,but is well worth it. Not just for bite wounds as BlackJack mentioned but also a lesser chance of parasites being introduced

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "

okay ill try
but the thing is she went for over 6 months without eating before we tried gerbils
all I want is whats best for her so ill try harder with dead food

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MY PALS
0.1.0 BALL PYTHON-JERRI
0.1.0 AMEL. CORN-BAYBE
1.0.0 GHOST CORN-BOSS
0.0.1 BLUE TONGUED SKINK-DOUGLAS
2.1.0 CATS-POJO, CHEDDAR, SAMMIE

You might try freshly killed gerbils first and work up to F/T. The guy who runs one of the pet stores around the corner from me said he'd euthanize the mice/rats whatever for me. So maybe someone can do it for you.
I didn't try F/K and just tried and tried F/T and didn't give up with Monty and he finally took the F/T mice. I got good tips especially from lucky8926 about getting the temp of the food high enough. Monty was interested but just kept nudging the dead mouse as if to say "Hm I smell it, maybe it's under this thing!" If he can smell it AND sense the correct body temp, he's more likely to eat it.
My BP got tapeworms from live mice and that cost me a few hundred bucks to have treated... so from now on it's F/T -- I can't risk him getting re-infested.
Good luck. Keep trying... she'll come around eventually.

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Andrea

alright, but herp-keeping just really isnt all that big in ol Lansing Michigan
but ill definently look into it, but I dont know if she could get tapeworms or anything like that from the ones I feed her, because their the ones they sell for pets so I assume theyre healthy
but even if there is only a one in a billion chance of them making her sick, ill still do anything to avoid it

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MY PALS
0.1.0 BALL PYTHON-JERRI
0.1.0 AMEL. CORN-BAYBE
1.0.0 GHOST CORN-BOSS
0.0.1 BLUE TONGUED SKINK-DOUGLAS
2.1.0 CATS-POJO, CHEDDAR, SAMMIE

I've been "arguing" with my Dumeril's boa about eating dead stuff for almost a year! She too had some scarring when I got her but all of the scars are gone but one now. Just keep trying, never give in!

__________________
Official hostage of the GFWD
"The truely dangerous people are the ignorant ones."
Founding Member of Logical People Against Arcane Boa Subspecies Classification (LPAABSC):
B c.c 1758, B. c. i. 1803 B. c. o. 1873!
"A BOA CONSTRICTOR IS A Boa constrictor!"

With Ball pythons it is not unusual for them to go several months without eating. My Male routinely fasts from November to May.
The problem with feeding Gerbils is they are very similar to one of the BPs prey item in the wild, the Gerboa and they can imprint on them and not want to eat anything else. You may have a fight ahead of you but its best in the long run.

Blackjack welcome to the "Beating Our Head Against The WALL!" Society! Most of us have lots of stories about "THOSE people" ! The ones who are sure that they know absolutely everything about everything (even though they have only had a snake for 2 weeks) and those of us with years of experience with multiple herps are just poor idiots that don't know any better. All you can do is try and hope it sinks in. Sometimes we luck out and reach them. Its very rewarding to see the "OH!" light come on in their eyes!
So we keep trying!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

If only newby kids would listen to friendly and (EXPERIENCED ADVICE) I feel sorry for that snake that has to suffer like that.
Well atleast you tried to get it through their immature minds... Some day they may learn.

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The more you whine, the worse it will get.